I got an MSI wind today and when I got home and turned it on...funny, my apple airport (N wireless base station) went out...as did my time machine used to extend the network. Turned off Wind, reset base station (unplugged it and plugged it back in). Turned on Wind and joined network...boom. Network hosed.
I use an EEEpc at home (running ubuntu) all the time and have no problems at all.
this is weird.
Josh Bancroft
· 1 year ago
Wow, that's bizarre. At least you got it figured out.
Ever thought about the Eee PC 1000H? It has what people like about the MSI Wind: 10" screen, larger, more usable keyboard, etc. And a hard drive (buy a 320GB drive for $90, easy to swap/upgrade) or SSD, depending on your preference. 6 cell battery, too, for same long battery life. The guts of it (motherboard, wireless card, etc.) are pretty much identical to the 901, so you could avoid the weird problem with your network (hopefully). The Eee PC 1000H goes for around $450 on Amazon, NewEgg, etc. and is just about the most popular netbook out there right now. Just make sure you get one with the Atom processor, not a Celeron or A110. Atom = great performance AND tremendous battery life.
Josh Bancroft
· 1 year ago
Here's a comparison of the MSI Wind and the Eee PC 1000:
Yes I saw that comparison, but I really wanted to try something other than an Asus. Part of the purpose of all this is to get educated on the category, I'm sure it's going to continue to evolve rapidly, and expect to buy one every few months for a while, kind of the way I was buying Macs a couple of years ago. These are so cheap they cost a little bit more than one night in a hotel in a city and they make traveling so much more enjoyable. Maybe I'll go for an Acer next? I'm also interested in getting one with a 3.5G capability. I know it's a ripoff, but I think it's really cool to to have one of these that has all the networking built in and can communcate anywyere there's a cell tower. Then it really will be like an iPhone that's a real computer (that I can write software for without selling my soul to Apple).
spyguy
· 1 year ago
If you don't like an iPhone, try out a gPhone from t-mobile. Cautious note though, Android 1.0 has the usual usability problems that everyone except Apple seems to have with the first generation of any consumer device. The Apple folks just seem to be more in touch with what real consumers will find useful than any other computer/cell phone company.
I haven't torn a netbook apart yet, but I am reasonably sure they all use the same Intel Atom processor and probably the same chipset, which means that there will not be a major difference between them.
Personally, I would stay away from 3.5G because the chips are too new and flaky. If you don't mind being a gamma tester, go for it.
What is a gamma tester you ask? that is the person that pays to test the post-beta product. That is, the first "production" release of a product that is mostly a new design (most products these days are evolutionary designs, so the first production is not really a new product at all).
KevinCTofel
· 1 year ago
Dave, I'm sorry to hear that the Wind is going back, especially since I love mine. FWIW: my home network runs off of an Airport Extreme as well. No other routers, switches or hubs like you have, but my Wind works fine on the network. In fact, the networking has been fine with both XP and Vista on it. I'd at least try to see if there's an updated driver for the wireless card in the Wind. Here's the too hard to find MSI driver page for the Wind: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloa...
Ralph Hempel
· 1 year ago
It's not as simple as having the same IP address on the Wind as on the Airport router, is it?
dave
· 1 year ago
No, it's getting its IP address via DHCP from the router like all the other devices on the LAN.
rosskarchner
· 1 year ago
Have you looked at the Dell Mini? Mine arrives today, I'll let you know how it is.
Ralph Hempel
· 1 year ago
Sorry if this is a duplicate, but have you checked to make sure that the MSI Wind is not at a fixed IP that conflicts with some other device on your network?
Noah Mittman
· 1 year ago
The Airport Extreme has lots of problems -- you might remember some from using the N800. I recently had the N810 causing the router to reboot due to some problems with mixed G&N mode and power-saving on the tablet.
dave
· 1 year ago
Okay, I'm willing to consider getting a different router. I have several 802.11N devices so it has to be an N router. There's a Best Buy reasonably close, and a little further away (about 1/2 hour in each direction by car) is a Fry's. What would you recommend?
Noah Mittman
· 1 year ago
I wish I knew! The quick fix for it is to turn off N and go G only, but it's clear you don't want to do that. I just hope one of your other readers has a good suggestion because I'm open to changing mine as well.
jungleg
· 1 year ago
I love mine. I did have issues with networking, but as soon as I downloaded the new drivers from MSI, everything has worked smoothly.
