Wireless Networking

[surfymark]

This is one for all your computer bods. I have an ADSL modem with wireless router made by Belkin. I have had it for about a year and it has worked flawlessly with my Sony VAIO laptop with in-built wireless. I decided to put my desktop on wireless and bought a Belkin USB wireless adaptor thingy.

The first time I plugged it in it picked up the network, connected etc. I was able to browse the internet. But it has never shown better than Very Low signal and 11Mbps speed. It also drops the connection constantly. My Vaio sat next to the USB adaptor varies between Low to Very Good signal but always shows 54Mbps and never drops the connection. What could be wrong?

Would I be better off with a PCI Wireless adaptor (I am thinking of the low power output from the USB maybe this affects it) or is there some setting on the desktop to change the speed/reliablity of connection? (I am running XP Home on the desktop and XP Pro on the laptop)

I will try Belkin's telephone support but past experience tells me they are rubbish! Should I try a different brand? I bought the same brand as my router as I heard they may be incompatibility problems.

Cheers
Mark

[c c]

I’m guessing here but I think the problem is with the single from your router. Could it perhaps be moved to a different location?

I recently set myself up a wireless network using D-Link equipment.
The manual was not 100 percent but their technical support guy was first class.

I’ve also helped out a friend with his Belkin set-up.
The Belkin manual was good but their technical support is utter crap.

[surfymark]

Unfortunately with the router being my ADSL modem too, it cannot be moved as it is plugged into my telephone socket (also the only one in the house).

But the important thing is that my Vaio laptop's wireless card works fine form the same location!

[Prof Higgins]

How old is your desktop pc. If the Usb is the older 1.1 standard then this is your problems as maximum transfer rate was I think 12Mbps, Usb 2 would handle the full speed no problems. Personally went for a Pci jobbie, it was the first time I had opened up a pc to fit anything but must say it was a doddle and usually have a better aerial than the usb dongles.

Good luck.

Just an afterthought, I don't spose the Usb Dongle is 802.11b instead of 802.11g is it as that would also limit it to 11Mbps??

[surfymark]

My desktop is only about 18 months old so I am assuming that it us USB 2 (the processor is 2.6ghz).

The dongle definitely says 54Mbps all over the box so it is G.

[surfymark]

OK so rung up the helpline last night. They recommended that I install the latest drivers from the website. So I did this. I then rebooted and the adaptor would not work at all. Checking the device manager it seems that the driver is not installed. So I roll back to a previous driver and the adaptor starts working again.

However the Wireless Utility now will not run at all and I still get a very low speed but the signal quality varies from Good to Low depending (it seems) on where I am sitting in the room!!??

I am considering sending it back so if anyone has any last minute advice, please let me know!

cheers
Mark

[GreenV8S]

May be that one adaptor is more sensitive than the other to interference? Try changing the channel used by the WAP.

I remember hearing that the wireless manager in XP was very poor and needed to be restarted in some situations, if you're having trouble with an XP machine it would be worth investigating this.

If you have any firewalls at the client, disable them (should have a firewall built into the modem anyway).

[aldi]

Sorry if this is too obvious or whatever, but try twiddling the aerials - they emit / receive the strongest signal in certain directions, usually sideways.

Make sure the devices are set to the the same/right country setting.

Try different encryption settings if you're using them?

Personally, if possible I'd run a network cable for the desktop.

Hope this helps!
Neil

[munky]

I have the Belkin ADSL router and a Belkin PCMCIA card in the laptop. Check the settings for the USB dongle. Do you get a little green box in the system tray? If so, double click that, then in the box that pops up click on "general" tab then click "configure" and then the "advanced" tab, and in there on mine at least there is a setting called "IBSS 54g Mode", it's possible this is set to 802.11b. Also try changing the Power Output setting and of course the Rate setting. Mine's set to "Use Best Rate". I can force it to use 54 but find it can actually make it run slower, it only works well with a very good signal, like in the same room.

Are you using the wireless LAN only for the internet, or do you share data between PCs? If the former, then I wouldn't worry as 11MBs is higher than the ADSL rate anyway.

Apologies if you already know all this stuff!

[malman]

try turning off your belkin router and fire up the laptop and walk around your house (keep refreshing your network list). do you pickup any other wireless networks? are they on the same channel? if so change channel and see how it goes.


Had exactly this at a friends house. 3 other networks within range (unsecured haha) on the same channel killed a belkin usb wireless adaptor. It was fine once the channel was changed.

www.netstumbler.com is fun stuff if it works with your equipment.