I just installed windows XP, and I am having an issue with my wireless internet...my card is embedded it is an Atheros AR5B91. and I am wondering if someone could point me to the driver it is Windows XP Professional SP3 am not sure what the architecture is...Thanks a million guys
Hey! I've been browsing this forum for awhile... when I saw your post on the Atheros wireless problem, I signed up just so I could respond. I have a (fairly) new Acer 4630Z laptop that has this AR5B91 mini-pci-e card in it. Unforunately, the laptop originally came with Vista (uck!). I decided to "downgrade" to XP. While Acer's site had drivers for XP, the wireless would not work 100%. (Something to do with the hotkeys, and the software that drives it being Vista only.) After many drivers versions, I think I found a good match. I install the Atheros program (which installs the drivers), I got them here. Download the version for your OS. Once the "main" program was installed (so I could you their utility, as opposed to Microsoft's built-in utility), I updated the drivers via Device Manager. I tried several drivers (keeping the client utility installed) until the wireless became stable. I believe the final version that worked for me (WinXP SP3, WPA2 passphrase) was 7.7.0.233 (or maybe .231, I'm not sure, don't have the laptop in front of me). Post back if you want the client utility/drivers. Always glad to help. I have a gmail account, so should have plenty of space. I think the client utility is around 30MB. The updated drivers are very small (200kb or so).
I don't remember where I got it from... (I had searched all over the place and gotten many drivers.) I just know what worked for me. Hoping I could pass along my experiences. Your mileage may vary. If you have a GMail account (or if you need one, I have some invites), I can zip it up and break it into a couple 20MB attachments (as that's the largest size that GMail allows).
UPDATE ------------------- Well... I found out that the Atheros wireless card was acting very flaky again. Connected, disconnected, connected, disconnected. So, I said, "Screw this card!", and put in another, different wireless card (actually two - a Linksys N, and a USR G card). Those were even worse! Up, down, connect, disconnect. (You get the idea.) So, I started looking at my router (Cisco/Linksys WRT310N). Noticed that if I rebooted the router, the Atheros card stays connected (pretty well/stable). Time will tell. Going on day 2 right now. I googled "frequent disconnects and wireless routers" (or something like that). Found a lot of people having problems (some legimate, some self-induced). So... that prompted me to also change some wireless setting (on the router)... Set the wide channel to 11 (instead of Auto), standard channel to 9 (instead of Auto), and something else (I don't remember). As I said... time will tell.
