why is my wireless connection so slow with BEFW11S4?

I have 3 computers networked using the Linksys BEFW11S4.

One of these is a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop (XP Pro) with Toshiba
Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card (NDIS 1.5).

I get wired DSL speeds of 1200 kbps but my wireless connection is
slower than molasses in January!

I've updated Linksys to latest firmware.

I have WEP enabled using 64 bits. I can't get the 128 WEP to work. I
think thats a limitation of the built-in Toshiba card.

Toshiba is only marginally faster with WEP disabled.

This thing should blaze wirelessly, shouldn't it? I've been reading
for days now and can't find anything usefull about especially at
Linksys site.

TIA

Michael G.

Hi first a couple of questions, and I hope that you do not get the feeling I
am talking down to you!!

What's the distance between the AP and the client card?
What's the building material made of?
Do you have access to the setup logs for the AP, and can you glean any info
regarding the setup speed between AP and client i.e. 11, 5.5, 2 or 1Mbps. If
the AP is only allowing you to access at 1Mbps the actual data throughput is
around 64K!

Any other 2.4GHz transmitters in the area? Have you tried any other
frequencies? Channel 7 has the highest output due to the charcteristics of
the chipset, whilst 1 and 13 are the lowest. The difference might only be
1dB, but this can make alot of difference.

Hope this helps,

Mike.
"Michael G" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have 3 computers networked using the Linksys BEFW11S4.
>
> One of these is a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop (XP Pro) with Toshiba
> Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card (NDIS 1.5).
>
> I get wired DSL speeds of 1200 kbps but my wireless connection is
> slower than molasses in January!
>
> I've updated Linksys to latest firmware.
>
> I have WEP enabled using 64 bits. I can't get the 128 WEP to work. I
> think thats a limitation of the built-in Toshiba card.
>
> Toshiba is only marginally faster with WEP disabled.
>
> This thing should blaze wirelessly, shouldn't it? I've been reading
> for days now and can't find anything usefull about especially at
> Linksys site.
>
> TIA
>
> Michael G.

Michael G wrote:

> I have 3 computers networked using the Linksys BEFW11S4.
>
> One of these is a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop (XP Pro) with Toshiba
> Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card (NDIS 1.5).
>
> I get wired DSL speeds of 1200 kbps but my wireless connection is
> slower than molasses in January!
>
> I've updated Linksys to latest firmware.
>
> I have WEP enabled using 64 bits. I can't get the 128 WEP to work. I
> think thats a limitation of the built-in Toshiba card.
>
> Toshiba is only marginally faster with WEP disabled.
>
> This thing should blaze wirelessly, shouldn't it? I've been reading
> for days now and can't find anything usefull about especially at
> Linksys site.
>
> TIA
>
> Michael G.

My Toshiba Satellite uses 128-bit WEP to my Linksys BEFW11S4 just fine.

From some limited experiments doing file transfers across the Linksys
router, from that wireless laptop to a 100 Mb/s wired desktop, it seems
that 128-bit WEP caused transfer rates for large files to drop by ~10%.

Using my cable modem, I get roughly the same download speed to my
100 Mb/s wired desktops as to my wireless laptop; i.e., download speed
is, as expected, limited by the WAN cable instead of by the (wired
or wireless) LAN segments.

If you run multiple wireless PCs on the same WAP, remember that the
bandwidth is shared between those PCs; and that 802.11b network
segments run half-duplex; and that 11 Mb/s is the peak burst rate,
not the sustained transfer rate.
--
Cheers, Bob

>What's the distance between the AP and the client card?

6 feet.

>What's the building material made of?

Wood and plaster I guess. The Linksys is sitting on top of a computer.
Would this cause a problem?

>Do you have access to the setup logs for the AP, and can you glean any info
>regarding the setup speed between AP and client i.e. 11, 5.5, 2 or 1Mbps. If
>the AP is only allowing you to access at 1Mbps the actual data throughput is
>around 64K!

I looked for setup log on computer that the DSL modem was installed
on. Do you know what the log would be called? I see what you are
driving at but I can't find the log.

>Any other 2.4GHz transmitters in the area?

Do you mean other wireless networks? There are a couple down the
street I think. I ran Net Stumbler from the park and it picked up a
few.

>Have you tried any other frequencies? Channel
>7 has the highest output due to the charcteristics of
>the chipset, whilst 1 and 13 are the lowest. The difference might only be
>1dB, but this can make alot of difference.

I have tried channels 1, 5, 6, 7 and 11 with no noticable difference
between them. What is going on? I ran a test from cnet.com and the
speed is slower than a 28.8 modem. There must be some setting that I
could change.

Thanks,
Michael G.

>My Toshiba Satellite uses 128-bit WEP to my Linksys BEFW11S4 just fine.

