Wireless network

[Alastair]

Hi All,

Brain picking session again!!!

Have just set up broadband access and home wireless network again, after moving house, and changing ISP. I won't even go there about trying to take the Optus hardware onto iinet, but suffice to say that lots of web searching, late nights and tearing of hair finally succeeded.

BUT

I run 3 machines to the router.
1 Aldi desktop ~ 4years old,
2 Dell laptop ~2 years old
3 Cobbled together old IBM retread for no.2 son.

At the old place router sat on top of (1), and 2 & 3 were some rooms away, (say 20m). Had the usual occasional glitches and "limited or no......." from time to time, but fixed by rebooting modem and router.

In new place, 2 & 3 about same distance, (15m) but (1) now ~ 30m from router. (2 & 3) have good signal connectivity, with no apparent problems, but (1) a different tune, and a bit puzzling. When I achieved the original setup, (admittedly about 2.00 am) connection was good, and net access and email fine, good DSL2+ speed. Next evening, while surfing, suddenly lost link, and found the dreaded "limited or no......" yada yada.

Have been through all the dance, (repair, dis- enable, remove and reconfigure w/l connection, rerun connection wizard, reboot modem and router and pc, etc. etc.) with no success. Occasionally have reached "low" and had glimpses of the web, but doesn't last. At the same time, (2 & 3) are working fine with "excellent" conn.

Does this sound like distance? If so why did I get "Excellent" the first night? Or is it with the wireless card? Could this be going belly up, or the driver/firmware be corrupted? Checking under System says the device is working normally, and there is no indications of driver issues in those screens.

I am going to buy a 25m ethernet cable to connect no.2's xbox, so I will be able to take the router close to the machine to test, and see if better.

Failing all, should I get a new wireless card?

Any help, opinions or 'correcting the old phart' welcomed,

regards

[Cliff Rogers]

The hint here may be ' after moving house'
Between the time of the good connection & the crook connection, did you unpack something else electronic/electrical & connect it up & turn it on?
Also look for other house hold items with a lot of metal that may have been 'moved in/around' in the settling in process.

[Alastair]

Thanks Cliff,

Did think about that, and AFAICT nothing changed.

Only thing I noticed was a "hung" slow connect to a new website. Is there malware which could corrupt wireless cards?

Dumb question, but that's me!

regards

[blackhole]

do a search on wireless range extender


You can get instructions to make a parabolic antenna to extend the range of your wireless network, basicly it is alfoil gluded to cardboard and bent into a curve. Or you can use a wok strainer.

[Pusser]

The time of day and atmoshperic conditions can also impact on wireless signals if your conditions are otherswise marginal. My wireless router is upstairs. When working downstairs at the other end of the house I have a few walls and an RSJ to contend with. Signal strength varies from excellent to good with the occassional weak thrown in. Occassionally I have no signal. It seems to take more to log onto my secure network than to stay connected. Sometimes when I cannot log on, taking the lap top closer gets me logged on then I ccan go back to where I was and continue with "good" reception. Go figure!?

[barebrain]

I had a somewhat similar problem of connected one day and not the next. In the end I traced it down to a poor phone cable between the wall and the adsl modem. as Far as wireless coverage is concerned, I think it must partly depend on the make of the wireless base station. I use a Netgear and found when taking my notebook next door, > 50metres, I was still picking up an adequate signal. Even through external walls with that aluminium foil cladding on them.

[Chris Parks]

RF and computers, a wonderful combination. The computer industry know B****r All about RF but won't admit it. I know BA and will, but having played with a wireless network for many years here goes.

Some computers have inherently weak signals for no reason other than they were not made properly I guess. I have a Toshiba that can be 1 metre from the router and it has a marginal signal to the point it won't work at times.

If the computer has an external antenna it may need moving, eg from horizontal to vertical or somewhere in between. Antennas are critical in this regard. usually vertical is correct but don't bet on it.

The position of the router antenna may also need looking at.

Anything in the 2.4 Gigahertz band such as a cordless phone can have an effect, though if two are working this is unlikely.

Walls can have an effect for different reasons. Metal reinforcement, wires etc.

Some people like to amplify the signal, this has dangers as it could make the signal more accessible to others who may like to use your internet signal. Just because you have a "secure" network means nothing as it can be broken into fairly easily. Also amplifying the signal from the router does not amplify it to the router from your computer. It is a two way street and that gets forgotten (or is unknown) by the salesman trying to sell a fancy antenna.

Change the channel being broadcast from the router. The help file will describe how. The only thing you must use is an ethernet cable any time you modify the router settings. If you lost the signal halfway through changing things you would have real problems, possibly needing a new router, though most are hard resettable if something major goes wrong.

