OK, my colleague is still running Windows 2000. And I’m gradually adding more pieces to the home wireless network. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to see if I could get the W2K system talking happily on the WLAN.
TrendNet sells a PCI card called TEW-423PI. According to the specs, this is compatible all the way back to Windows 98 and was supposed to work on Windows 2000.
I’ve already put more hours into this supposedly simple thing than I want to admit. The frustrating thing is that all the software installed, and the device appears to be “jiggling”, the rest of my network is humming along OK, but the Windows 2000 box refuses to connect to it. It looks like the TrendNet card is receiving the radio signals OK (thus networks show up under “Site Survey”) but it’s either not transmitting or not transmitting properly.
Calling and emailing TrendNet is not too bad, you can get someone on the phone pretty easily, and their online help ticket system seems fairly efficient. But at this point I think I’m going to try to exchange the device and see if a different one works. I’m only giving that about a 50% chance of success…
Update 20100213
Nope, no joy. I tried every conceivable thing I could think of including a clean reinstall of W2K Pro, used three different drivers (one on Realtek’s site, one on TrendNet’s and the other that came with the install CD), and nothing worked. The card is definitely good since I installed it in a Windows XP machine and it instantly connected to the wireless AP. Of course it was only 3 feet away from it, but the principle is the same. I’m going to just go ahead and return the TrendNet device.
I probably spent 10 or 12 hours all told trying to get that to work. It was pretty tantalizing since as I said it can detect networks fine, just not attach to them.
