Wireless

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Stolworthy
  • Start date Start date
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Chris Stolworthy

Anyone know of a good forum to post in? I did a search for wireless but
none of the topics looked like they were close to what I need.

So here is my problem:
I have a friend that has a SMC wireless router
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=63&site=c
(watch for wrap)

and she has 2 desktops upstairs that are connecting via a wireless USB
adapter.
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=268&site=c
(again, watch for wrap)

they are both having the same problem. What happens is that I will get them
on the network for what seems to be a random amount of time and then they
suddenly disconnect and cannot find the network for anywere from 1 -5
minutes. One thing I did notice was that a neighbor some where nearby was
running a wireless Airport network, so I changes the channel that it was
broadcasting on to channel 10, this seemed to help improve. The oddity here
is that the network strength is excellent, but the link quality is < 45%???
No lead paint either... Rebooting doesn't help. I have tried uninstalling
and reinstalling drivers, we have tried new adapters. We have tried
different PC's, we have tried Pc's with a fresh install of XP. I have
updated firmware revisions on all products. But still can't get this
solved. The only possible thing I can thing of is that perhaps the USB
emitters are too underpowered? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

-Chris
 
Anyone know of a good forum to post in? I did a search for wireless but
none of the topics looked like they were close to what I need.

So here is my problem:
I have a friend that has a SMC wireless router
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=63&site=c
(watch for wrap)

and she has 2 desktops upstairs that are connecting via a wireless USB
adapter.
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=268&site=c
(again, watch for wrap)

they are both having the same problem. What happens is that I will get them
on the network for what seems to be a random amount of time and then they
suddenly disconnect and cannot find the network for anywere from 1 -5
minutes. One thing I did notice was that a neighbor some where nearby was
running a wireless Airport network, so I changes the channel that it was
broadcasting on to channel 10, this seemed to help improve. The oddity here
is that the network strength is excellent, but the link quality is < 45%???
No lead paint either... Rebooting doesn't help. I have tried uninstalling
and reinstalling drivers, we have tried new adapters. We have tried
different PC's, we have tried Pc's with a fresh install of XP. I have
updated firmware revisions on all products. But still can't get this
solved. The only possible thing I can thing of is that perhaps the USB
emitters are too underpowered? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

-Chris
Click to expand...


Unplug the router and move it to (immediately adjacent to)
one of the systems. See if this improves the link quality.
Then progressively move it further away and see what the
range is. Of the (base vs USB adapters) it is more likely
the adapters are to blame for short range. If this is the
case, try another brand.
 
Anyone know of a good forum to post in? I did a search for wireless but
none of the topics looked like they were close to what I need.

So here is my problem:
I have a friend that has a SMC wireless router
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=63&site=c
(watch for wrap)

and she has 2 desktops upstairs that are connecting via a wireless USB
adapter.
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=268&site=c
(again, watch for wrap)

they are both having the same problem. What happens is that I will get them
on the network for what seems to be a random amount of time and then they
suddenly disconnect and cannot find the network for anywere from 1 -5
minutes. One thing I did notice was that a neighbor some where nearby was
running a wireless Airport network, so I changes the channel that it was
broadcasting on to channel 10, this seemed to help improve. The oddity here
is that the network strength is excellent, but the link quality is < 45%???
No lead paint either... Rebooting doesn't help. I have tried uninstalling
and reinstalling drivers, we have tried new adapters. We have tried
different PC's, we have tried Pc's with a fresh install of XP. I have
updated firmware revisions on all products. But still can't get this
solved. The only possible thing I can thing of is that perhaps the USB
emitters are too underpowered? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

-Chris
Click to expand...

I think you have to sacrifice some small animals to the gods and do a
ritual dance. Wireless can be really weird. I bought the much bashed
Belkins on sale ---- the router works great but as Kony said -- seems
a bit on the cheap side but then all them are drastically discounted
now and seem like that. You should see the netgear router a neighbor
bought. Well I posted the card also wasnt that bad. I was being
really easy in my rating. In actuality there are tons of posts
complaining almost about every brand. Some people dont have any
problems and others have massive problems. I noticed with the Belkin
cards ---- and other older cards they used the ADMTEK chip which had
lots of posts on flakiness. Frankly my old Belkin card was REALLY
flaky and did things like you describe. It was really erratic. I
finally gave up and bought their newer card which didnt use that chip
when it was on sale and it works like a dream vs the ADMTK chip card.
They dont sell that one anymore thank heavens. You can tell on the
belkin series since they use a pigtail and freestanding antenna with
it on the newer B cards (not the G which still has the antenna on the
card). You might want to check if it is a ADMTK based card. Some hae
said using the drivers from ADMTK got better results but I tried them
and they sucked too and I think they phased the chip out.

And its not just that. Compusa then had Netgear on sale --- a B router
and one of those USB little plugins instead of a card. I tried it on
my system worked fine though it seemed weaker than my Belkin card with
separate antenna and router. I tried it on one of his machines and the
machine went bonkers ! Constantly rebooted and went nuts. Looked it
up on the net and found a certain percentage of people do have such
problems with netgear and bash it while others dont. I tried the
updated drivers fix etc nope. I then tested it on two of my other PCs
and it worked perfect. So I decide to use ANOTHER PC he has which uses
the SAME ABIT board that I have on one system confident it would work.
NOPE ! It was even worse. Went completely nuts and started trashing
windows. It would reboot and when forced to detect the USB device
would install weird devices and then lock up. After a while it got so
bad I couldnt uninstall the drivers it installed and locked up so I
had to reinstall WIN XP ! I gave up after I did the - strip the PC
down to bare essentials thing and wasted two days . He returned it and
bought a Linksys card to go wth the netgear router and that was a
piece of cake.

Of course in your case there could be a simple solution - some
interference etc but Ive had some real pain in the ass weirdness with
wireless products . If you cant figure it out try the cards in your PC
and see if it works and you might even try another card especially if
they are new cards.

WIth my older belkin microwave ovens and cordless phones really killed
the signal and it wouldnt work after the signal died. I had to
reinstall the drivers over and over and over and over too and
sometimes it worked after i did and othertimes it didnt.
 
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