Sometimes there is no easy answer and you either have to move the computer or use an ethernet cable, I use a mixture of both. I have a very long cable and use it for large file transfers as they take way too long using wireless and the Toshiba has to use a cable as it is useless without it. I also have a desktop that needs a cable due to its location. To illustrate a point my Dell laptop will run OK sitting next to that desktop due to to having a better wireless transmitter/receiver but the desktop needs a cable.

One day the computer industry is going to get their act together and fix all this stuff.

[Barry_White]

There is nothing like a good old cat5 hard wired net work. Very reliable. I've wired my house run the wires through the roof and inside the walls with cat5 sockets on the wall. I even ran one to the lounge room so I can connect the internet to my home made projector.

I think I would have problems with a wireless network with ny steel framed house.

[Chris Parks]

Bazza, I got a quote to hardwire my house when it was being built and a wireless network was a lot cheaper by a long shot. Laptops are becoming the normal thing these days, I rarely use my desktop, the portability of the laptop combined with the wireless network gives a flexibility that can't be ignored. I use my laptop in the garage, in fact anywhere I feel the need. I take your point though, they do have problems and it would be interesting to see how one performed in a steel framed house.

[Barry_White]

Bazza, I got a quote to hardwire my house when it was being built and a wireless network was a lot cheaper by a long shot. Laptops are becoming the normal thing these days, I rarely use my desktop, the portability of the laptop combined with the wireless network gives a flexibility that can't be ignored. I use my laptop in the garage, in fact anywhere I feel the need. I take your point though, they do have problems and it would be interesting to see how one performed in a steel framed house.

Chris I dare say if you had to pay someone to wire it up it would be more expensive but all I had to pay for was the cable and the fittings (although the cat5 sockets are expensive at $8 each) and I did all the cabling myself and fitted all the sockets on wall plates. I have the proper tools to do all the wiring. I've got 4 points so far and intend to add another four or five. I'm just running a mini 5 port D-Link hub that cost me about $40 about four years ago. I actually started this before wireless was becoming popular.

I'm running two old laptops and an old desktop so wireless wasn't an option anyway.

I've also wired my whole house (5 Bedrooms) in RG6 cable for TV etc. with eleven points in the house as well as one in the shed.

[malb]

Bazza, I have no problems with wireless networking in our steel framed house. Cable modem and Dlink WR in back bedroom, desktop hard wire beside, plus 2 shared printers. Laptop roams around house to 18m away with built in card and never below about 80% signal strength.

But cat5e/6 is nice and buckets faster for internal networking. Will be pulling 8 lines house to barn, and routing out to 40 outlets. Managed to pick up a job lot of 130 5e sockets on ebay for $80, so will probably wire the house as well.

[malb]

Alistair, Have never had hassles getting an Aldi laptop (3) or desktop (4) to lock and hold a signal in a wireless g setup, but old Toshiba laptop was not good in wireless b mode as it is a lower range specification.

b, g, and n standards operate on the 2.4GHz band in an area for consumer use. Wireless networking shares bandwidth with cordless phones, wireless Voip phones, bluetooth connections (originally 10m range but now open to 100m range) and other equipment.

It is quite conceivable that someone in the area has set up other 2.4GHz equipment since you initially got the system to work. This could interfere with the signal reaching your first computer. As a suggestion, get it to do a search for other networks in the area, or try moving the computer to the locations of the computers, and test from there using their monitor etc.

If the signal is not much better, then the wireless card is suspect and should be replaced. If there is a viable signal, then consider resetting the system with a different channel to avoid interferece.

[FXST01]

Have you tried changing wireless channels?

Download netstumbler and this program will search for available networks, then you should know if you and any neighbours are on the same channel

[Alastair]

Thanks to all for help and suggestions.

Problem was that I could make no correlation with the good and poor connection, with anything happening or changing.

HOWEVER

Problem solved (red face)

Purchased 20m ethernet cable, to tie in sons Xbox, as NOT paying $170 for the wireless bit. Used that to relocate router to close to problem machine.

Voila! problem fixed, and all other PC's reception unaffected, so it is the 4 year old wireless card in that machine which is below spec on reception.

Then the red face bit. In the course of trumpeting about my skill and accomplishment, my 14 yr old says "well why don't you use this phone point" , pointing to the one behind the curtain next to the kitchen.

When we moved in, searched and found only 1, at furthest point in house. Asked everyone in family, and bellyached at length at how it complicated everything, and no-one thought to tell me, because "...they thought I knew about it!". Grrrr.

Anyway, modem and router relocated to centre of house, and all the iddle widdle liddle PC's are now happy. And I have a 20m cable which I don't really need.

regards

[FXST01]

:2tsup:good to hear that you had a happy ending to this story:doh: