hello All

I've just got round to installing my Belkin ADSL Modem/wireless router
to replace my USB connected BT ADSL modem and I'm having problems with
the wireless signal strength that I'm receiving on my notebook which
is equiped with a fairly old Belkin PCMCIA wireless network card -
802.11b

I used to use cable (NTL) in my old place and used to run just a
wireless belkin gateway router which the cable modem plugged into and
I had no problems with the signal strength at all. In fact I used to
regularly, in the summer work outside in the garden without any
problems. With my new kit the signal strength is only 50% max when my
notebook is in the same room as the router and often drops below
30%!!! If I walk outside the room my connection drops completely.
Obviously this is not what I want and I was expecting something better
than this

I have a wireless thermostat (yep good old CM67) and that has no
problems at all working from all rooms.

I have also tried all channels to no avail. The signal quality is
pretty high according to the WLAN monitor often hitting 100%. Does
anyone have any ideas why I am experiencing this and any ideas how I
can fix or improve the signal, could this be a problem at the BT end?

For attenuation I am seeing 59.0 downstream and 31.5 up if that helps

TIA

Cheers

Richard

Hi,
There are a number of things that can cause a drop in strength
including the weather. It is very important to ensure that access point
is in a central location. Do you have any electrical devices that could
be causing interference. Is there anyone else locally with a wireless
network.

The ADSL is totally seperate to the wlan.

I have worked with a number of wireless kits and I now only use D-Link
as I have found them to be the most reliable. Check that you have the
latest firmware and that the card is compatible.

Are you using XP with sp2 as it causes a lot of problems with WLANs if
they are configured manually (Properly)

Try resetting your access point.

(Just a bit of a dumb question, but you have switched off your old
router)

Heres a bit of a hack. Use your old router and connect your adsl router
into it. Switch of the access point.

HTH
Alex

Hi Alex

I have covered the usual suspects, interference, objects, resetting AP
etc before I posted this. unfortunately I dont have access to my old
router so cant try that and the card is compatible with the new router
as this is backward compatible with the 802.11b standard.

I did however just ring the Belkin Helpdesk in India, suprise surprise.
Apart from the women talking like a robot (and an indian one at that)
which was a little difficult to undestand, she gave me a potential
solution all within 10 minutes.

The potential solution was to change the wireless mode to Mixed LRS
from auto. Auto never seems to work well and should of thought about
changing this myself!

Anyway something to try.

Thanks for your response.

Cheers

Richard

In uk.d-i-y, Richard wrote:
I've just got round to installing my Belkin ADSL Modem/wireless router
to replace my USB connected BT ADSL modem and I'm having problems with
the wireless signal strength that I'm receiving on my notebook which
is equiped with a fairly old Belkin PCMCIA wireless network card -
802.11b

I've come to the conclusion that it sometimes just doesn't work. For
example I have a (Dell, Centrino) laptop whose 802.11b simply never
works in our kitchen. Changing channels and/or moving the (Belkin) base
station, even right next to the laptop, are futile. Other WiFi devices
work fine in the kitchen, it's just one laptop that refuses to. At one
stage I thought it must have been some strangely-targeted interference,
but I went to great lengths to eliminate interference (taking all
battery-operated RF devices to the bottom of the garden, turning off
mains at the fuse-box to everywhere but the detached garage and running
an extension lead from there to the base station) and it didn't make a
blind bit of difference. Interference from neighbours is unlikely to be
an issue because our nearest neighbour is over 100 metres away. There's
something about that laptop in that room.

FWIW WiFi reception is generally poor in this house, which has some
400mm-thick internal walls. I now have two base stations (one Belkin,
one unbranded) and I still get *very* patchy coverage.

--
Mike Barnes

FWIW WiFi reception is generally poor in this house, which has some
400mm-thick internal walls. I now have two base stations (one Belkin,
one unbranded) and I still get *very* patchy coverage.

Yes. I never seem to get anything like the advertised reception in my house.
I would be happy with 1/10th the published range. This is with only a thin
tongue and grooved wall in the way. Not even masonry.

Christian.

