Adrian Brentnall wrote:
HI Folks
The new 'net connection came complete with a wireless router -
so was playing with the idea of getting rid of the wired network
connections between the three (dell desktop) office pc's (winxp) and the
router and loacting the router at the master socket.


TNPS advice to people contemplating replacing a wired Ntework

Dont.

Bought a couple of 'Newlink' Wireless 11g 54Mbps PCI cards (CPC) &
installed them. Wouldn't install under Windows' 'found new hardware'
routine - had to use the manufacturer's own utility to install.

Anyway - they seem to be working - but one of the PCs is losing its
wireless connection intermittently, and both were in a 'very
unresponsive, mouse cursor not responding' sort of place, this morning.
-needed rebooting to get any life...


Welcome to the wide wonderful world of WiFi.

**** chipsets, even ****tier drivers and then Windows/...

ONLY reliable wireless machines I know of do NOT run windows. Macs are
actually good. Linux is pretty good IF you can find the drivers.




Looking at the diagnostics on the wireless cards - both are showing 100%
signal strength (can't be more than 10ft from the pc to the router!) -
and (only?) 60 - 80% link quality.
The detailed stats show (amongst other things) rx retry of 20% -
and a whole bundle of RX CRC errors..


usual crap. Probably got some other 2.4 gear running. Try a different
channel?




There's no troubleshooting info with the PCI cards - and no means of
contacting a tech support organisation - the instruction leaflet says
'contact your vendor' ..... (CPC! - yeah, right)

So - 'Dear Marge - is this normal ?'
If so - I think I'll just dump the wireless idea and go back to good old
cables!


best advice really.

I spent two- weeks trying to get a wireless enabled printer to talk to a
router 5 feet away. Gave up and ran a cable.

Tried 3 routers

NFG.



Thanks for any advice / experience
Adrian