The case of wifi drop-out with no recovery

[Peter N Spotts]

Folks,

I've just had a puzzling instance where my wifi dropped out between the
hub and my laptop, and I can't get it back. I'm running Feisty with a
Linksys WPC54G pcmcia card and nidswrapper on a Toshiba Satellite
1905-S303. I know the hub is still pumping out a signal, because my
wife's laptop remains connected and able to communicate with the web.
I've tried ifup/ifdown to prod things along. I've even uninstalled, then
reinstalled ndiswrapper and the driver for my pcmcia wifi card. All to
no avail. 

I'm not sure what would cause this, because it happened mid web/email
session, when I was making demands on the machine no worse than I have
in the past and the wifi connection remained solid. I've had the pcmcia
card for a while, and the slots sit fairly close to a toasty CPU. Is it
possible that over time the head could degrade the card?

I'd be grateful for any suggestions on how to fix this, since without
wifi, I have to work in an odd location kin order to be hardwired to the
router. 

With best regards,

Pete
-- 
Peter N. Spotts | Science reporter
The Christian Science Monitor
One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115 USA
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