Probably way off target but there isn't a lamp post mounted cctv camera
in the road outside is there? A lot of these use 2.4Ghz to transmit
their pictures back and could cause blocking of your system, they run a
lot more power than you. Along similar lines there are plenty of 2.4Ghz
cameras around that people put in odd places for cctv use. I know a bit
about cctv but not wifi so this is only speculation.
When you have tried everything how about moving the kit to another
location all together, work maybe, and seeing how it behaves there?


--
Bill

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:41:11 +0000, Christian McArdle wrote:

FWIW WiFi reception is generally poor in this house, which has some
400mm-thick internal walls. I now have two base stations (one Belkin,
one unbranded) and I still get *very* patchy coverage.

Yes. I never seem to get anything like the advertised reception in my house.
I would be happy with 1/10th the published range. This is with only a thin
tongue and grooved wall in the way. Not even masonry.

Christian.

Sadly, marketing speak has become an acceptable technical description.

My 802.11b+g base station + card claim 54Mbit/sec but the most I can get
is 34, with station and client in the same room. At least this 34Mbit/sec
validates with the data throughput I actually get, allowing for protocol
overhead.

Same with the 802.11a types we've been testing at work - except they give
out totally after traversing 2-3 drywalls. Fine for open-plan coverage,
but generally a bit useless otherwise, which is why I go for 802.11g most
of the time.

Why nobody's ever been busted under trades descriptions I don't know :/

Tim

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:44:02 +0000, Tim S wrote:

Why nobody's ever been busted under trades descriptions I don't know :/

It's because of the clever use of the wording 'up to'!

--
Regards

Tony Hogarty
(Take out the garbage to reply)

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
. net...
FWIW WiFi reception is generally poor in this house, which has some
400mm-thick internal walls. I now have two base stations (one Belkin,
one unbranded) and I still get *very* patchy coverage.

Yes. I never seem to get anything like the advertised reception in my
house.
I would be happy with 1/10th the published range. This is with only a thin
tongue and grooved wall in the way. Not even masonry.

Christian.



Only going horizontal and vertical (IYSWIM) the longest jump in my house is
two rooms along (well three if you count the room it's in as it's the far
side) and one down, plus there's a bloody great masonry chimney in the way.
At that point the signal strength is low but it still works. The upstairs
rooms are thin plaster block construction (don't ask). Anywhere out of the
shadow of the chimney is good to excellent signal strength.

This is using

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=35&prid=601

and a Tosh (Centrino enabled) laptop.


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:52:11 +0000, Tony Hogarty wrote:

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:44:02 +0000, Tim S wrote:

Why nobody's ever been busted under trades descriptions I don't know :/

It's because of the clever use of the wording 'up to'!

All I can say is I'd sure like to meet the bloke who managed 54Mbit/sec on
exactly one occasion so that they could legitimately claim this.

Yeah - I know, it was in an EM shielded room in a lab somewhere and one of
the TX/RX units wasn't a PCMCIA card with a rubbish internal antenna.

Still should have their veggies chopped off for blatant misleading
advertising though.

Tim

wrote:

I have worked with a number of wireless kits and I now only use D-Link
as I have found them to be the most reliable.

Lol, don't say that around the router forums if you don't want to be
flamed VBG Especially the Di-624
Check that you have the latest firmware and that the card is compatible.
D-Link firmware seems to be the weak point, my router is fine with the
latest f/w, but was temperamental through the previous 5 releases.

I've thrown the matching D-Link 54g laptop card in the bin as being next
to useless though, the internal mini-pci Dell TrueMobile one I
subsequently bought is much better It's sitting at -30dBm signal and
-91dBm noise, 2 rooms away from the router
Are you using XP with sp2 as it causes a lot of problems with WLANs if
they are configured manually (Properly)
Alex
Each to their own of course, but I turn of the XP wireless management
service, because it's nothing but a royal pain. The Dell client works
much better on my Toshiba

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

What are the settings on your network card.

I'd recommend

Mode be set to Infrastructure
TXRate to auto
Powermode to continuous access

On a small network I recommend using static IPs instead of the DHCP
server.

On your access point check that the settings all match up
Set the Preamble to Short Preamble.

The wirless standards keep changing especially with regards to things
like encryption and it's a pain when you add new hardware to an
existing network because the new hardware.

