Bizarre network problem

[Ruggerbugger]

I recently documented problems I was having with my wireless network here. I think I've pretty much sorted it out now (it seems less reliable but I think I've picked trickier security features.

The real weird thing is, the crashing continues, but only when I try to connect to the wireless networks at Warwick University. If I leave the wireless card on during boot (on my x20), it crashes just before the Windows logon screen. If I disconnect the card, reenable it and try to connect from within Windows, it crashes then. Is there anything I can do to diagnose the problem?

[GDVS]

Are you using the vendor management tools or Windows Zero Config? If vendor, dump it and let Windows do it itself (XPSP2 only). I had similar problems with Belkin, threw their management tool away and used WZC and I was sorted.

[Paul Adams]

Wireless LAN Enhancements in Windows XP SP2

The Cable Guy articles are very useful sources of information like this:

Wireless Zero Configuration service logging

Windows XP supports detailed logging for various components to troubleshoot the wireless authentication process. You can enable logging for specific components or for all components by using the netsh ras set tracing command. Windows XP SP2 now includes tracing for the Wireless Zero Configuration service, which is responsible for detecting and attempting to connect to preferred wireless networks. To see the Wireless Zero Configuration service logs, type netsh ras set tracing * enabled at a command prompt to enable logging for all components. Disable and then enable your wireless network connection in the Network Connections folder. Then, view the Wzcdlg.log and Wzctrace.log files in the %SystemRoot%\Tracing folder. To disable tracing for all components, type netsh ras set tracing * disabled at a command prompt.

Can be useful for diagnosing wireless issues, though most often it is used for failures to connect to WLANs or to authenticate (logs can be very verbose), rather than bugchecks.

Any idea what the WLAN SSID is? Maybe the driver has a problem with some characters in it, or the length?