Linksys WPC54GS signal and connection loss

Hello,

A few months ago I bought a Linksys WRT54GS v4 paired with a similarly
spec'd WPC54GS pcmcia card, I thought, if anyone is going to get the
speed right, it's going to be a Linksys router and a Linksys card...
WRONG.

I didn't realize it until recently that the connection started at
54Mbps (what it should be) and then slowly decreased to at least 11Mbps
and sometimes even 1Mbps. A few times it dropped the connection, but
not very often (or I would have realized and returned the card). If I
go to the dining room, 8 feet from the TV room, bam! no signal
whatsoever.

You could be thinking: check the distance to the router, don't put the
router in a bank vault, etc, etc, and at the beginning, w/o any other
thing to compare to, I thought that's what it was (even though my TV
room is directly below the room where I have the router).

I get this new Dell D810 (with an internal Intel 2200BG) from work and
I bring it home, and start using it wirelessly. Normally I wouldn't use
my laptop and the one for work at the same time until this past weekend
when I realized that I got an excellent and constant signal with the
D810 in all the places where my linksys card would drop. So it wasn't
the lead casing I put over the router or the concrete wall I encased it
in (j/k).

I did the ultimate test, I swapped cards. I put the internal card in my
laptop and voila! no dropped signals anywhere.

My question to you all is... does the linksys card completely sux and I
just have to bite the bullet and get an Intel 2200?? My laptop is
another Dell so no big deal, but I'd rather "fix" the linksys card than
having to buy another one.

Thanks for your comments,

Vince

Vicente Zamora wrote:
>
> Thanks for your comments,
>
> Vince

Lets see.. Both cards, and the laptop from work are fine, and work with your
router at home, but if you use your own computer.. problem... From your
description, guess where the problem probably is?

Peter Pan wrote:
> Vicente Zamora wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for your comments,
> >
> > Vince
>
> Lets see.. Both cards, and the laptop from work are fine, and work with your
> router at home, but if you use your own computer.. problem... From your
> description, guess where the problem probably is?

Of course, the problem is the Linksys card, but do I have to scrap it
completely?, or is there a way to configure it better, or firmware, an
external antenna, an aluminum foil hat, I don't know, something to fix
the card and have it perform like it's supposed to.

I've seen a few postings on this board and others about problems with
this card, I was just hoping maybe somebody knows someway to fix it.

I am kind of disappointed b/c the router had very good reviews and the
card did too. My old wired home network was based on a Netgear
router/hub, which gave me years of solid performance, so I was a little
hesitant to go to Linksys, but I gotta say, I have had no qualms with
the wireless router, just the card.

Vicente Zamora wrote:
> Peter Pan wrote:
>> Vicente Zamora wrote:
>>>
>>> Thanks for your comments,
>>>
>>> Vince
>>
>> Lets see.. Both cards, and the laptop from work are fine, and work
>> with your router at home, but if you use your own computer..
>> problem... From your description, guess where the problem probably
>> is?
>
> Of course, the problem is the Linksys card, but do I have to scrap it
> completely?, or is there a way to configure it better, or firmware, an
> external antenna, an aluminum foil hat, I don't know, something to fix
> the card and have it perform like it's supposed to.
>
> I've seen a few postings on this board and others about problems with
> this card, I was just hoping maybe somebody knows someway to fix it.
>
> I am kind of disappointed b/c the router had very good reviews and the
> card did too. My old wired home network was based on a Netgear
> router/hub, which gave me years of solid performance, so I was a
> little hesitant to go to Linksys, but I gotta say, I have had no
> qualms with the wireless router, just the card.

Maybe you misinterpreted what I wrote.. I was ponting to your computer as
being bad. Both cards (the one from work and the linksys card from your
home), work fine (in the laptop from work), and the ap at your home works
fine (with the laptop from work), it's your compter is the only thing that
may have a problem.. Can you put the card from your work laptop into your
home laptop? If it doesn't work, you know for sure it is your computer at
home...

It's a good point and I guess I should try it, just to be thorough. I
tried the Linksys with a third laptop and it behaved the same way (an
older C800). but then again, until I try the linksys with the computer
I know for sure works, I can't rule it out.