My advice would be to get a new card that is designed to go with your
router. However before you fork out =A330-50 you may want to take your
router to another house, office or garden etc and test it there so you
can rule out interference at your home. If you have a laptop simply
take the router and laptop and plug them in somewhere else and using
your browser, type in the IP address of the router in to test your
connection. You don't need to worry about any other cables such as ADSL
because they are unrelated.


Good luck=20

alex

Tim S wrote:

All I can say is I'd sure like to meet the bloke who managed 54Mbit/sec on
exactly one occasion so that they could legitimately claim this.

Ah, but it's relatively easy to get 54Mbs overall transfer, the problem
is that around 30Mbs of that is network protocol overheads, so the
usable transfer even in ideal conditions is only around 20Mbs

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

"Tim S" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:52:11 +0000, Tony Hogarty wrote:

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:44:02 +0000, Tim S wrote:

Why nobody's ever been busted under trades descriptions I don't know :/

It's because of the clever use of the wording 'up to'!

All I can say is I'd sure like to meet the bloke who managed 54Mbit/sec on
exactly one occasion so that they could legitimately claim this.


That'll be me then - 54Mbit with wireless router downstairs, laptop
upstairs.

3Com 11g/b wireless router, IBM Thinkpad with built in 11b/g adapter.

"Richard" wrote in message
m...
hello All



I have a wireless thermostat (yep good old CM67) and that has no
problems at all working from all rooms.

Have you ruled out interference from the CM67 ?

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 18:01:08 +0000, Andy wrote:


"Tim S" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:52:11 +0000, Tony Hogarty wrote:

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:44:02 +0000, Tim S wrote:

Why nobody's ever been busted under trades descriptions I don't know :/

It's because of the clever use of the wording 'up to'!

All I can say is I'd sure like to meet the bloke who managed 54Mbit/sec on
exactly one occasion so that they could legitimately claim this.


That'll be me then - 54Mbit with wireless router downstairs, laptop
upstairs.

3Com 11g/b wireless router, IBM Thinkpad with built in 11b/g adapter.

Was that measurable throughput (with allowances for overhead) or just what
the Windows driver reported - only some of the Windows drivers are known
to lie a little.

We've never managed to get near that where I work, despite a variety of
"pro-quality" base stations and a wide variety of cards on the client.

Tim

Andy wrote:
"Richard" wrote in message
m...
hello All



I have a wireless thermostat (yep good old CM67) and that has no
problems at all working from all rooms.

Have you ruled out interference from the CM67 ?

Yes I have, I have also now reached a point in life where I no longer
take it around with me everywhere!

I dont have any CCTV cameras around either. I've tried the LRS setting
as Indian robot advised and still not much success. In fact it is the
same, although it is better than yesterday and I can get access in my
kitchen which is directly below the wireless kit (Lathe and plaster
ceiling) and I can get a signal in the room next door (solid brick). I
cant however get a signal anywhere else! The lounge is really where I
want it and outside. I'm going to pop of to Currys now to get a 54g
card to see if that makes any difference.

Thanks all for all your feedback

Richard

wrote:


........................................... I can get access in my
kitchen which is directly below the wireless kit.....

Stupid as this may sound... and may in fact be... have you tried
mounting the base station upside down!? It's just possible the antenna
pushes out more signal up-and-sideways than down... Ignore this
suggestion if you've tried already; otherwise, try to find some way of
suspending it so the tip of the antenna isn't resting on a solid surface
(well, this *is* uk.d-i-y after all).

Radio is voodoo - and the shorter the wavelength, the more blood and
chickens you need!

Needless to say couldn't find what I wanted anywhere!

Just tried suspending it upside down no joy. It's weird as soon as I
walk out of the room 20ft and into my bedroom the signal dies
completely, not impressed. Im thinking now its just purely down to the
makeup of the building although a majority of the upstairs walls are
lathe and plaster which I thought radio would deal with easily. My
other place which was mainly dry lined had no problems.

I will make another attempt to get a 802.11g card tommorow and try
again, failing that I guess I'll have to wire in somekind of repeater.
I'm not even convinced that this is going to work very well either.

Do I just need a wireless access point and are these actually wireless
devices or will I need to cable this into my modem/router?

