baffling wireless problem

[nealric]

A few months after setting up a wlan for some neighbors, they have started to see some strange problems.

They call me saying that the interent dosent work over the lan, so I bring over my wardriving setup (laptop with netstumbler, cisco aironet card, external omni antenna)

It connects at very good signal strength so Im beggining to think nothings wrong. Go to the internet- It works, but its very slow- and for some reason it will not load the home page- only something you type in after.

My signal stays high, but the computer they want to connect to (with a linksys pci nic) Starts with good signal that fades to nothing- and then slowly comes back- kind of a wave.

Im kinda thinking along the lines of dying router- but I find it odd that the other nic would have trouble and mine none- maybe its just that my insanely powerful setup is so strong that its overcoming the bad router signal?

[palee72]

Did you try re-locating the computer? Did they, maybe, change furniture around and it's interferring with the signal?

Sorry, never delt with home wireless.. Just the 2.4ghz wireless we have here for our RF Scanners. If they move racking around, it can screw with the signal.


Also, could the Nic in the PC be dying, not just the router?

[WildArmSX]

By the sound of it the computer with the linksys card it getting a bad signal from the router. try moving the computer as close as possible to the router. If the linksys has antenna try replacing it with a better one. this will probly fis you problem. You could make your own pringle can antenna if you wish there are many sites about it out there.

[Smokeys]

Try changing channels

[drshivas]

Do they use 2.4Ghz cordless phones? Maybe their neighbors for that matter. I've read that can be a problem with wireless networks. Correct me if that is just a myth please.

[Beast Of Blight]

microwaves, cordless phones..

a whole plethora of items work in the 2.4Ghz frequency range.

Which is why they created 802.11a, which operates at 5Ghz. Barely anything uses that frequency.

This problem is not as big in the 'burbs as it is in more congested areas of metropolis, obviously, tho :)

[drshivas]

Right. So if you live in a townhouse/apartment/dorm, and your neighbor goes to heat some pizza in the microwave, it can "nuke" your wireless signal. Just one scenario. Thanks for confirming
Beast Of Blight.

[Cowboy Shane]

If your microwave is killing your wireless lan, it's time to replace the microwave. The seals that are supposed to keep everything in can deteriorate, and then everything leaks out.

[nealric]

im sure none of those are correct.

I have netstumbler installed on both computers and monitor the signal. My nice laptop/cisco card are in the same location as the desktop with the linksys card.

On the cisco card, the signal strength was sky high the entire time- yet it still showed problems.

I have already reset the router with no luck.

EDIT:
BTW, the slowness has nothing to do with the internet connection- the wired computer gets it quite well.

[Ddruid_SMP]

If you are using wep, turn it off.. Secondly send some large ping packets accross the wireless connection and look for dropped packets.. Thirdly, signal level wont help much if there is alot of inband interference.. What is the noise level at? What is your seperation? You can have a great signal but crappy noise and end up with only 1-2db seperation between the two and you will begin to get alot of dropped packets.

[nealric]

Nope, no WEP, all secuity turned off for now.

Netstumbler mesures signal to noise ratio and its fine. Plus I plunked the laptop down right next to it later and it still had the problems.

[Smokeys]

How are internal speeds? try transfering a file over the wireless link.

Have you eleminated the browser as the problem? (yeah even over 2 computers)

[AC Slater]

Have you tried hooking up a different wap or wireless router? The radio transmitter in the router may be on it's last legs and therefore is having trouble sending/receiving signals consistently.

[nealric]

yeah thats what I was thinkin slater...

Ive had a wireless linksys router and NIC die on me- so I do have questions about their reliablility./

I probalby wont be going over to check till tommorow, but I will try some of those suggestions out.

Thanks for the help.

[Wedo]

Yup, I agree with Slater. You'll have to start replacing one piece of equipment at a time until you find the culprit. First use a different WAP and then the wireless NIC on their rig.

BTW: It's not a myth about the cordless phones causing trouble with 2.4ghz WAP's. I set up a 2.4Ghz Dlink as my main router at home and even the wired computers would get tossed offline when the phone rang.

I have since dropped the WAP down one level to hand off of a non-wireless router and I only use it for wireless connections and leave the ports empty.

Your problem is completely different though as when a WAP gets interrupted by a cordless phone it just kicks the user's connection instead of tapering off. The disturbance might be brief, but it is either on or off, no signal degradation.

Good luck,
Wedo