Associate
- Joined
- 8 Oct 2006
- Posts
- 322
I am at my wits end trying to sort out our wireless network.
Our router is in the hall. Fortunately my bedroom's devices are connected to it via an ethernet hub, so no drama - but we have a brand new, top-of-the-range Dell upstairs which struggles to get a signal.
We upgraded first from our BT Homehub 1.5 to a Netgear DGND3300, which was awful. Even worse reception!
Today a Linksys WAG320N arrived. After setup there was no reception for a while, then suddenly it seemed to start working. Once I switched to a narrow (20Mhz) network gap we got good reception upstairs - as testified by two laptops and my phone. I also ran a wifi scanner to check and our neighbours are on bands 1-6, whilst we are on 11 - so all good.
However, the Dell could not even see the router. I heard its wireless card was weak, so installed a brand new 'high performance' Linksys networking card.
It can now see the network, but with WPA2-Personal the Dell has 0 bars reception and, therefore, seems likely to be prone to dropouts.
Curiously, switching to WPA-Personal improves the Dell's reception to 2 bars. I have switched repeatedly to check this anomaly.
However, when I try to connect the Dell on WPA-Personal, after filling in our network security key, it then opens a second, slightly smaller box asking again for our 'network security key' - and it is not accepted.
Both the laptops work fine with WPA-Personal and do not open a second box.
What can I do to improve things - and what could this second password be?!
Thank you!
Our router is in the hall. Fortunately my bedroom's devices are connected to it via an ethernet hub, so no drama - but we have a brand new, top-of-the-range Dell upstairs which struggles to get a signal.
We upgraded first from our BT Homehub 1.5 to a Netgear DGND3300, which was awful. Even worse reception!
Today a Linksys WAG320N arrived. After setup there was no reception for a while, then suddenly it seemed to start working. Once I switched to a narrow (20Mhz) network gap we got good reception upstairs - as testified by two laptops and my phone. I also ran a wifi scanner to check and our neighbours are on bands 1-6, whilst we are on 11 - so all good.
However, the Dell could not even see the router. I heard its wireless card was weak, so installed a brand new 'high performance' Linksys networking card.
It can now see the network, but with WPA2-Personal the Dell has 0 bars reception and, therefore, seems likely to be prone to dropouts.
Curiously, switching to WPA-Personal improves the Dell's reception to 2 bars. I have switched repeatedly to check this anomaly.
However, when I try to connect the Dell on WPA-Personal, after filling in our network security key, it then opens a second, slightly smaller box asking again for our 'network security key' - and it is not accepted.
Both the laptops work fine with WPA-Personal and do not open a second box.
What can I do to improve things - and what could this second password be?!
Thank you!