Dlink irratic

I have a DLink wireless router to connect my sons PC and I'm having a
problem maintaining a connection. Its really wierd, one minute XP reports I
have a connection and strong signal. Then I suddenly have no wireless
connection, then a few seconds later it comes back again with a good signal.
This cycles through every few seconds and often interruipts anything I'm
doing on the internet. The router isn't that far away and it didn't do this
until the last few weeks.

My fear is that my son may have changed some parameter (plays DoD and IMs
alot on line). Any suggestion would be most appreciated. Thanks in
advance.

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 16:41:10 GMT, "finbone" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a DLink wireless router to connect my sons PC and I'm having a
>problem maintaining a connection. Its really wierd, one minute XP reports I
>have a connection and strong signal. Then I suddenly have no wireless
>connection, then a few seconds later it comes back again with a good signal.
>This cycles through every few seconds and often interruipts anything I'm
>doing on the internet. The router isn't that far away and it didn't do this
>until the last few weeks.

Model number of the Dlink router?
Model number of the radio in your son's PC?
If son's PC is a laptop, make and model?

>My fear is that my son may have changed some parameter (plays DoD and IMs
>alot on line). Any suggestion would be most appreciated. Thanks in
>advance.

Well, lacking any better ideas, you might wanna play with the
performance parameters. By coincidence, I managed to create almost
exactly the same problem on my desktop this morning. My wireless
router is a Linksys BEFW11S4 802.11b router. For a client, I'm
testing a DLink DWL-900AP+ v1 running in client mode. Everything was
flashed to the latest greatest firmware, reset to defaults, and
configured from scratch. I was getting erratic downloads, frequent
disconnects, and general crummy performance over a distance of about 2
feet.

The DLW-900AP+ v1 has a pre-802.11g proprietary 22mbit/sec mode. The
Linksys does not. With the radios that close, the DWL-900AP+
concluded that the S/N (signal to noise) ratio was so wonderful, that
it would try to use this 22mbits/sec mode. Too bad the Linksys
doesn't have a clue what to do with it. So, the DWL-900AP+ just kept
pounding on the Linksys offering 22mbits/sec and disconnecting when it
failed.

I initially solved the problem by simply reducing the signal (removing
the antennas) which dropped the S/N ratio down to where the DWL-900AP+
would stop trying to connect at 22mbits/sec. That fixed the
disconnects and flakey performance. I then dived into the
"performance" settings on the DWL-900AP+ and disarmed the monster
permanently.

No clue if this is your problem, but it's worth trying to slow down
your wireless connection in an attempt to trade reliability for
marketing hyped speed.

If this doesn't sound familiar, you might look around for microwave
oven interference, cordless phones, and other sources of RF. One
person in this group found his neighbors wireless doorbell to be a
problem. I've also seen light dimmers, flakey switching power supply
wall warts, and wireless video links, to cause disconnects.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

I am using a slightly older DLink DI514 Wirelss Router and a dlink PCI card
in his PC. The 802 authentication is off but I have WEP (w/keys) turned on.
I tried changing the preamble to short and the TX and Baic rates to 1-2Mbps.
but that didnt fix it either? The distance is about 50 feet or so (through
different floors) but the signal varies greatly from Excellent to Good or
Low. This is really strange. Thanks!

"Jeff Liebermann" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 16:41:10 GMT, "finbone" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I have a DLink wireless router to connect my sons PC and I'm having a
> >problem maintaining a connection. Its really wierd, one minute XP
reports I
> >have a connection and strong signal. Then I suddenly have no wireless
> >connection, then a few seconds later it comes back again with a good
signal.
> >This cycles through every few seconds and often interruipts anything I'm
> >doing on the internet. The router isn't that far away and it didn't do
this
> >until the last few weeks.
>
> Model number of the Dlink router?
> Model number of the radio in your son's PC?
> If son's PC is a laptop, make and model?
>
> >My fear is that my son may have changed some parameter (plays DoD and IMs
> >alot on line). Any suggestion would be most appreciated. Thanks in
> >advance.
>
> Well, lacking any better ideas, you might wanna play with the
> performance parameters. By coincidence, I managed to create almost
> exactly the same problem on my desktop this morning. My wireless
> router is a Linksys BEFW11S4 802.11b router. For a client, I'm
> testing a DLink DWL-900AP+ v1 running in client mode. Everything was
> flashed to the latest greatest firmware, reset to defaults, and
> configured from scratch. I was getting erratic downloads, frequent
> disconnects, and general crummy performance over a distance of about 2
> feet.
>
> The DLW-900AP+ v1 has a pre-802.11g proprietary 22mbit/sec mode. The
> Linksys does not. With the radios that close, the DWL-900AP+
> concluded that the S/N (signal to noise) ratio was so wonderful, that
> it would try to use this 22mbits/sec mode. Too bad the Linksys
> doesn't have a clue what to do with it. So, the DWL-900AP+ just kept
> pounding on the Linksys offering 22mbits/sec and disconnecting when it
> failed.
>
> I initially solved the problem by simply reducing the signal (removing
> the antennas) which dropped the S/N ratio down to where the DWL-900AP+
> would stop trying to connect at 22mbits/sec. That fixed the
> disconnects and flakey performance. I then dived into the
> "performance" settings on the DWL-900AP+ and disarmed the monster
> permanently.
>
> No clue if this is your problem, but it's worth trying to slow down
> your wireless connection in an attempt to trade reliability for
> marketing hyped speed.
>
> If this doesn't sound familiar, you might look around for microwave
> oven interference, cordless phones, and other sources of RF. One
> person in this group found his neighbors wireless doorbell to be a
> problem. I've also seen light dimmers, flakey switching power supply
> wall warts, and wireless video links, to cause disconnects.
>
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 04 Jul 2004 17:03:28 GMT, "finbone" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I am using a slightly older DLink DI514 Wirelss Router

I bought a pile of those from TigerDirect for peanuts. The radios are
not the greatest but they do work. 802.11b only.

>and a dlink PCI card in his PC.

I also have a few of those. They work fine. I'll assume that it too
is 802.11b only. You should NOT have the problem I described with the
22Mbit/sec mode.

>The 802 authentication is off but I have WEP (w/keys) turned on.

Ummm... 802.11 authentication *IS* called WEP.

>I tried changing the preamble to short and the TX and Baic rates to 1-2Mbps.

The default should be short. Only use a long preamble if you're
dealing with older 802.11 radios that only do 1 and 2 mbits/sec.

>but that didnt fix it either?

Oh well. I tried.

>The distance is about 50 feet or so (through
>different floors) but the signal varies greatly from Excellent to Good or
>Low.

That sounds more like an RF signal path problem. Try dragging the
radios so that they can see each other and not go through any floors.
If they work correctly in that position, but screw up when shooting
through walls, the problem is an obstructed RF path or reflections.
The position of the internal PCI wireless card in the PC is not the
greatest. It's behind a steel case that reflects signals all over the
place. The PC tends to located on the floor, against the wall, and
behind furniture, that also obstruct the signal. If you cannot
position the PC to a better location, I suggest you abandon the PCI
card and switch to a USB radio that can be located in a much better
position.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558