Network drive problem

[VP959]

Over the weekend I fitted a Link Station network drive. My home network is a mix of wired and wireless. The main PC is wired to the router, as is the network drive. The laptop connects via the wireless link to the Netgear router. The printer drives from the LinkStation, as a network printer in effect.

I want to be able to use folders on the LinkStation network drive from both the main PC and the laptop, to avoid having to constantly swap files around. I set up both PCs to map the network drive OK, and set "reconnect at logon" on both.

All works OK if the wireless link is already established when the laptop logs on, but there is often a delay of a minute or so before the laptop detects and connects to the wireless network.

It always works OK from the main PC, as the network connects pretty much instantly.

The snag is that 9 times out of 10, the laptop tries to connect to the network drive BEFORE the wireless link is established. The result is a failed network connection message and the need to manually diconnect and re-map the network drive.

I don't mind doing this, but SWMBO finds it beyond her.

Does anyone know a way to set the "reconnect network connection" to only occur after the wireless network is up and running please?

VP

[Saab Dastard]

I don't know of a way to do this - however, in my experience it is not necessary in Win XP. When the laptop starts, just accept that it cannot reconnect, then when the WIFI connection is established, double clicking the disconnected drive should connect it.

However, because I know that the word "should" is one of the most overused in IT, a workaround is to create a shortcut to the shared drive on the laptop (e.g. on the desktop) and click on that after the WIFI connection is established instead of mapping a drive.

[Crashing Software]

My work-around for this problem is to use hibernate rather than shut down on the laptop. When the laptop's turned back on everything is still available. Of course, the downside is that there's no password needed - less secure.

[VP959]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try the hibernate one and see how things go.

It does seem odd that the all-powerful mega-beings at Microsoft seem to have overlooked this, as it must be a problem for loads of users, I would have thought.

VP

[VP959]

An update that may help someone else with this problem.

It seems that the delay in detecting and logging on to the wireless link may have been due to the settings and interference.

I discovered (using netstumbler) that a neighbour had an open link working on the same channel (11, the default one). I reconfigured mine to run on channel 6, set the router to not broadcast the SSID and enabled 128 bit WEP and now it seems to connect instantly.

Might be worth a try if anyone else has this problem.

VP