iPAQ 54xx/55xx WM2k3 WLAN Driver Update

[dnacpil]

I installed this WLAN Driver update to my H5455 (w/ WM2K3 upgrade) this afternoon and it sure does connect quick!! I was connecting quickly at home, work, and T-Mobile's HotSpots all afternoon and all night long. It now takes only 3-4 seconds to connect...it used to take 10-12 seconds after my upgrade from PPC2K2 to WM2K3. So far so good. Also, the signal strength shows more bars (tap on the connectivity icon next to the speaker icon while your device is connected). Another thing which I'm not sure, I now am able to turn the WiFi on/off from the connectivity icon.....I don't know if it's the WLAN fix or it's always been in WM2K3 which I never noticed before.

Anyway, I haven't experienced any problems at home, work, and the 3 T-Mobile HotSpots I normally connect to. And yes, I went to the 3 T-Mobile HotSpots (2 StarBucks and 1 Borders Bookstore) this afternoon just to check this thing out.

[dnacpil]

I installed this WLAN Driver update to my H5455 (w/ WM2K3 upgrade) this afternoon and it sure does connect quick!! I was connecting quickly at home, work, and T-Mobile's HotSpots all afternoon and all night long. It now takes only 3-4 seconds to connect...it used to take 10-12 seconds after my upgrade from PPC2K2 to WM2K3. So far so good. Also, the signal strength shows more bars (tap on the connectivity icon next to the speaker icon while your device is connected). Another thing which I'm not sure, I now am able to turn the WiFi on/off from the connectivity icon.....I don't know if it's the WLAN fix or it's always been in WM2K3 which I never noticed before.

Anyway, I haven't experienced any problems at home, work, and the 3 T-Mobile HotSpots I normally connect to. And yes, I went to the 3 T-Mobile HotSpots (2 StarBucks and 1 Borders Bookstore) this afternoon just to check this thing out.

[jimvaughan]

I have tried this twice on my h5555 both times it causes wifi to stop working.

Anyone else got this installed on a h5555?

[Dave Beauvais]

Originally Posted by dnacpil

... Another thing which I'm not sure, I now am able to turn the WiFi on/off from the connectivity icon.....I don't know if it's the WLAN fix or it's always been in WM2K3 which I never noticed before. ...

The first time you turn the radio on after a soft reset, you must use the iPAQ Wireless app. Once you've turned it on one time using that, you can then turn it on and off using the icon on the title bar. Very annoying, if you ask me...

--Dave

[that_kid]

Originally Posted by jimvaughan

I have tried this twice on my h5555 both times it causes wifi to stop working.

Anyone else got this installed on a h5555?

It's working great on my 5555. I noticed that my 5555 knows much quicker when there's no wifi signal and it also connects back quicker when it finds the network again :mrgreen:

[jimvaughan]

Well I got it to work, I am not sure which of the below did the trick but:

(1) Uninstalled Pocket Boingo http://www.boingo.com/download.html
(2) Uninstalled Pocket Warrior http://www.pocketwarrior.org
(3) Installed the WLAN update
(4) Reset the h5555
(5) Turned the h5555 off
(6) Pulled the battery out
(7) Restarted the h5555

... and now it works.

[tvalentin]

Could anyone who's sucessfully installed the firmware upgrade tell me the updated information in asset viewer.

I'm not sure if it has been installed on my 5450 or not.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Tom

[[Gav]]

Ok here's a better quote describing the differences between the drivers:
From: http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=1604

HP is offering two new sets of wireless LAN drivers for the iPaq 5400 and 5500 series PocketPCs. One driver package supports 802.11B Wireless LAN communication (WiFi) and the 802.11x standard for security features. The other supports 802.11B and Cisco-proprietary LEAP security. You can't have both--not yet at least, HP says they're working on it--so you will need to install one or the other. If you don't know what 802.11x or LEAP are, then it doesn't really matter which package you use.

The new drivers are supposed to improve connectivity, ease of connectivity, and roaming ability. No specifics on what that means, but users are reporting less time taken to connect, resolved connection issues, and better signal strength. It appears that 'connectivity' is shorthand for an entire laundry list of bugs squashed and general performance improvements.

This update is only for iPaq 5400 and 5500 PocketPCs running Windows Mobile 2003. It will not function on iPaq 5400s that have not been upgraded to the new operating system.

I hope this helps.

Gav

[Dave Beauvais]

Originally Posted by tvalentin

... Could anyone who's sucessfully installed the firmware upgrade tell me the updated information in asset viewer. ...

It's not a firmware upgrade, exactly; just a driver update. With the WLAN adapter on, Asset Manager shows a driver version of 3.2.2.115, which is the version of the upgrade. Note that you may have to have the WLAN on for this to show up properly.

--Dave

[brianchris]

Originally Posted by [Gav

]Ok here's a better quote describing the differences between the drivers:
From: http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=1604

I hope this helps.

Gav

Excellent.....helps quite a bit.....thanks for sharing! Last questions are 1) Does WLAN need to be on, or off durring the driver update, or does it matter? and 2) is it a safe assumption that I'm more likely to encounter 802.1x WLAN's than LEAP WLAN's? TIA!

-Brian