I just didn't want to install the linksys drivers in my computer from
work, oh well, the things we do on our spare time.

To summarize:
D810 + Intel 2200 = works, 54Mb solid
C610 + Intel 2200 = works, 54Mb solid
C610 + Linksys = connection speed degrades from 54Mb to 11Mb
C800 + Linksys = connection speed degrades from 54Mb to 11Mb
D810 + Linksys = n/a
C800 + Intel 2200 = n/a

Peter Pan wrote:

> Maybe you misinterpreted what I wrote.. I was ponting to your computer as
> being bad. Both cards (the one from work and the linksys card from your
> home), work fine (in the laptop from work), and the ap at your home works
> fine (with the laptop from work), it's your compter is the only thing that
> may have a problem.. Can you put the card from your work laptop into your
> home laptop? If it doesn't work, you know for sure it is your computer at
> home...

Vicente Zamora wrote:
> It's a good point and I guess I should try it, just to be thorough. I
> tried the Linksys with a third laptop and it behaved the same way (an
> older C800). but then again, until I try the linksys with the computer
> I know for sure works, I can't rule it out.
>
> I just didn't want to install the linksys drivers in my computer from
> work, oh well, the things we do on our spare time.
>
> To summarize:
> D810 + Intel 2200 = works, 54Mb solid
> C610 + Intel 2200 = works, 54Mb solid
> C610 + Linksys = connection speed degrades from 54Mb to 11Mb
> C800 + Linksys = connection speed degrades from 54Mb to 11Mb
> D810 + Linksys = n/a
> C800 + Intel 2200 = n/a
>

I know it sounds rather silly, one of the biggest problems I had was my
personal machines that had been in use for awhile on a wired network/things
installed etc, and wouldn't work quite right with wireless stuff. If you
have the capability, I would back up (Ghost) the current system to a USB
drive, and install fresh from the distrubution CD's... That's what I ended
up doing, and amazingly, everthing worked fine with fresh installs. You
didn't say you had that abilty, so I figgered the best thing would be try
other machines.. Seems like the one from work works for you (at least the AP
is okay), so the next step is try the card in your work machine and see if
that works okay... If so, then you may have the same prob (older machine
with stuff installed on a wired network). If the card works fine on your
work machine but not on yours, I would consider that it may be your machine,
and look at alternatives to start fresh with it...

I installed the drivers in my work laptop for the Linksys card and I
would like to report that the behavior is the same, starts well at
54Mbps and degrades quickly to 24 then 11 and then 1Mbps.

D810 + Linksys = connection speed degrades from 54Mb to 11Mb

So in this case the problem is the card, no doubt about it. The
computer is fine.

Does anybody know if there is a way to fix it? Maybe I can configure
the wireless router differently, change the encryption method, put
booster antennas, wear a tin foil hat.

I know that Linksys support is not going to be of help, but just for
completeness sake, I might open a case with them, who knows, maybe they
have something (their "Knowledge Base" is pretty basic, so no hope
there).

Please let me know if you have experienced this and how you approached
it.

Thanks,

Vince

Vicente Zamora wrote:
> It's a good point and I guess I should try it, just to be thorough. I
> tried the Linksys with a third laptop and it behaved the same way (an
> older C800). but then again, until I try the linksys with the computer
> I know for sure works, I can't rule it out.
>
> I just didn't want to install the linksys drivers in my computer from
> work, oh well, the things we do on our spare time.
>
> To summarize:
> D810 + Intel 2200 = works, 54Mb solid
> C610 + Intel 2200 = works, 54Mb solid
> C610 + Linksys = connection speed degrades from 54Mb to 11Mb
> C800 + Linksys = connection speed degrades from 54Mb to 11Mb
> D810 + Linksys = n/a
> C800 + Intel 2200 = n/a
>
> Peter Pan wrote:
>
> > Maybe you misinterpreted what I wrote.. I was ponting to your computer as
> > being bad. Both cards (the one from work and the linksys card from your
> > home), work fine (in the laptop from work), and the ap at your home works
> > fine (with the laptop from work), it's your compter is the only thing that
> > may have a problem.. Can you put the card from your work laptop into your
> > home laptop? If it doesn't work, you know for sure it is your computer at
> > home...