John
· 1 year ago
I got linked here by jkOnTheRun. Just thought I'd leave a quick comment: Don't be so quick to blame the MSI Wind. I've see a lot of things crashing various Apple wifi routers of various vintage. The thing you have to keep in mind is that technically the bug is in the Apple router. It may seem counterintuitive, since the Wind is the only thing on your network that triggers the bug, but the router shouldn't be crashing under any circumstances. It's the router's responsibility to take whatever gets thrown at it and not just die if it encounters a bit of bad data. Anyways, hope you find a netbook that works for you.
-John
bhaveshp
· 1 year ago
Wow.. I wish I ran across this posting earlier. I just got my MSI Wind and I'm having the same exact problem with the Airport Extreme N (AEBSn) - The Wind kills the Wi-Fi. I've got the AEBSn configured to output G/N with WPA2 personal on and anytime the Wind connects via Wi-Fi, not only does it fail to connect, but it renders the wireless useless to my other devices as well.
I've updated the Wind to the latest RealTek driver on Winds site (WLAN Drivers for U100 (RT2700E) XP Ver: 1.1.6.0 along with Bios 1.09, but the problem persists.
The Wind isn't worth changing my network or router over. Such a shame as I planned to turn it into a Hackintosh as well.
cshotton
· 11 months ago
It works fine as a Hackintosh. I have 3 Apple access points of various models and all work fine with the Wind and OS X. I think it is a Windows problem, not a hardware problem.
Craig
· 1 year ago
I too am having this problem. I just got my MSI Wind u100 and even installed the new drivers 1.2 released on 110408. It still crashed my Airport Extreme network and cannot maintain a simple connection.
I am waiting on a new USB Wireless Adapter to arrive to see if that works. Seriously, I am also contemplating returning my MSI Wind.
Craig
bhaveshp
· 1 year ago
I ended up voiding my Wind's warranty and swapped the min-pci WiFi card with a Dell trumobile 1500 (Broadcom chipset). With this WiFi card, the Wind now plays perfectly with the AEBSn running either XP or 10.5.5 on the Wind.
This is definitely a bug in the Airport Extreme, but given that the Realtek wifi has near universal disdain (see forums.msiwind.net), the wifi swap made sense to me.
Nick
· 1 year ago
I had the same thing happen with an AEBS and a Nokia N800 and N810 - both if which I no longer have, and hey presto the AEBS no longer spuriously reboots.
cshotton
· 11 months ago
I have a MSI Wind running OS X 10.5.4. It works fine with my Airport Extreme and Express access points. Really sounds like it is a software issue for those running a Wind with Windows. Certainly isn't a problem for me under Mac OS X.
Rom
· 11 months ago
My kids have an MSI Wind U100 running Hackintosh and it works perfectly with the Airport Express (b/g).
amy
· 10 months ago
im really sad about this problem with my MSI wind. the wifi signal drops every 3 minutes. a net book that cannot connect to the net. huhuhu. if only i can find the warrantly card and receipt for this unit, i will return it asap.
All Comments
I use an EEEpc at home (running ubuntu) all the time and have no problems at all.
this is weird.
Ever thought about the Eee PC 1000H? It has what people like about the MSI Wind: 10" screen, larger, more usable keyboard, etc. And a hard drive (buy a 320GB drive for $90, easy to swap/upgrade) or SSD, depending on your preference. 6 cell battery, too, for same long battery life. The guts of it (motherboard, wireless card, etc.) are pretty much identical to the 901, so you could avoid the weird problem with your network (hopefully). The Eee PC 1000H goes for around $450 on Amazon, NewEgg, etc. and is just about the most popular netbook out there right now. Just make sure you get one with the Atom processor, not a Celeron or A110. Atom = great performance AND tremendous battery life.
http://www.liliputing.com/2008/10/msi-wind-vs-a...
I haven't torn a netbook apart yet, but I am reasonably sure they all use the same Intel Atom processor and probably the same chipset, which means that there will not be a major difference between them.
Personally, I would stay away from 3.5G because the chips are too new and flaky. If you don't mind being a gamma tester, go for it.
What is a gamma tester you ask? that is the person that pays to test the post-beta product. That is, the first "production" release of a product that is mostly a new design (most products these days are evolutionary designs, so the first production is not really a new product at all).
-John
I've updated the Wind to the latest RealTek driver on Winds site (WLAN Drivers for U100 (RT2700E) XP Ver: 1.1.6.0 along with Bios 1.09, but the problem persists.
The Wind isn't worth changing my network or router over. Such a shame as I planned to turn it into a Hackintosh as well.
I am waiting on a new USB Wireless Adapter to arrive to see if that works. Seriously, I am also contemplating returning my MSI Wind.
Craig
This is definitely a bug in the Airport Extreme, but given that the Realtek wifi has near universal disdain (see forums.msiwind.net), the wifi swap made sense to me.