Suspected neighborly interference

I have a Belkin 802.11g access point which I'm connecting with my
company laptop, an IBM T23 running Windows 2K Professional and with a
D-Link DWL G650 PCMCIA card. For the first few weeks everything
worked solidly, but recently I've had intermittent drops, some for a
few seconds, some that last for hours. During those drops I can put
the laptop. With the longest drops, I've noticed that quite often a
neighbor's WiFi connection shows up in the Site Survey of my D-Link
card manager utility. I haven't yet determined who it is, but I
wonder if they aren't having trouble with me bacause their signal
appears to come up and disappear, as though they were turning gear on
and off attempting to troubleshoot. I'm assuming it's not a terribly
savvy user -- no WEP and the SSID is "default". I've even gotten
inside their network. I'm certainly not going to mess with anything,
but I'm tempted to leave a note of some sort.

In any case, assuming that I eventually determine what direction the
problem is coming from, I wonder whether there might be some way to
shield my wall on that side of the house to keep my signals inside the
house, outside signals outside the house, and, possibly, improve
access at the far end of the house where other users might eventually
be located.
--
MisterFitz is a spam trap address. Please post replies directly to
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(E-Mail Removed) (Charles Fitzgerald) wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed). com>...
> I have a Belkin 802.11g access point which I'm connecting with my
> company laptop, an IBM T23 running Windows 2K Professional and with a
> D-Link DWL G650 PCMCIA card. For the first few weeks everything
> worked solidly, but recently I've had intermittent drops, some for a
> few seconds, some that last for hours. During those drops I can put
> the laptop. With the longest drops, I've noticed that quite often a
> neighbor's WiFi connection shows up in the Site Survey of my D-Link
> card manager utility. I haven't yet determined who it is, but I
> wonder if they aren't having trouble with me bacause their signal
> appears to come up and disappear, as though they were turning gear on
> and off attempting to troubleshoot. I'm assuming it's not a terribly
> savvy user -- no WEP and the SSID is "default". I've even gotten
> inside their network. I'm certainly not going to mess with anything,
> but I'm tempted to leave a note of some sort.
>
> In any case, assuming that I eventually determine what direction the
> problem is coming from, I wonder whether there might be some way to
> shield my wall on that side of the house to keep my signals inside the
> house, outside signals outside the house, and, possibly, improve
> access at the far end of the house where other users might eventually
> be located.

You can shield from one direction and enhance in others with one of
the template designs you find at: http://www.freeantennas.com

Check them out. They can make a real difference.

-m-

On 21 Aug 2003 23:53:41 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Charles
Fitzgerald) wrote:

>I have a Belkin 802.11g access point which I'm connecting with my
>............blah blah blah blah and more blah........................
>house, outside signals outside the house, and, possibly, improve
>access at the far end of the house where other users might eventually
>be located.


Hey Charley, you need to change your channel. If your neigbor and you
are using the same default channel, you will definately have problems.
If you just pulled the AP or router out of the box and away you went,
sounds like your neighbor did just that, your signal will interfere with
his and vice versa. So, figure out what channel you two guys are on and
set yours at least five channels away from his. This should do the
trick.

Boll Weevil <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>. ..
> On 21 Aug 2003 23:53:41 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Charles
> Fitzgerald) wrote:
>
> >I have a Belkin 802.11g access point which I'm connecting with my
> >............blah blah blah blah and more blah........................
> >house, outside signals outside the house, and, possibly, improve
> >access at the far end of the house where other users might eventually
> >be located.
>
>
> Hey Charley, you need to change your channel. If your neigbor and you
> are using the same default channel, you will definately have problems.
> If you just pulled the AP or router out of the box and away you went,
> sounds like your neighbor did just that, your signal will interfere with
> his and vice versa. So, figure out what channel you two guys are on and
> set yours at least five channels away from his. This should do the
> trick.

Nope. I forgot to mention in the info dump that I'm on Channel 11 and
he's on 6. I've moved up and down the dial. This evening it seems
pretty solid. It seems like it's the daytime that problems arise.
We'll see what my next work-at-home day is like.
--
MisterFitz is a spam trap address. Please post replies directly to
the group.

>Uhm and you are not running security because? Why are you complaining?

He is, it's the other user that's not.

(E-Mail Removed) (Charles Fitzgerald) wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed). com>...
> I have a Belkin 802.11g access point which I'm connecting with my
> company laptop, an IBM T23 running Windows 2K Professional and with a
> D-Link DWL G650 PCMCIA card. For the first few weeks everything
> worked solidly, but recently I've had intermittent drops, some for a
> few seconds, some that last for hours. During those drops I can put
> the laptop. With the longest drops, I've noticed that quite often a
> neighbor's WiFi connection shows up in the Site Survey of my D-Link
> card manager utility. I haven't yet determined who it is, but I
> wonder if they aren't having trouble with me bacause their signal
> appears to come up and disappear, as though they were turning gear on
> and off attempting to troubleshoot. I'm assuming it's not a terribly
> savvy user -- no WEP and the SSID is "default". I've even gotten
> inside their network. I'm certainly not going to mess with anything,
> but I'm tempted to leave a note of some sort.
>
> In any case, assuming that I eventually determine what direction the
> problem is coming from, I wonder whether there might be some way to
> shield my wall on that side of the house to keep my signals inside the
> house, outside signals outside the house, and, possibly, improve
> access at the far end of the house where other users might eventually
> be located.


As I write this, I can't keep the DWL-650 card in the laptop connected
to the Belkin AP for more than five or ten minutes at a time before it
drops out for 30 minutes to an hour. The neighbor's entity is not
showing up at all. Nobody is home but me and houses and lots in this
neighborhood are fair-sized (~75 feet/25 meters across by 100 feet/33
meters deep), so while I can't rule out local interference, . When
the laptop connects, it has 60%-80% signal strength. The laptop is
presently about 10 unblocked feet from the WAP. I've rebooted the PC
and the WAP. I don't know whether the problem is with the WAP or the
wireless card.

Ideas for troubleshooting welcome!

The other shoe.

I finally discovered that the DWL-650 card was the issue. I got no
fewer than three replacements from D-Link and had identical results.
Performance would start to deteriorate soon after I installed the new
card, but I could make the card communicate by resting my thumb lightly
on the external part of the card.

The last DWL-650 caused the PC to immediately blue screen.

At US$7 a pop, I could see that I was in a losing game and gave up
after three replacements. I bought a Belkin F5D7010 card in early 2004
and it has worked beautifully for the past year. I often keep a
connection open through a VPN for 24+ hours. I've seen the Belkin gear
bad-mouthed elsewhere here, but my experience so far has been
excellent. I installed and set up the same system for my computer
illiterate mother-in-law and she's been delighted with it.