Meru Wireless and Toshiba Laptops

[Pompey81]

Hi,

 

We have recently upgraded our school to Windows 7. Everything appeared brilliant until we got to our Toshiba laptops. When we try to attach to our main wireless or guest wireless we are greeted with "Windows was unable to connect to" without a reason as to why.

 

We have tried downloading the wireless drivers from Toshiba, Installing 32 + 64bit versions of windows and I even took a laptop home and attached to my Virgin Superhub (which worked fine!!). Had no problems With XP before the switch either.

 

Am a bit lost now as there are teachers who need their laptops back.

 

The laptops are either Satellite Pro L300 or Satellite Pro L500

 

All our Hp laptops are fine and even some newer model Toshiba's are working without issue.

 

Thanks in advance

[SuperfluousAdjective]

Are you running VirtualCell? Not all devices work properly with VirtualCell/VirtualPort. Try turning off VirtualCell for testing to see if that helps. If it does check the model of your wireless NIC and go directly to the manufacturer's website to see if there is an update.

 

PS I just looked up the hardware for the L300. It has the Intel 3945 which has had known problems with Meru.

 

You're not the only person with this problem. Solution is to update the driver and disable all power-saving modes.

 

Once updated you have to go into the device manager and configure the nic with these changes:

http://www.cites.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/wireless/CSC_TECHNOTE_3945_TWEAK.pdf

 

When wireless NIC drivers are created they are often done so with multichannel in mind. Seeing the same MAC address over and over again confuses it, especially when doing its background scans. Also, with battery operated devices they will often use battery saving features which may not be compatible with Meru as they break from the standards protocols. You'll experience a loss of battery life on an already dated battery, but it should work. Meru techs may have a better solution for your hardware as this workaround is a few months old.

Edited September 18, 2012 by SuperfluousAdjective

[psydii]

To some extent I agree. I was asked if we had older chipsets on the network, as they might need to tweak the settings during deployment. I expected only N clients, but a handful of 3945's appeared out of a cupboard one day.

 

Don't disable Virtual Cell/Port. It is a troubleshooting step of last resort. The first port of call with a connection issue should be Meru Tech Support BY PHONE. They are lightening fast at responding to critical issues.

 

While along the right lines, SA's advice regarding power is specific to XP. I suggest you try the Windows 7 advice: You may experience connectivity issues or performance issues when you connect a mobile PC that is running Windows Vista or Windows 7 to a wireless access point. Incidentally laptops of that age likely have such poor battery life that they'll be plugged in within a lesson anyway, so the point about the loss of battery life may be moot (or not - maybe your four year old batteries were still good for several hours?)

 

Getting the latest drivers direct from Intel is also best.

 

Also for good measure install the latest ntoskrnl.exe, tcpip.sys, dhcpcore.dll, rdbss.sys smb.sys,smb2.sys, mrxsmb20.sys: For me they have delivered significant improvements for all client connection stability and performance, not just on wireless, for Windows 7 SP1 is bobbins.

 

While you are patching, get yourself onto the latest Meru firmware. For us 4.0-165 was sufficient to give stability to the older centrinos.

[mhowell]

For Meru support advice please contact Meru directly or by all means contact me directly. [email protected] and we can direct you to the CORRECT advice.

[Pompey81]

Thanks for your replies so far. It seems that the wireless adaptor is the RTL8187B chip (I didnt believe windows so I opened up the laptop). I have adjusted power settings and downloaded the latest Realtek drivers off the website although the wireless program doesnt see the adaptor as a Realtek Adaptor!! I think that I may have to call meru and find out. The problem being that I dont have support with them. Will also have to look at updating the firmware for the Meru controller.

 

I wouldnt mind but these laptops worked fine in XP!

[psydii]

Always have support contracts. If you can't get access to the latest firmware/bug fixes for your critical infrastructure you've got a timebomb.

 

That's general advice, holds for servers, storage, switches, wlan, bespoke equipment, laptops, desktops - everything that your users are going to rely on.