WiFi Puzzle?

The likes of Netstumbler and my connections own monitor show my signal
strength from my access point as quite strong and connected at full
speed - but that is never the entire story.

That just shows how well I am receiving the access point, not how well
the access point is receiving my PC's signal. Often I have a 54Mb
connection, a very strong signal reported at my PC, but next to no
actual data through put. Is there a way to interrogate an access point
to see how good my received signal is?

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

"Harry Bloomfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) k...
> The likes of Netstumbler and my connections own monitor show my signal
> strength from my access point as quite strong and connected at full
> speed - but that is never the entire story.
>
> That just shows how well I am receiving the access point, not how well the
> access point is receiving my PC's signal. Often I have a 54Mb connection,
> a very strong signal reported at my PC, but next to no actual data through
> put. Is there a way to interrogate an access point to see how good my
> received signal is?

I've never seen an access point that shows the signal strength from a
connected client. Which is not to say that premium product from the likes
of Cisco does not provide such monitoring.

I think this is another good reason never to use wireless.

Clearly both ends of the wireless link should show the received signal
strength - the fact that one doesn't is a serious design failure.

--
Graham J

Graham J explained on 07/02/2009 :
> I've never seen an access point that shows the signal strength from a
> connected client. Which is not to say that premium product from the likes of
> Cisco does not provide such monitoring.
>
> I think this is another good reason never to use wireless.
>
> Clearly both ends of the wireless link should show the received signal
> strength - the fact that one doesn't is a serious design failure.


That agrees with what I had assumed - trouble is the access point will
generally be in a much better position (higher) to receive other
signals which might interfere with its reception of the PC's card, yet
there is no means to check this.


--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Graham J wrote:
> "Harry Bloomfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) k...
>> The likes of Netstumbler and my connections own monitor show my signal
>> strength from my access point as quite strong and connected at full
>> speed - but that is never the entire story.
>>
>> That just shows how well I am receiving the access point, not how well the
>> access point is receiving my PC's signal. Often I have a 54Mb connection,
>> a very strong signal reported at my PC, but next to no actual data through
>> put. Is there a way to interrogate an access point to see how good my
>> received signal is?
>
> I've never seen an access point that shows the signal strength from a
> connected client. Which is not to say that premium product from the likes
> of Cisco does not provide such monitoring.
>
> I think this is another good reason never to use wireless.
>
> Clearly both ends of the wireless link should show the received signal
> strength - the fact that one doesn't is a serious design failure.
>

well given similar power an antennae at both locations, and the fact
that radio progarion is largely symmetrical this seems to be an issue in
your mind only.

> --
> Graham J
>
>

The Natural Philosopher laid this down on his screen :
> well given similar power an antennae at both locations, and the fact that
> radio progarion is largely symmetrical this seems to be an issue in your mind
> only.

Not at all....

Reception and readability of a signal can never be assumed to be the
same at both ends, even if everything else is equal. One of the two
could be receiving lots of local to it interference from other systems
operating on the same channel, this is especially true with wifi.

I'm receiving full strength at my PC from my AP, but the same might not
be true of my AP's reception of my PC's transmissions - as the latter
is much higher and will be more subjected to other local wifi signals.

I can monitor one end of the link, but it seems not the other - unless
anyone knows differently?

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Harry Bloomfield wrote:

> I can monitor one end of the link, but it seems not the other - unless
> anyone knows differently?

DD-WRT, for example, shows a signal level next to each MAC on the wireless
status page. Chances are you don't have a router running DD-WRT, however.
What model of router do you have? If you're lucky you might be able to dig
around in its command line and find some information that isn't shown in
the web interface.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
14:59:45 up 64 days, 17:11, 2 users, load average: 0.06, 0.05, 0.04
Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise

alexd explained :
> Harry Bloomfield wrote:
>
>> I can monitor one end of the link, but it seems not the other - unless
>> anyone knows differently?
>
> DD-WRT, for example, shows a signal level next to each MAC on the wireless
> status page. Chances are you don't have a router running DD-WRT, however.
> What model of router do you have? If you're lucky you might be able to dig
> around in its command line and find some information that isn't shown in
> the web interface.

It is a Netgear DG834G V2.

I'm just suffering the occasional time when it all goes very slow, but
yet with a full signal and 54Mb connection indicated.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

In uk.telecom.broadband, on Sat, 7 Feb 2009 15:15:33, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

>alexd explained :
>> Harry Bloomfield wrote:
>>
>>> I can monitor one end of the link, but it seems not the other - unless
>>> anyone knows differently?
>>
>> DD-WRT, for example, shows a signal level next to each MAC on the wireless
>> status page. Chances are you don't have a router running DD-WRT, however.
>> What model of router do you have? If you're lucky you might be able to dig
>> around in its command line and find some information that isn't shown in
>> the web interface.
>
>It is a Netgear DG834G V2.
>
>I'm just suffering the occasional time when it all goes very slow, but
>yet with a full signal and 54Mb connection indicated.

Slow on the internet or to another computer on the local network? Only
the latter would indicate a problem with at AP. You are with Tiscali -
you should expect the internet to be slow at times.

--
Jim Crowther

Jim Crowther formulated on Saturday :
> Slow on the internet or to another computer on the local network? Only the
> latter would indicate a problem with at AP. You are with Tiscali - you
> should expect the internet to be slow at times.

No, it is definitely my wifi, even access to the web page of my router
slows down. Tiscali here seems not nearly so bad as it is usually
suggested to be. It runs 99% of the time at full speed.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

In uk.telecom.broadband, on Sat, 7 Feb 2009 16:51:34, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

>Jim Crowther formulated on Saturday :
>> Slow on the internet or to another computer on the local network?
>>Only the latter would indicate a problem with at AP. You are with
>>Tiscali - you should expect the internet to be slow at times.
>
>No, it is definitely my wifi, even access to the web page of my router
>slows down.

OK - have you tried a different channel? One of 1, 6, or 11.

>Tiscali here seems not nearly so bad as it is usually suggested to be.
>It runs 99% of the time at full speed.

You are one of the lucky ones then.

--
Jim Crowther