The two network icons in the notification tray

[D4\/!d]

I would like you to clarify something for me please :)

I am at the XP Pro SP2 desktop upstairs that is receiving the wireless signal via its USB adaptor from the netgear router downstairs.

In the notif-tray there are two icons in particular that relate to the network. The first is the XP icon, it looks like a PC with a gray screen that turns blue, and sends out green waves.

The other icon is the netgear one that looks like laptop with a screen that is mostly yellow, goes red when the connection is lost, and very rarely turns green. When I click this icon it opens the netgear WG111T usb adaptor software, where I can scan and find my signal and connect to it. It shows signal strength of say 67%, or 58%, or on a bad day 32%. But 67% of what? It seems to bear no relation to the scan that shows 11-12 Mbps, or 36 Mbps, or sometimes if I'm lucky 48 Mbps. What do these readings mean?

Back now to the xp icon. This goes red when the connection is lost - I understand that bit..!! Hovering a mouse over the icon gives a reading of signal strength. It often reads Low or Very Low, sometimes it says Good. Whoopee! But these values have no resemblance to the netgear readings. You can have them both on display and they are nothing like each others figures. For example the xp one says the Local Area Connection speed is 108.00 mbps. Rubbish! The speed on the netgear scan is 24mbps.

btw, I have not used Win xp to setup the router and the adaptor, so why is the xp icon there anyway? I cannot "repair" or look at "status". I used the netgear software to setup the adaptor so I would expect that to be there.

It is all so confusing for me. :unsure:

[homecomputeraid]

Hi David,

Do you use something like PPPoE to connect to your ISP? If so, one of those adapters could be your PPPoE adapter, but I suspect that one is a representation of how Windows sees your wireless card, and the other is how the Netgear utility sees your wireless card. Why the two don't seem to match in any way, I don't know. The Windows utility is kind of built in, and enabled whenever there's a wireless card available, but you can choose to use a utility made by the manufacturer to do the actual configuration of the wireless where one exists.