Wireless problems *sigh*

V4NT0M

V4NT0M

V4NT0M

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Joined
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Hey guys, I know a lot of the time wireless can be a bit hit and miss, wondering if anyone has got any tips for me that I may have missed... Currently have a laptop connected to a wireless access point, wired I get perfectly fine net speed (11-12mbps) when I go over to wireless it is up and down like a yo yo between 4-9mbps... Signal strength is excellent and I have tried every channel under the sun...

Have yet to test another wireless device to see if it may be the wireless in my laptop, but it seems a bit weird to me that even with interference 5-9mbps from a 54mbps connection is pretty horrible.
 
well you effectivly loose 1/2 your bandwidth just from broadcasts etc from the laptop, then you have to take into abbout the thickness of all the walls your going through and quality of the access point your using, including which type of aerial is on it.

I would purcahse another wireless access point and use it as a wireless repeater, place is somewhere in another room or whereever you think is suited.
 
Wireless is over-rated, but i see your point. Another access point would probably be the only option but from the sounds of it you are pretty close to the current AP anyway if you are hooking up via a wire.

Might be worth checking out netstumbler to see the actual quality of the link, do you have any cordless phones or anything near the AP which is transmitting and may be causing interference?

If its only you using the wireless you could mashup a tin foil signal booster: http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

:D
 
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Gaz1988 said:
I would purcahse another wireless access point and use it as a wireless repeater, place is somewhere in another room or whereever you think is suited.
Click to expand...

Repeating the wireless signal cuts the available bandwidth in half straight away.

My suggestion would be to try connecting without any encryption enabled to see if either your access point or PC is struggling with the load. If not that, aim the wireless devices better. And finally try new wireless hardware.
 
From memory the router is a linksys WAG54GS, now you mention it there is a cordless phone quite close, thats something I really forgot about when thinking wireless, theres also a wireless mouse around, aswell as headset for my xbox... Not sure if that would be interfering too. I have had the laptop right next to it getting crappy speeds, but in general its in a different room.

I think I'll have to try it somewhere else and see if I can get a better signal when Its further away from the phone and the xbox... Only problem with that is that the pc in the room it is currently in would have to go wireless and be slow :(

I'll give netstumbler a go, thanks.
 
Repeating the wireless signal cuts the available bandwidth in half straight away.
Click to expand...

emmm no it doesnt. so the more repeaters you add the slower ** network will go? .....
 
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Sp00n said:
No, no it doesnt.
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I'm afraid it does.

A radio is only half-duplex, in that it can send or receive. It can't do both at the same time.

As the wireless access point is sending data the repeater has to receive it, buffer it, then send it. That works out as a 50% reduction in efficiency/bandwidth.
 
in theory perhaps, but there are wireless routers capable of full duplex. if he is only getting 5-10mbps to his laptop then its due to physical objects in the way or distance from the main AP, a wireless repeater would pick up and regenerate the signal and therefore strenghen the signal in that particalar area, probably not providing him with full speed but better than what he was getting before.

you cant say that "Repeating the wireless signal cuts the available bandwidth in half straight away" as that would kinda defeat the point in them.
 
I can say it, because that's how the majority of them work. Unless you have two independant radios acting in one repeater, you are only ever going to get half-duplex operation.

And yes he may well get better performance with a repeater, but it's unlikely, given that the real-world throughput on 802.11g is around 25mbps tops, so he'd be left with 12.5mbps after the repeater.
 
If you want a quick hack, get two 54G access points, wire them together with a cross-over cable, and you have a full-duplex repeater. : )
 
a wireless repeater will not take up 50% of the bandwidth lol, end of. being half-duplux will maybe affect the throughput of the repeater, but not the total available bandwidth from the AP.
 
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