Radio On/Off for wireless cards

[Multibooter]

I am using an old D-Link DWL-AG530 PCI wireless card on my desktop, with which I am very content (connector for external Antenna, a-g dual band, drivers for Win98 thru Vista, with a slim untried chance that a generic driver could work under Linux). The driver download page is here and the manual download page is here

For the chip inside my card (i.e. "Revision") there are 2 drivers under WinXP, and I am not sure which one I should use.

1) Driver v1.05 is of 23-Mar-2006 and has a "Radio On/Off" setting (can be set in Device Manager -> Network Adapters -> D-Link AirPremier DWL-AG530 Wireless PCI Adapter -> Properties -> Advanced tab -> Property "Radio On/Off")

The Radio On/Off is a little buggy. Once I have set it to Off, I can turn it On again, but I only get an internet or network connection again if I reboot. This bug I can live with because I rarely use the Radio On/Off button, but when I do, it is very handy.

The Radio Off setting can block the calling home by Microsoft and unruly software, when I occasionally have to turn the firewall off. Also, during the setup of a computer, when no firewall is installed yet, I can be sure that no undesired calling home takes place.

I have used driver v1.05 under WinXP for a while and had no problems with it, and have never tried to uninstall it.

2) Driver v1.10 is of 24-Oct-2007, is WHQL, has the feature "Dynamic Frequency Selection" (which I probably will never need), but does NOT have the Radio On/Off setting anymore, maybe fixing the bug was too tricky.

I have briefly installed driver v1.10. It seems to work, but I would know for sure only after having used it for a longer period of time. Uninstalling v1.10 may be a nightmare. I tried to uninstall v1.10 in a test, then installed older v1.05, but v1.05 would not work anymore.

Here my 2 questions:

1) Is there software under WinXP with which I can turn the transmission by a wireless card off (and on), comparable to unplugging an Ethernet cable?

2) Which driver should I install, v1.05 or v1.10?

Edited January 12, 2010 by Multibooter

[GrofLuigi]

1) Disable the device in Device Manager. I'm 99,99% sure it's enough.

2) I don't know, sorry.

*edit: if you want scripting abilities, try DevCon.

GL

Edited January 12, 2010 by GrofLuigi