Intermittent Connection with Linksys BEFW11S4 v2 and WPC 11 v3

I've been using the above combo devices with my laptop in two
different houses over the last 10-12 months with no difficulty. In my
new house, I've had the router in the same location for 9 mos with no
signal difficulty, even upstairs. Suddenly, I'm having trouble with
reliability and it appears that there is another WLAN in the
neighborhood according to the site scan.

Some quick facts:

- I've updated firmware on the router per Linksys tech support. WPC11
is running the latest software as well.
- I can connect to my network (changed the channel to 1 or 11) for a
brief time.
- The most stable connection thus far is when I turn the bit rate down
to 2mbs on the router.

Even though the card is supposed to "focus" on my network, is the
other network causing too much RF noise [like a 2.5Ghz phone or
microwave] for the card to handle?

Any clues? I'm a software guy, not a network engineer so any help is
appreciated!

Eric Stephens wrote:
> I've been using the above combo devices with my laptop in two
> different houses over the last 10-12 months with no difficulty. In my
> new house, I've had the router in the same location for 9 mos with no
> signal difficulty, even upstairs. Suddenly, I'm having trouble with
> reliability and it appears that there is another WLAN in the
> neighborhood according to the site scan.
>
> Some quick facts:
>
> - I've updated firmware on the router per Linksys tech support. WPC11
> is running the latest software as well.
> - I can connect to my network (changed the channel to 1 or 11) for a
> brief time.
> - The most stable connection thus far is when I turn the bit rate down
> to 2mbs on the router.
>
> Even though the card is supposed to "focus" on my network, is the
> other network causing too much RF noise [like a 2.5Ghz phone or
> microwave] for the card to handle?
>
> Any clues? I'm a software guy, not a network engineer so any help is
> appreciated!

The current wisdom is to broadcast SSID, remove any but your own network
from preferred networks, and uncheck the box in the advanced settings
"automaticallyconnect to non-preferred networks".

As a final solution, disable Wireless Zero Configuration, and set
everything up manually in the wireless card properties or use the
configuration utility.

Q

"Quaoar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Eric Stephens wrote:
> > I've been using the above combo devices with my laptop in two
> > different houses over the last 10-12 months with no difficulty. In my
> > new house, I've had the router in the same location for 9 mos with no
> > signal difficulty, even upstairs. Suddenly, I'm having trouble with
> > reliability and it appears that there is another WLAN in the
> > neighborhood according to the site scan.
> >
> > Some quick facts:
> >
> > - I've updated firmware on the router per Linksys tech support. WPC11
> > is running the latest software as well.
> > - I can connect to my network (changed the channel to 1 or 11) for a
> > brief time.
> > - The most stable connection thus far is when I turn the bit rate down
> > to 2mbs on the router.
> >
> > Even though the card is supposed to "focus" on my network, is the
> > other network causing too much RF noise [like a 2.5Ghz phone or
> > microwave] for the card to handle?
> >
> > Any clues? I'm a software guy, not a network engineer so any help is
> > appreciated!
>
> The current wisdom is to broadcast SSID, remove any but your own network
> from preferred networks, and uncheck the box in the advanced settings
> "automaticallyconnect to non-preferred networks".
>
> As a final solution, disable Wireless Zero Configuration, and set
> everything up manually in the wireless card properties or use the
> configuration utility.
>
> Q
I'm running Win2K so some of the options you mention above don't
exist. I am set to broadcast.