Unknown 802.11b card pulled from router - Driver help please

[amit632]

A while back I fried the IC on my D-Link router (DI-614+) by accidently connecting a wrong power adapter and since I've owned it for far longer than what the warranty covers, I couldn't RMA it. So I opened it up and realized there was no repairing the thing.

What I'm wondering is, can I use the wireless card that is inside the router? I've tried plugging it in to my win xp pro laptop and windows can't identify it (it only sees it as a network adapter). How do I go about getting this to work?

http://img124.exs.cx/img124/1379/picture0ez.jpg

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[willy]

Have you tried some of the drivers from D-Link ? Can't recall the PCcard model that supports 22Mbps ....

[synaptech]

If you can google the chipset or check out seattlewireless it would help you identify the drivers.

[amit632]

Have you tried some of the drivers from D-Link ? Can't recall the PCcard model that supports 22Mbps ....

I did give some of the drivers a shot... esp. the DWL-650 and the DWL-650+. No luck :( Also tried drivers for their wireless PCI cards (DWL-520).

If you can google the chipset or check out seattlewireless it would help you identify the drivers.

Problem is, I don't know exactly what chipset is used by this card. Also, I'm not sure how seattlewireless would help, I went to their site and the chart they have (http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/HardwareComparison#head-5634c87f7b3eeae87bdaaf349a41f3e6926bf1cb) says that the internal antenna connector is "soldered on" :?:

[synaptech]

The metal casing is just sheilding. See if you can remove it by squeezing small clips or gently prying it back. SHould be able to read the chips then.

[amit632]

I thought of that, but the problem is that the card is constructed out of 2 pieces. One is the circuitry along with the plastic interface for the pins, the other being the metal casing which slides over the circuit. This metal casing has 2 sets of "lips" that tightly grip the plastic at the edges, hence I can't seperate the two. If necessary, I can post a pic of what it looks like in the morning, too tired now. I'm worried about causing too much damage (I might not be able to put it back together).

Is there a software solution to figuring out what chipset it might be?

[synaptech]

I am sure there must be app, but I don't know it. Perhaps a program like netstumber might id the card for you?

[divx]

what! is router just a PCMCIA wireless card with an external antenna?

[synaptech]

what! is router just a PCMCIA wireless card with an external antenna?

yes - most are just a plain pcmcia card plugged into a socket with a custom controller.

[amit632]

what! is router just a PCMCIA wireless card with an external antenna?

A little bit more than that, there is a 4-port switch and an ARM processor. Here's what the whole thing looked like on the inside with the pcmcia card:

http://img235.exs.cx/img235/9598/picture0020uf.jpg

And here is a closeup of the card itself... now you can see that it seems quite tough to seperate.

http://img235.exs.cx/img235/1162/picture0012gj.jpg

I tried network stumbler as well, it doesn't show any card in the device menu =\

[steve.m]

curious, is there a FIC number on the PCB?
i saw a website where you type in the FIC number/letter combo and it tells you what the thing is. It is a unique way to identify electronic boards. anyhow did you try googling any number/letter combos you see on the pcb, then using that info to find additional info possibly diver/ app to get it to function on http://www.driverguide.com/?

login: drivers

password: all

[Gee]

curious, is there a FIC number on the PCB?
i saw a website where you type in the FIC number/letter combo and it tells you what the thing is. It is a unique way to identify electronic boards. anyhow did you try googling any number/letter combos you see on the pcb, then using that info to find additional info possibly diver/ app to get it to function on http://www.driverguide.com/?

login: drivers

password: all

It is an FCC number, and you can find it on the US FCC site. It is useless. It will just identify it as a D-Link router.

You will have to open it to see the chipset.

what! is router just a PCMCIA wireless card with an external antenna?

If you are lucky, you will find one with a Mini PCI card for notebooks.

[willy]

Too lazy to search .... I think you should be able to find something from www.practicallynetworked.com. There should be only a handful of chipset makers that provide D-Link (and others) with 22Mbps-capable chipsets way back when ...

Update > Alright, found something ... Texas Instruments ACX100 chipset

[amit632]

Too lazy to search .... I think you should be able to find something from www.practicallynetworked.com. There should be only a handful of chipset makers that provide D-Link (and others) with 22Mbps-capable chipsets way back when ...

Update > Alright, found something ... Texas Instruments ACX100 chipset

I think it worked!

I'm not sure how you figured it out that the chipset is TI, but it should've been obvious to me right from the start since the router clearly advertises 22 Mbps :o

According to this chart (http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz) [warning: takes a long time to load], the only three adapters that have been manufactured by D-Link that use the TI chipset are 120+, 520+, and 650+ and the 120+ driver didn't work for sure, but the 520+ driver seems to work. While I was installing it, Windows gave me a warning the driver might not be right. Problem is, there are no APs close to my area for me to check if this card can pick up a signal. I do have another working wireless card and even it doesn't find any signals in the area. So maybe it works :-0

[steve.m]

thanks for the correction Gee. no wonder i could not find the right FIC web page last night that i saw previously. FCC

at any rate, nothing to lose by trying to identify and locate drivers/apps by FCC number: http://freepctech.com/pc/001/fcc_search_engine.shtml

i have identified over a dozen "unkown" pcb boards this way for various modems, and weird looking internal cards.


good luck

[Mr Nobody]

Problem is, there are no APs close to my area for me to check if this card can pick up a signal. I do have another working wireless card and even it doesn't find any signals in the area. So maybe it works :-0

If the other card is in another PC, you could make an adhoc connection between the two cards to test.

[amit632]

If the other card is in another PC, you could make an adhoc connection between the two cards to test.

That's an interesting idea, though I don't have access to another laptop. How easy would it be to do this?

[[H]ackerK]

That's an interesting idea, though I don't have access to another laptop. How easy would it be to do this?

Just drive around w/ your existing laptop and you should find some AP :) Usually apt & univ student housing you can pick up a few (or more) AP

[Mr Nobody]

That's an interesting idea, though I don't have access to another laptop. How easy would it be to do this?

Similar to setting up any other wireless connection. You set up the security, ssid, network key, select adhoc at the bottom. Do the exact same thing for the other machine and you're good to go.

[willy]

ackerK']Just drive around w/ your existing laptop and you should find some AP :) Usually apt & univ student housing you can pick up a few (or more) AP
Ha, my friend was shocked to see his router was serving FIVE (!!) IPs the other day (btw, he has only 1 PC). He lives in an apartment. The most scary thing was he didn't even change the factory password for his router ....

[Mr Nobody]

Ha, my friend was shocked to see his router was serving FIVE (!!) IPs the other day (btw, he has only 1 PC). He lives in an apartment. The most scary thing was he didn't even change the factory password for his router ....

And you didn't help him correct this? :D

[willy]

And you didn't help him correct this? :D
If I didn't, I wouldn't be "willy" anymore ... hee hee ... He recently moved into this apartment. However, he has been using this very same wireless router setup for over a year in his previous apartment ! I guess there must be a lot of 'unhappy' neighbours in the previous place ... I am sure they 'missed' him a lot ... http://www.dolnetwork.com/RFD/smilies/wink.gif

This problem is quite widespread ... While I was there, his machine managed to pick up a couple .11b connections. I guess it is nice to know there is always some 'backup' internet connection available for free ...

[Mr Nobody]

I was thinking of purposely opening mine to trap people. Have them connect then I start hacking them while they think they're getting free internet. :twisted: