Using a 11 Mbps Worless PC Card with a 22 Mbps Dlink Access Point

[jervis]

I've heard about some problems in communicating 11 mbps cards with 22mbps access points. It seems that 11mbps cards must support an additional standard.

My pc card supports 802.11, and i believe the access point supports 802.11b. What are the requirements for my pc card to work with my access point?

Thanks:

Lluis M.

[dld121]

I have not had any problem making 11mb cards talk to the dling 22mb router.

The 22mb method that D-Link uses supports 11mb with or without PBCC.

Attached...if it works is an image of my DI-614+ setup screen.



Notice that I have selected to support all speeds, you can force it not to run at 22mb if you like.

There are some interoperability issues if you want to use the 900AP+ in bridge mode or the Repeater mode.

In AP mode at 11mb there should not be a problem.

[jervis]

I will have both 11 and 22 mbps pccards. If I have a 22 mbps access point and at least a 11mbps pccard... will also the access point work at 11mbps for the other 22mbps pccards?

[dld121]

Yes. The AP will support both 22 and 11mb cards at the same time.

If you have any problems make sure you have the current version of the firmware for your products.

I found that my Dlink products didn't work with the SSID broadcast disabled until I upgraded the drivers for all my 22mb client adapters.

Now it works fine.

Just to be clear, yes I have had other cards associate that only run 11mb without a problem (SSID broadcast was turned on at that time.)

The 22mb cards also worked at the same time.

I suspect performance might be better if all the cards were running the same speed...but it works even with different speeds associated.

[dld121]

One more important item.

D-Link AP+ will support 256K WEP keys.

Most 11mb cards will not support this.

Some support 48bit, and 128bit.

If you enable WEP, you need to set the key length in the D-Link AP to the least common size for all 11mb adapters.

If you disable WEP then this is not an issue.

Then the 11mb cards will need to have the same WEP key that matches the AP.