[Wlug] ticked at netgear

[Wes Allen]

Hi gang,
	I've got a ma401 card from netgear.  It worked beautifully under linux 
(better than in windows even).  Today I switch on my laptop, and I no longer 
get a link to my network with the card.  I figure I must've had a power 
glitch and my firewall isn't giving out dhcp address, so I restart it.  Still 
no link.  I check the settings of my wireless router, all good.  I boot my 
desktop to see if my usb wireless card works, it does.  None of my settings 
on my laptop have changed, I checked.  I tweak with iwconfig until my hands 
are sore, no luck.  So I finally call netgear because I figure that it is a 
hardware issue and I need to send in the card to have at least the antenna 
replaced.  Tech support says, "I'm sorry but we can only trouble-shoot on 
windows so we can't help you."  I tell them, "It's not a software issue, 
nothing has changed with my software from last night, everything is the same, 
the card is not picking up the link from the router, it's not functioning, 
it's a hardware issue..."  They say, "But we need to troubleshoot in 
windows."  I say, "Look, I've turned encryption on and off, I've tried 
different modes, I've tried different channels, I've turned rts and frag on 
and off [note: now it's not accepting values, another clue that this is a 
hardware problem].  Nothing works, your card is broken and I want to send it 
in."  I'm told to hold.  "I'm sorry, we cannot help you.  We need to 
troubleshoot in windows."  I slam the phone on the reciever so hard I think I 
nearly break it.  Now I am pissed, and I still have a broken card.

	Does anyone else have any history with wireless antennas not working all of 
the sudden?  This card hasn't even been out of the house, I leave it here 
when I go out for crying out loud!

	My next attempt will to disable encryption and go back to wvlan_cs to see if 
that jogs this thing.  But I truly think it's hardware; nothing, NOTHING, on 
my laptop changed, I didn't even turn it on this morning!

Wes
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