Routers-wireless

[Hrant]

Well, I am back at it again. While trying to help set up a wireless network for a friend using my existing D-Link router and wireless PCI (DI and DWL 520 and DI 624 ..... which worked fine for a year but at best only 25% signal strength), it turns out that I have failed to accomplish both now. I can't even get my old system to run the same way it used to run. It seems at times it will pick a week signal and yet at other times it will not unless I am about 15 feet away from the router and in direct line!

Purchased a Netgear router/PCI and the same scenario all over again re reception. For a while we thought it would the hardware, but I don't think so since now with two brands the same scenario.

Played with all the channel set ups, even disabled the WEP. A few channels seem to be more responsive but albeit at best with only temperamental 5% signal strength (transfer speed rate of only 1-2 Mps!). This even in the old locations!

So my question is this, are there any brands that are better than others? I have not tried Lynksis which offers a longer antenna. My focus is residential use. I understand that they sell transmission boosters now ......... so if the PCI wireless card is supposed to give the maximum reception strength, what are all those using wireless USB cards getting in signal strength? TIA.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Sounds like you have some kind of interference problem going on or your wireless cards suck. Possible 24x7 usage of 2.4 Ghz cordless phones? I have that DI-624 and the router is a piece of junk as far as the encryption goes, but I get good signal throughout the house and even outside. It doesn't have good compatibility with certain wireless adapters I've discovered.

For more distance, you should look at the MIMO routers, they go a lot further. Here is a link to just one of the many MIMO routers you can buy.

 

[smooth]

I've tried a few different PCI wireless cards and they were all terrible! I assumed they would work better since they were PCI, but obviously not the case. Antenna orientation appears to make a difference too. I experienced the same things you mentioned with the PCI cards I used.
I went with USB network adapters instead (Linksys WUSB11 or WUSB54) and that solved the problems. Where the PCI card got little to no signal strength, the USB NAs get good to very good signal strenth.

 

[vtecNSX1]

If you want to get new hardware i suggest the belkin pre n. It has way more range than a normal wireless b/g router. My room is disconnected from the house and we used to have a normal wireless router and my signal strength was always either low or very low. With the belkin it is now almost always good or very good. The only problem is the hardware is a bit more expensive and you also have to get the pre n pci cards if you want the full benefit of the router.

 

[whealy]

I realize that your a having trouble with these, but I have always foudn the Netgear products to be the most reliable, best signal strength and easiest to use.

 

[Mike Hughes]

Netgear and Linksys make consumer products. They are not reliable and do not perform anywhere near their advertised capacities. Pick up one of these boxes and tap on it with your finger. It's a hollow empty shell with a few microchips running lowest-common-denominator embedded software that has a tendency to crash.

If you are unsatisfied with consumer-level stuff I suggest you buy some Cisco Aironet equipment w/ Lucent range extending antennas... otherwise.. that's the way it is. Can't really expect more for 50 bucks. Acura dealerships charge more for an oil change!

 

[nsxtasy]

I've tried a few different PCI wireless cards and they were all terrible! I assumed they would work better since they were PCI, but obviously not the case. Antenna orientation appears to make a difference too. I experienced the same things you mentioned with the PCI cards I used.
I went with USB network adapters instead (Linksys WUSB11 or WUSB54) and that solved the problems. Where the PCI card got little to no signal strength, the USB NAs get good to very good signal strenth.

Well, I agree that you need to try replacing the PCI wireless card(s) you're using, just like you have already tried replacing the router, because the problem can be in the card(s) (or in the router, or with any sources of interference, as MR mentioned). However, based on my experience, the USB adapters don't give any better reception than wireless cards.

You may recall that I had the exact same problem, as reported in this topic, which is worth reading through for all the troubleshooting tips many folks here provided. In my case, the problem was eventually isolated to a defective Linksys router that looked like it was working fine, but wasn't. I replaced it at that time with an AT&T brand router (the cheapest one I could find) and it's been working fine ever since. I also switched from the Linksys USB network adapter to a PCI wireless card (also AT&T, if I recall correctly). It still has that odd message on bootup, but other than that, everything's been working fine for the past 18 months.

My impression is that these components are just not all that reliable. Some don't work right out of the box, some go bad over a relatively short period. (I see that Mike said much the same thing while I was typing this post.)

Swapping for a new router was a good idea. I would do the same with the wireless card, or try a USB network adapter; either way will check to see if the problem is with your current wireless card.

 

[akira3d]

I have heard horror stories, but my Linksys collection (router, booster, PCI card, wireless ethernet bridge) have performed pretty decently for more than two years. I did need to update the firmware on the router and wireless ethernet bridge when I added the bridge, and I can't stream videos encoded at over 1mbps over wi-fi (802.11b) likely due to packet loss, but I'm getting decent enough performance for browsing the web, playing games, transferring files, etc.

 

[Hrant]

Yesterday D-Link decided to send me a new wireless PCI card as they determined that to be the problem - this after 6 phone calls and 4 days of attempting to solve this. But now I think the router may be the issue.

I replaced the D-Link router with the Netgear and now I have up to 28-34% relatively steady signal strength with the same old D-Link wireless PCI card! This time, I experimented in the location where this set up was running for a year (all D-Link components) albeit not at the end of the house as posted above. So the D-Link router appears to be the issue. While the old D-Link wireless card recognizes the signal source from the new Netgear router, it is not connecting/communicating with the router to access the Internet!

My next task is to try the Netgear wireless PCI card and see if that works. Or am I missing something in the settings between the wireless PCI card and the router? TIA.

 

[bsudiro]

Have you tried using an external antenna to the Netgear router ??
I've used an external antenna to my router and it helped with the signal strength.
Price-wise, it's about $20-30 .. so if the PCI card is about the same price .. then you can try either way ..

Gus

 

[Hrant]

Update. After installing both a new D-Link router and wireless PCI card pursuant to warranty (looks like they have warranty for 3 years), the connections are working and the Tx Rate is about 45-56 Mbps with signal strength in the range of good (about 35-48%); packet transfer rate in the range of 1700-1800 and receiving in the range of 1100.

The initial boot up was problematic as the computer with the PCI card kept freezing with DOS commends that a new hardware was installed but refused to run in any mode - until I removed the PCI and reinstalled it a few times!

My assessment is this. Once it is working, leave it alone! They appear to be too temperamental to be removed and tested on other computers and reinstalled back to their original setting .... We will see how long this last.

As for tech support, that is a totally different thread ....... I am absolutely certain that they were on a timed clock. Once their allotted time exceeded, we got curiously disconnected ...... :frown: