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I know many of us use the "Snoop" application from the old Proxim 7400 FHSS card client utilities as a "poor man's" spectrum analyzer.
This can be a useful tool but the downside is that there is no driver for Windows XP and users have been restricted to Windows 2000.

Well, I got my 7400 card to run under XP! ... here's how:

Don't install your 7400 PCMCIA card in the slot yet.

Visit the Proxim site and download the Windows 2K driver for the 7110/7420 card:
http://www.proxim.com/support/all/rangelan2/software/dl2001-08-14a.html
The file you want is called RL2_2K_1_7.exe

Run the downloaded executable and extract the files to a suitable folder. I created a folder called 7400.

Plug in the card. The "Found New Hardware" wizard will run. Don't install the driver automatically ... you want to install the driver from a particular location.

Navigate to the folder you created and allow the wizard to find the driver. Windows will probably decide that what you are installing is a "Harmony OpenAir PC Card". This is what my version of Windows XP decided and it seems to be fine.

Once the driver is installed you will be prompted to restart the computer. Don't do this just yet. First, navigate to your startup folder and find the shortcut to the file named "STATMON.EXE". Delete the shortcut from the startup folder ... you don't want this program to run on startup. To be doubly sure, navigate to the folder you created and rename the STATMON.EXE file to something like xxxSTATMON.EXE

Now you can restart your computer. Once you have booted you can plug your 7400 card into the PCMCIA slot.

If you now check in Windows Device Manager the card should appear as a Harmony OpenAir PC Card. If you check the driver version for the card in Windows Device manager you should see that the card is using a Proxim driver version 1.7.0.24. Apparently driver version 17b.22 also works.

Now navigate to the folder you created and find the PNETCON.EXE executable ... and run it.

You should see a small window advising that the driver is initializing, follwed by the configuration window.

Click the "Configuration" button and change the station type to "Master" then click "OK". Now click the "Snoop" button and you should be in business!!

I have found that sometimes I need to open Windows Device Manager, go the the card and change something like disabling Peer to Peer (under the "Advanced" tab) to get the card to run. However, I haven't experienced any other problems. Naturally, you do any of this at your own risk and I don't take any responsibility. My Proxim 7400 card seems to work fine under XP but if yours lets all the smoke out then don't blame me :)

Click the thumbnail for a larger image:

I've had a proxim 7400 for a couple years now, and I've always had problems getting it working right, I was hoping this would be the time it'd work. Unfortunately even with following your instructions perfectly, I still get the same problem, the card doesn't scan the full spectrum.

I'm thinking it's the firmware (rom?) in my card, but I don't know if that can be changed or not. Could you check your version numbers to see if they're different than mine? (see image below)

Hi Drew,

My apologies for not replying earlier ... I have been a bit busy and haven't been on the forums.

I compared my 7400 screen with yours and they are similar but not identical.

The driver is shown as 1.7B22 on both, however the ROM version on mine is shown as V1.8E1/0+ while yours shows as V1.8E1/1+

It appears that the driver you have is fine and that the card is working as it should ... but as you suspect, it looks like you have a different version of firmware. I would suspect that your card/firmware is from some place where the allowable spectrum at 2.4GHz is less than the usual 2.402GHz to 2.480GHz covered by the RangeLan 7400 card.

You can possibly verify this by clicking the "Configuration" button and then the "Get Settings" button. Have a look to see what the "Country Code" entry reads ... mine says "80".

I don't know if there is any way to change the "Country Code". If there is, I would give that a try. Otherwise, I would suggest trawling the web for a different firmware version. I would be happy to send you the firmware from my card ... if I could work out some way to extract it!

Thanks for this tip AndyK!! There are a gozillion people that will want to know this.

Devinator

great idea andy, my card is country code 81, any idea what that is?

Drew, from what I can find I think that code is for somewhere in Europe ... which would explain the limited frequency range.

I have done some quick searching but haven't been able to find a utility to read and/or flash the firmware. If I can find something I will attempt to extract the firmware from my card and post it somewhere for you.

If you manage to find some sort of firmware updating utility for the 7400 cards please let me know.

Drew Escribi?3:

great idea andy, my card is country code 81, any idea what that is?