TIA

Cheers

Richard

Tim S wrote:

All I can say is I'd sure like to meet the bloke who managed 54Mbit/sec on
exactly one occasion so that they could legitimately claim this.

Well......
I have on PC hooked up to the office/shop network on the netgear
router/firewall/WIreless thingy and it is always conected at somewhere
between 96 & 108 Mbps.

I should however say it is only 8' away though.

:¬))

wrote:


Do I just need a wireless access point and are these actually wireless
devices or will I need to cable this into my modem/router?

A wireless access point has an Ethernet port, through which it attaches
to the fixed (wired) Ethernet. It bridges wireless signals in range -
passing frames to and from those devices and devices attached to its
Ethernet port.

So yes, it needs wiring in to one of your modem/router's Ethernet ports;
and therefore you may find it just as easy to move the box you have -
which AsIUnderstandIt has both an ADSL port for your phone line and
wireless capability (and I'm guessing one or more wired Ethernet ports
too). If you're just experimenting with a better location for it, you
can run a gert big long RJ11 extension - they're cheap as chips - while
shifting the Belkin about the place, and worry about neatening up the
cable route once you know it's worth putting the ADSL-wireless box
halfway up the lounge wall, above the kitchen cupboard, or wherever.
(Since the ADSL signal's travelled several - mayhap tens - of thousands
of feet between the exchange and your house, an extra 50 foot of
extension cable isn't going to make a massive difference...)

Did anyone mention Netstumbler (I just caught this thread) to see what
else is about?

FWIW I have a 1897 solid brick / lath and plaster house and with a
variety of WiFi PCMCIA cards and USB devices get a reasonable signal
around all of the house with the 3 WiFi devices (1 Netgear AP (b) and
Q-Tec (g) and Belkin (g) WiFi routers) I have used so far.

I've even taken the laptop over the road and used it an my friends
kitchen, 50m plus two windows?

All the best ..

T i m

Stefek Zaba wrote:
wrote:


Do I just need a wireless access point and are these actually
wireless
devices or will I need to cable this into my modem/router?

A wireless access point has an Ethernet port, through which it
attaches
to the fixed (wired) Ethernet. It bridges wireless signals in range -

passing frames to and from those devices and devices attached to its
Ethernet port.

So yes, it needs wiring in to one of your modem/router's Ethernet
ports;
and therefore you may find it just as easy to move the box you have -

which AsIUnderstandIt has both an ADSL port for your phone line and
wireless capability (and I'm guessing one or more wired Ethernet
ports
too). If you're just experimenting with a better location for it, you

can run a gert big long RJ11 extension - they're cheap as chips -
while
shifting the Belkin about the place, and worry about neatening up the

cable route once you know it's worth putting the ADSL-wireless box
halfway up the lounge wall, above the kitchen cupboard, or wherever.
(Since the ADSL signal's travelled several - mayhap tens - of
thousands
of feet between the exchange and your house, an extra 50 foot of
extension cable isn't going to make a massive difference...)

Great, more cables to hide, that was the whole point of wireless!

I'll try a new card in my laptop first and then experiment with a new
location for the modem/router, only problem here is that I wanted my
home PC to be wired into the ethernet ports as opposed to wireless,
this means I will have to get a wireless card for my PC too, Uggggggg.

Thanks for the advice Stefek.

Cheers

Richard

Hi Tim

Great rub it in why dont you!

My house was built on Queen Victorias diamond jubilee which too is in
1897, it is 2 cottages converted into 1, 5 bedrooms but this
realisticly shouldn't be a problem I thought and it sounds like the
construction is the same as yours.

So, based on what your saying do you think I could possibly have a duff
ADSL modem/router? I already mentioned I was going to get a new 802.11g
PCMCIA card which will hopefully rule that out and as Stefek suggested
will experiment with placement of AP by getting an RJ11 extension. I
may just take the lot back and get it xchanged, you know what PC World
are like for re-flogging faulty returns.

I downloaded Netstumbler and it detected my AP OK and nothing else so I
guess thats another possible out of the equation.

Cheers

Richard

wrote:
Stefek Zaba wrote:
wrote:


Do I just need a wireless access point and are these actually
wireless
devices or will I need to cable this into my modem/router?

