Poor wireless connectivity

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by SOSAGES

if ur running xp its know to drop connections and be flakey over wireless ..

sp2 kinda fixes it...

No it doesn't, mine still drops as much as it did on SP1

[punky]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Is the house near others?
Does it happen at specific times of day or is it a general degredation, e.g.lunch, dinner movie time.
Could well be a neighbours microwave (or yours) or some other radiation. Any DECT phones near the base?

The houses are detached, and i'd say a good 30' apart. That said i'm still picking up another wireless network. I can't really find anything about it, but could running two networks side-by-side like that punt each other off? I don't know if we are running on the same channel even. Don't we just get the names by that name broadcast thingy (can't rememeber what it is called), regardless of channel?

About the timing, before I updated the drivers, it used to happen never during the morning, occaisonally in the afternoon and constantly in the evening. The microwave isn't being used. What is a DECT phone? We use two walkabout/wireless phones, but the phones get used more in the morning and afternoon than night so that doesn't fit. I think the new drivers made it worse, but i'll see in the morning.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by punky

The houses are detached, and i'd say a good 30' apart. That said i'm still picking up another wireless network. I can't really find anything about it, but could running two networks side-by-side like that punt each other off? I don't know if we are running on the same channel even. Don't we just get the names by that name broadcast thingy (can't rememeber what it is called), regardless of channel?

About the timing, before I updated the drivers, it used to happen never during the morning, occaisonally in the afternoon and constantly in the evening. The microwave isn't being used. What is a DECT phone? We use two walkabout/wireless phones, but the phones get used more in the morning and afternoon than night so that doesn't fit. I think the new drivers made it worse, but i'll see in the morning.

Two ajoining networks can cause interference that will cause you to drop your connection.

DECT phones - Digital Cordless phones, rather than the older analoge cordless phones.

[punky]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Two ajoining networks can cause interference that will cause you to drop your connection.

I thought about that, because I noticed that when it was bad, the neighbour's wireless network came up. What can I do, change channel? Would changing from a 802.11b to a 802.11g help?

[SOSAGES]

that will just change the speed u can change the channel on its own and still remain at G if you like -

have u tested the network on B ?

[SMHarman]

b and g networks both work on the same frequency. You probably have interfering networks. Try yours on 1, 6, or 11, those chanels have no overlap and should be clear of interference.

You might need to bang on your neighbours door, get him to switch to 1 and you to 11, that should help. He will be having the same problems as you.

Changing to an "a" network will switch you to a different frequency, though it will necessitate new and more expensive hardware. Though it will give you a 55Mb network.

I think a chat with your neighbour to iron out the frequency problem will resolve it. If you are seing his SSID is his (or her) network secure? Perhaps you could switch yours off and leech of theirs! Save you CM bill!

[Matth]

If you can run the WiFi card software (instead of XP Zero Admin), you normally have the option to run a "site survey" - which should give you the name and channel of any other networks it can see.

Microwave ovens generally interfere with channel 9 (badly) with a spread to 8/10 and top a lesser degree, 7/11.

The channels also spread, so in the 1-11 channel space, the normal channel choice is 1, 6, 11, - compromise 4 channel plan is 1, 4, 7, 11

http://www.btinternet.com/~duncan.ja...avelength.html
If all equipment supports the ETSI (1-13) channels, then I'd push from 11 up to 13.

Video senders also share the same band, typically with 4 channels (A-D) across it.
A - CH1-3
B - CH5-7
C - CH9-11
D - CH12-14

[punky]

SOSAGES: I'm on B atm. But G seems very popular I wonder if the difference was more than just speed, but they are both on the same frequencey (2.4ghz) it seems.

It is running on Channel 11 atm. I would say the networks are interfering but the wireless adaptor on the desktop doesn't seem to be affected like the laptop one. Doesn't appear to be the microwave, ubt i'm considering dropping it down a real low channel.

I have tried to connect to his, to see if it works, but without much luck. he could be MAC address restricted like mine. I'm guessing he would still seem my SSID.

[ZrByte]

Punky: Ive generally found B to be much more stable than G, Though G is obviously a lot faster B seems to have a much stronger signal and as such can reach top speed even through several walls.
At the moment I only get 36mbps over my 54mbps network due to interference, I used to get the full 11mbps over my old B network, though my old B network did have positional antennas so that could be why.

I used to use the Netgear MA101 USB wireless B NIC's, I now use the D-link G520 PCI Wireless G NIC's. I often find that the Case of the PC interferes with the signal of the PCI cards, this wasnt a problem with the USB cards as they had a 1m cable to move them around on.

[GeoffW]

Are you broadcasting your SSID? I found I was getting dropouts when I was not broadcasting it.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by GeoffW

Are you broadcasting your SSID? I found I was getting dropouts when I was not broadcasting it.

Is that a router thing? my network is currently only ad-Hoc

[punky]

Originally Posted by GeoffW

Are you broadcasting your SSID? I found I was getting dropouts when I was not broadcasting it.

I think so. The network name comes up in the list of available networks.


Also my network is set to the access point type.

It really is the laptop that is suffering though, i'm going to have to switch the adaptors in it.

[ZrByte]

ok now it may be too soon to say but disabling the IEEE 802.1X seems to have worked on mine.
This is under the authentification tab in wireless network connection properties for the offending network card.

[SOSAGES]

they need to make this wirless networking business easy and stable

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by ZrByte

ok now it may be too soon to say but disabling the IEEE 802.1X seems to have worked on mine.
This is under the authentification tab in wireless network connection properties for the offending network card.

I'm suprised it was enabled.