Intel Wifi AGN 4965 wireless card cannot see 802.11n 5 Ghz network

[ladyfractal]

I have a 802.11n broadcasting a network at 5 Ghz. The router is a 500 Gb
Time Capsule (aka Airport Extreme). My Macbook Pro sees the network fine.
The other laptop, a Sony Vaio running Vista Home Premium does not see the
network. The installed wireless is an AGN 4965. At the suggestion of a
colleague, I disabled IPv6 which did no good. We've applied SP 1 to no
avail. The network does not show up *at all* in the list of available
networks.

I've installed the original Intel driver downloaded from their site as well
as the original Sony driver, neither of which has done any good. Has anyone
seen this behavior?

 

[Barb Bowman]

are you in mixed mode? n only? what kind of security are you using?

I have a 802.11n broadcasting a network at 5 Ghz. The router is a 500 Gb
Time Capsule (aka Airport Extreme). My Macbook Pro sees the network fine.
The other laptop, a Sony Vaio running Vista Home Premium does not see the
network. The installed wireless is an AGN 4965. At the suggestion of a
colleague, I disabled IPv6 which did no good. We've applied SP 1 to no
avail. The network does not show up *at all* in the list of available
networks.

I've installed the original Intel driver downloaded from their site as well
as the original Sony driver, neither of which has done any good. Has anyone
seen this behavior?

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

[ladyfractal]

Barb:

The network is in N-only mode using WPA-2 with AES-CCMP. There's another
wireless router, a Belkin 8231-4 running in mixed mode which is the DHCP
server while the Airport Express is running in bridge mode. I don't think
that's the problem (although I haven't checked to see what happens if I
switch the Time Capsule to be a DHCP server) since the Mac gets an IP address
from the Belkin router just fine but is on the N-only network.

Cheers
Adrienne

 

[Barb Bowman]

there has been a lot of pain with the 4965 and N only in general.
do you see the network if you reset the Time Capsule to defaults
mixed mode, etc. or do you have the issue in all modes/all security
types?

Barb:

The network is in N-only mode using WPA-2 with AES-CCMP. There's another
wireless router, a Belkin 8231-4 running in mixed mode which is the DHCP
server while the Airport Express is running in bridge mode. I don't think
that's the problem (although I haven't checked to see what happens if I
switch the Time Capsule to be a DHCP server) since the Mac gets an IP address
from the Belkin router just fine but is on the N-only network.

Cheers
Adrienne

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

[ladyfractal]

Barb:

It only happens in N-only mode. Having thought along the same lines as you
appear to be, I reconfigured the TC to work in mixed-mode at 2.4 Ghz and all
was fine. The Vaio could see the TC, all attached peripherals, everything
was fine. It's only in N-only 5 Ghz that the problem surfaces. (Well, I
don't know for a fact that 2.4 Ghz N-only wouldn't work because I haven't
tried it)

While this would work *for now*, it makes backups over the time capsule
painfully slow and since I bought the TC primarily to do the backups running
in mixed-mode isn't a long-term solution.

Cheers
Adrienne

 

[Barb Bowman]

understood. you might want to open a support incident on the Intel
site.

Barb:

It only happens in N-only mode. Having thought along the same lines as you
appear to be, I reconfigured the TC to work in mixed-mode at 2.4 Ghz and all
was fine. The Vaio could see the TC, all attached peripherals, everything
was fine. It's only in N-only 5 Ghz that the problem surfaces. (Well, I
don't know for a fact that 2.4 Ghz N-only wouldn't work because I haven't
tried it)

While this would work *for now*, it makes backups over the time capsule
painfully slow and since I bought the TC primarily to do the backups running
in mixed-mode isn't a long-term solution.

Cheers
Adrienne

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

[cyrixboy]

Have you tried disabling "Use wide channels" in your Airport Extreme? You can
access this setting by opening Airport Utility, choosing the "Wireless" tab,
and clicking "Wireless Options." You'll see a checkbox labeled "Use wide
channels." I need to disable this even using my Macbook Pro with Vista. Let
me know if this resolves your problem.

 

[aberator]

This can be fixed by changing the adapter settings. The particular setting is
under the advanced tab of the adapter settings. For "Wireless Mode", select
6. 802.11a/b/g. I realize that 802.11n is not even listed here, but the
802.11a compatibility must be set on the adapter in order to "see" the 5GHz
band.

HTH,

--abe