A wireless access point has an Ethernet port, through which it
attaches
to the fixed (wired) Ethernet. It bridges wireless signals in range
-

passing frames to and from those devices and devices attached to
its
Ethernet port.

So yes, it needs wiring in to one of your modem/router's Ethernet
ports;
and therefore you may find it just as easy to move the box you have
-

which AsIUnderstandIt has both an ADSL port for your phone line and
wireless capability (and I'm guessing one or more wired Ethernet
ports
too). If you're just experimenting with a better location for it,
you

can run a gert big long RJ11 extension - they're cheap as chips -
while
shifting the Belkin about the place, and worry about neatening up
the

cable route once you know it's worth putting the ADSL-wireless box
halfway up the lounge wall, above the kitchen cupboard, or
wherever.
(Since the ADSL signal's travelled several - mayhap tens - of
thousands
of feet between the exchange and your house, an extra 50 foot of
extension cable isn't going to make a massive difference...)

Great, more cables to hide, that was the whole point of wireless!

I'll try a new card in my laptop first and then experiment with a new
location for the modem/router, only problem here is that I wanted my
home PC to be wired into the ethernet ports as opposed to wireless,
this means I will have to get a wireless card for my PC too,
Uggggggg.

Thanks for the advice Stefek.

Cheers

Richard

Hooraahhhhhh

Just bought myself a BT Voyager PCMCIA 802.11g card and I'm succesfully
running WIFI from my front room and bedroom. Every room in the house
can now get a signal without drop outs. The signal in the front room is
classed as very low by the software but It's still very much usable and
doesn't drop out and that's with OOTB settings. I'll have a further
play with different channels to see if I can get a further improvement.

Problem solved, I would like to of seen what a Belkin 802.11g card
would of done but they were out of stock.

Thanks everyone for your input on this subject.

Cheers

Richard

wrote:
wrote:
Stefek Zaba wrote:
wrote:


Do I just need a wireless access point and are these actually
wireless
devices or will I need to cable this into my modem/router?

A wireless access point has an Ethernet port, through which it
attaches
to the fixed (wired) Ethernet. It bridges wireless signals in
range
-

passing frames to and from those devices and devices attached to
its
Ethernet port.

So yes, it needs wiring in to one of your modem/router's Ethernet
ports;
and therefore you may find it just as easy to move the box you
have
-

which AsIUnderstandIt has both an ADSL port for your phone line
and
wireless capability (and I'm guessing one or more wired Ethernet
ports
too). If you're just experimenting with a better location for it,
you

can run a gert big long RJ11 extension - they're cheap as chips -
while
shifting the Belkin about the place, and worry about neatening up
the

cable route once you know it's worth putting the ADSL-wireless
box
halfway up the lounge wall, above the kitchen cupboard, or
wherever.
(Since the ADSL signal's travelled several - mayhap tens - of
thousands
of feet between the exchange and your house, an extra 50 foot of
extension cable isn't going to make a massive difference...)

Great, more cables to hide, that was the whole point of wireless!

I'll try a new card in my laptop first and then experiment with a
new
location for the modem/router, only problem here is that I wanted
my
home PC to be wired into the ethernet ports as opposed to wireless,
this means I will have to get a wireless card for my PC too,
Uggggggg.

Thanks for the advice Stefek.

Cheers

Richard

Hooraahhhhhh

Just bought myself a BT Voyager PCMCIA 802.11g card and I'm
succesfully
running WIFI from my front room and bedroom. Every room in the house
can now get a signal without drop outs. The signal in the front room
is
classed as very low by the software but It's still very much usable
and
doesn't drop out and that's with OOTB settings. I'll have a further
play with different channels to see if I can get a further
improvement.

Problem solved, I would like to of seen what a Belkin 802.11g card
would of done but they were out of stock.

Thanks everyone for your input on this subject.

Cheers

Richard

In the garden by the hot tub oh yeah!

On 18 Feb 2005 12:23:33 -0800, a particular chimpanzee named
randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

Im thinking now its just purely down to the
makeup of the building although a majority of the upstairs walls are
lathe and plaster which I thought radio would deal with easily.

Lath & plaster, not foil-backed plasterboard?
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have you strayed?"