Can you tell me if it's an Orinoco or NDIS 5.1 card? It should be
listed in Net Stumbler. And the driver on mine is from Agere Systems.

>From some limited experiments doing file transfers across the Linksys
>router, from that wireless laptop to a 100 Mb/s wired desktop, it seems
>that 128-bit WEP caused transfer rates for large files to drop by ~10%.

Yes, I have tried turning off WEP altogether. Since I can't get 128
bit WEP to work (only 64 bit) I don't know if it matters or not.

>Using my cable modem, I get roughly the same download speed to my
>100 Mb/s wired desktops as to my wireless laptop; i.e., download speed
>is, as expected, limited by the WAN cable instead of by the (wired
>or wireless) LAN segments.

That's what I am wanting to see on my laptop; roughly the same speeds
between wired and wireless.

>If you run multiple wireless PCs on the same WAP, remember that the
>bandwidth is shared between those PCs; and that 802.11b network
>segments run half-duplex; and that 11 Mb/s is the peak burst rate,
>not the sustained transfer rate.

I ran a test from the wireless laptop as the only computer turned on.
Guess what speed I am getting. 15 kbps!!! Thats like a 300 baud modem.
WTF?

Thanks,
Michael G.

On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 04:27:35 GMT, Michael G <(E-Mail Removed)> gave it up
that:

>>My Toshiba Satellite uses 128-bit WEP to my Linksys BEFW11S4 just fine.
>
>Can you tell me if it's an Orinoco or NDIS 5.1 card? It should be
>listed in Net Stumbler. And the driver on mine is from Agere Systems.

Found this at the Toshiba site . . .

Toshiba Notebook computers with production dates earlier than about
Sept 2002 support 64bit WEP encryption.

Toshiba Notebook computers with production dates after that time frame
have 802.11b WiFi cards supporting 128-bit WEP encryption.

Michael

I found it! The power saver option on the mini wireless lan card was
set to auto. I turned it off and BAM, 1100 kbps.

Michael G.



On Mon, 01 Sep 2003 12:30:13 GMT, Michael G <(E-Mail Removed)> gave it up
that:

>I have 3 computers networked using the Linksys BEFW11S4.
>
>One of these is a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop (XP Pro) with Toshiba
>Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card (NDIS 1.5).
>
>I get wired DSL speeds of 1200 kbps but my wireless connection is
>slower than molasses in January!
>
>I've updated Linksys to latest firmware.
>
>I have WEP enabled using 64 bits. I can't get the 128 WEP to work. I
>think thats a limitation of the built-in Toshiba card.
>
>Toshiba is only marginally faster with WEP disabled.
>
>This thing should blaze wirelessly, shouldn't it? I've been reading
>for days now and can't find anything usefull about especially at
>Linksys site.
>
>TIA
>
>Michael G.

Michael G wrote:

> On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 04:27:35 GMT, Michael G <(E-Mail Removed)> gave it up
> that:
>
>
>>>My Toshiba Satellite uses 128-bit WEP to my Linksys BEFW11S4 just fine.
>>
>>Can you tell me if it's an Orinoco or NDIS 5.1 card? It should be
>>listed in Net Stumbler. And the driver on mine is from Agere Systems.
>
>
> Found this at the Toshiba site . . .
>
> Toshiba Notebook computers with production dates earlier than about
> Sept 2002 support 64bit WEP encryption.
>
> Toshiba Notebook computers with production dates after that time frame
> have 802.11b WiFi cards supporting 128-bit WEP encryption.
>
> Michael

My laptop was a special order, delivered in Oct'01, which included
an Orinoco Gold integrated WiFi card.
--
Cheers, Bob

Michael G wrote:

> I found it! The power saver option on the mini wireless lan card was
> set to auto. I turned it off and BAM, 1100 kbps.
>
> Michael G.
>
>
>
> On Mon, 01 Sep 2003 12:30:13 GMT, Michael G <(E-Mail Removed)> gave it up
> that:
>
>
>>I have 3 computers networked using the Linksys BEFW11S4.
>>
>>One of these is a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop (XP Pro) with Toshiba
>>Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card (NDIS 1.5).
>>
>>I get wired DSL speeds of 1200 kbps but my wireless connection is
>>slower than molasses in January!
>>
>>I've updated Linksys to latest firmware.
>>
>>I have WEP enabled using 64 bits. I can't get the 128 WEP to work. I
>>think thats a limitation of the built-in Toshiba card.
>>
>>Toshiba is only marginally faster with WEP disabled.
>>
>>This thing should blaze wirelessly, shouldn't it? I've been reading
>>for days now and can't find anything usefull about especially at
>>Linksys site.
>>
>>TIA
>>
>>Michael G.
>
>

Good for you. Another victim of power saving - one of those features
which is heavily touted but lightly tested.
--
Cheers, Bob