i too have weak signals...

it is sooo aggrivating! i intalled a driver, and the end result being it no longer disconnects all the time, but is still really low. from various posts, this is a common problem

someone help!

i tried but got stuck at comand window

can you be a little more specific as to how to do it and in what order

CONTROL CENTER?

I just gave up trying to get decent WLAN strenght. I bought a range extender and now get excellent connections. A kind of disappointing solution, but it works perfectly...

Cheers! Stefan.

Hi P8RSON,

Could you please post the WiFi device details from the from Device Manager, Drivers tab - things like driver provider, date, version, and if possible push the "Driver Details" button, and get all that  information as well.

Thanks,
Dan

Just like to state that today I installed Windows Vista on my R2H with the drivers released from ASUS and since then my wireless connection has worked much better. I haven't had a single connection lost even after going to areas of the house which usually wouldn't work under the previous drivers I used with WinXP... Hope others are able to notice the same improvements.

Michael

Is there a non-zero probability that we will ever see wifi drivers for the R2H and XP?

I tried all hints I could find but it still does not work properly. I don't use the ASUS stuff but the Windows zero configuration utility. The wifi behavior of my R2H is really weird. It connects after booting it. Then it takes about 2 minutes and the cpu usage goes up to 100% and after a while it disconnects. Then I have to disable the wifi interface. After enabling it again, it usually works without dropouts in most of the cases.

Without wifi, I never had this 100% cpu usage issue. It does not happen, too, when I use a patch cable instead of wifi, or when I use an external wifi usb stick instead of the built-in wifi.

It's hard to believe that there are no drivers available that work with XP. Apart from wifi, I'm really happy with this device. Anybody out there to make me happy. :)

Cheers,
Oliver

hi doc_oli,

had the same problem - update the Intel chipset drivers, if you haven't done it already.
see this details on how to do this
http://dandar3.blogspot.com/2006/12/intelr-chipset-software-installation.html

hth,
dan

Dan,

thanks for the advice. I installed the driver update some time ago (the day you posted your experiences). I installed them once again a few days ago but there's not too much of a difference. There's only a slight improvement so far: I only get one 100% usage dropout after about 1 minute of wifi time. Then, it seems to be stable. I'm still hoping that there will be an XP driver update some day.

Cheers,

Oliver

Hi Oliver,

Sorry to hear that - have you tried the other suggestion to disable the power saving for the UBS Root hub - see here http://dandar3.blogspot.com/2007/01/r2h-wireless-woes-2.html

For me it very rarely disconnects, but when it does I can see the CPU going 100%, it disconnects and then it comes back quickly. If you are using DHCP I would suggest to set a fixed IP, and it will reconnects faster.

I'm afraid that Asus will not release a new driver for XP, and now that Vista is out most people will probably move to Vista anyway, where things seem to be fine. We've tried a few drivers from Zydas (see the comments on the same thread) but we've seen from no improvement to the network adapter dissapearing, so I guess 1 disconnect every now and then is not so bad, isn't it? :-)

You can submit a technical query to Asus (http://member.asus.com) if you haven't done already, maybe if more people are pressing with these issues they will finally put the effort into releasing a new driver.

- Dan

Ok,  I've had my R2H for a few weeks and I've been fighting this weak wifi problem for the whole time.  My onboard wifi still has major communication problems on XP, and my Vista upgrade is who-knows-how-long away, and I'm not sure I want to upgrade anyway, given the problems I'm seeing with the upgrade.  I sure hope someone, sometime comes up with an insight to improve the ZyDAS wifi driver/config/whatever, because I'm about to give up hope.  Here's what I've done:

1. Read every thread I can find on this problem, several times - I've been checking daily.
2. Turned auto-roam off in the Asus Wifi tools
3. Installed the Intel chipset update - went great, no probs, but didn't help
4. Tweaked power config for the USB hub that the Wifi connects to - didn't help; as reported on a thread here, I don't see how to change power config for the Wifi itself...the device properties don't seem to have a setting.
5. Tried using WZCSVC only
6. Tried not using WZCSVC at all
7. Tried upgrade to the new (Vista) Wifi driver.  It doesn't work on XP, as one thread says.
8. Tracked down the latest ZyDAS/Atheros drivers for XP...but didn't install since others on this thread had such a hard time with them.
9. Submitted two technical queries to Asus, net result is "works for us, your mileage may vary"...exact results below.

I have several other laptops, TiVos, & other computers that work great to my AP; I have a Netgear b/g USB adapter that allows the R2H to work great...but it would sure be nice if their onboard Wifi worked even marginally.  I would have bought the the Q1 or something rather than the R2H  if I had known the trouble this would be.  Can anyone out there help??

Here is Asus response #1:

We have simulated a wifi test within our building and the signal gave us a range of 200 to 300...but without any wall obtruction...and it varied btw good to very good.
Again, not all wifi signal and it's condition are created equal and are subjective to the environment. Most wifi are still running at 2.4ghz and hence most home wireless phones are 2.4ghz...which can affect the range and usage...

there are things you can do to enhance the signal of the router...like an external antenna...have you tried that...

the other thing you want do is make sure the R2H is using full power...in your control panel and power option setting...set to always on...

We hope we have answered your questions...if not please let us know.

1-888-678-3688 #3

Here is Asus response #2:

PROBLEMS REPORTED:

• LOADING OF WEB PAGE IS VERY SLOW
• IF RANGE IS IN VERY GOOD OR GOOD, IT STILL WON’T LOAD PROPERLY OR QUICKLY

SOLUTIONS/POSSBILE CAUSE:

1) Make sure the power management for the wifi device is in full power or maximum power. Do not allow the operating system to determine the power setting…you need to unclick this power setting otherwise the wireless activity will turn off device when it is not being use causing an interruption.
2) Most standard wireless household phone run on 2.4ghz…which is the same as the wifi device. This will affect the usage as well.
3) Consider getting a external antenna for the router…you can find this in most computer store…(off-course this is optional…)
4) Not all wifi antenna in notebooks are created equal.
5) Consider changing the system properties setting under the advanced tab/performance setting and adjust for best performance instead of let windows choose what’s best for my computer. This will result in better paging refresh instead of windows loading all the fine details of the page.

We hope we have answered your questions...if not please let us know.

Hi Psyches,

If it's just the slow loading of a webpage, I found that the Single Sign-On from the Asus Security Protect manager can take a bit of CPU when it's trying to the auto-login thing for you - if you don't use it, here is how you can disable it: http://dandar3.blogspot.com/2007/01/asus-security-protect-manager.html

In most cases, the page is loaded slowly because the CPU is under load (why Asus chose a ULV version with no L2 beats me!), and it's not due to the wireless signal (another poor choice of components).

On regards to the wireless chip, the good news is that the signal shows "good" in Vista and I haven't had any disconnects, so I guess is due to either the new driver or better power management. I would blame Asus for choosing a cheap wireless chip, and second Zydas for providing a bear-minimum driver (they should see the driver properties page for the Intel/PRO wireless chips).

Dan

Hi Dan,

Thanks - yeah it's possible SSO is slowing things down some, but I doubt it's slowing things down this much: minutes to load my home page when I get more than 20 ft from the AP, or things stop working entirely.  Plus, I see that the effective speed goes down from 11Mbps to 5 or 1.  Any further distance and it doesn't load at all.  If I pop on the Netgear 802.11b USB, everything gets really snappy, just like I'd expect...a few seconds to load the page, at most.  As we speak, I'm running MS Update for the latest sec patches from 7ft away, and the page load is taking "forever".  It just isn't working well at all...and as far as I know, it doesn't work much better for anyone on XP.  I do setup taskmgr to run in the sys tray so I can watch the cpu load, and much of the time there isn't any - the system is just waiting for something...I also set the wifi intf icon to show in the tray when connected so I can see if it's actually sending/receiving, and not much of that happens either.  If I watch the wifi properties, every now and then I see the sent count go up (and sometimes even the receive count!) so I assume it's timing out and retrying.  I'd try completely uninstalling and reinstalling the driver & toolset if I thought it would fix anything...I think I really should just stick with the external Netgear USB like others have done - guess I'm a glutton for punishment.  I also wonder if some of the driver config props are just poor values and a result of my attempt at the Vista driver install.  I guess a full uninstall, reboot, reinstall might fix that.  Maybe I'll give it a try.

Mark

Hi Mark,

I see what you mean, sorry - in case you haven't tried disabling the power management for the USB hub, see this: http://dandar3.blogspot.com/2007/01/r2h-wireless-woes-2.html

I feel your pain - I have two 3Com wireless routers in a WDS system, one is a DSL router (older) and the other one is a DSL/Cable router (newer, my internet gateway). While I have the older router closer and it shows in the WZC window as very good signal, it just doesn't want to connect. Instead it connects fine with low signal to the newer one I have upstairs. My laptop with an Intel 2100BG chip has no problem connecting to both of them...

I guess what I'm trying to say is the Zydas chip doesn't seem to perform the same even with routers from same company, let alone the large amount of wireless router brands out there. I think it's been a poor decision on Asus' side to choose this chip, although I wonder  is the R2H the only product using the WL-159G adapter, and if there are others, do they have the same problems?!

Dan

Hi Dan,

Thanks - I'd tried tweaking the USB power config already.  You mention the issue w/old vs new router; I've been wondering if that could be my problem.  I'm using a pretty early Linksys 802.11b router, and I've upgraded the firmware several times but they stopped issuing new firmware for the model years ago.  Maybe I should try updating the router.  Hmmm...

Mark