Wireless connection dropping intermittently on MN 700

I am confident it is not a baby monitor. They use OLD
technology. The "hot" ones use 900MHz technology.

I am a new user just setting up my network for the first
time. My neighbor did earlier, and told me about all the
pros.

Well, he was on channel 11, I was initially on channel 6.
But it was not staying connected (wirelessly) until I
moved to channel 1 putting 10 channels in between us.
Though the documents suggest 5 channels in between (like 6
and 11), my experience said that was not sufficient.

I do have 2.4Mhz phones (several) but have not yet
detected interference (but I am not using the wireless
connection much yet - so the jury is still out).

I am suspecting the closeness of our routers (I saw his
signal as very good and mine as excellent) and the
closeness of the channels may have been the problem.

I am not sure what to recommend for you since you see two
other networks and they have 6 and 11 already, while you
are at 1.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

TJ
>-----Original Message-----
>Hi all,
>
>I have a problem with my wireless connection occasionally
>dropping out on my MN 700.
>
>Symptoms:
>I have had the MN700 since late last year with no
>problems until this current year. I'm using the Intel
>Proset utility on a Gateway 200 laptop to manage my
>connections (switched in an attempt to fix this
>problem). It offers nice bar displays for signal quality
>and signal strength. Prior to losing connection, I can
>see the signal quality dive to 0 a few times (frequency
>of about once per 2-3 seconds) with the signal strength
>staying up at full. Eventually, the signal dives to 0 as
>well and I'm disconnected. It's almost as if the MN700
>is getting some interference thus giving up and
>saying, "screw it" and shuts down the radio. It is
>unaccessible at this point for a variable amount of time
>up to about 20 seconds. This is happening mostly during
>the day. Doesn't happen much in late evenings. Nothing
>in the base station log to indicate anything happening.
>The Intel Proset utility will increment the "AP did not
>transmit" count everytime this occurs. This happens
>regardless of distance to AP. I have been within 2 feet
>of it when this happens. All wireless clients are
>disconnected at the same time. Strangely enough, I can
>still access either one of 2 AP's nearby.
>
>Configuration:
>- MN700 is configured in access point only mode connected
>to a Linksys BEFSR41 router. There is another laptop
>running win98 with the MN740 adapter and occasionally, my
>pocket pc. 64 bit WEP is enabled and MN700 is configured
>to run mixed b/g.
>- Access point is located on a shelf about 4 ft above and
>15 ft away from where I usually work.
>- There are 2 other networks in my area that I can see.
>Both are running without WEP and are sitting on channels
>6 and 11. One of these is an Xmicro wireless router
>(based on the SSID I get) and the other is unknown but
>started up sometime early this year. I have moved mine
>to channel 1.
>- I live in a 4 floor apartment building. I have no
>2.4Ghz phones, only 2 900Mhz phones.
>
>Questions:
>1. Is what I'm seeing the result of some phone
>interference or one of those baby monitors? It almost
>makes sense when I see the quality bar dive to 0 in what
>almost seems like a phone ringing interval and then
>complete lost of network.
>2. How does the MN700 handle interference? Does it
>shutdown completely or has the source of the interference
>completely blanked out the signal?
>3. Anything I can do to get past this? Some timeout
>value I can set somewhere? Get a Linksys or D-Link? I
>want to stop short of wallpapering my apartment with
>tinfoil or getting a huge honking antenna, 500W RF
>amplifier and cobbling together a giant transmitter
>beacon?
>4. Could this be something other than interference?
>Could power source (no surge protector on power bar) or
>something else cause intermittent transmitter shutdown?
>It's strange that only my AP gets taken offline by
>these "black outs".
>
>
>Thanks for any help or confirmation of the symptoms of
>connection loss I am seeing.
>.
>

After some more investigation, I haven't come up with
anything concrete yet but have at least eliminated a few
things:

1. MAC filtering has no effect.
2. Other networks are not affected as mine is. Tonight,
I actually had the AP completely lock up for a reasonable
amount of time where it would not transmit at all.
Neighboring AP's are still fine.
3. Removed metal objects in vicinity of AP including 2
full coke cans and a small metal box. Seems to have
improved something in that my PocketPC can actually
stream a video file over the network without the video
locking up about 10 seconds into it like it did before.
Did not fix the brown-out situation though.

Tonight, I have turned of WEP and left MAC filtering in
place. I noticed that the win98 laptop running the 740
adapter actually had 128bit WEP set up (I originally set
it up to 64bit) but still using the 64bit key? I didn't
think it would work if this were the case.

I'll just have to see how things turn out tomorrow. I'd
rather not "fix" the problem by going out and buying
another access point quite yet until I have a clearer
handle on what is causing the problem. If it is
interference based, then nothing is likely to fix it.
Next step is to relocate the access point.

Is the single antenna on this base station a weakpoint?
Is that why the other brands like the linksys might do
better in some situations?

Any other ideas out there?

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi all,
>
>I have a problem with my wireless connection
occasionally
>dropping out on my MN 700.
>
>Symptoms:
>I have had the MN700 since late last year with no
>problems until this current year. I'm using the Intel
>Proset utility on a Gateway 200 laptop to manage my
>connections (switched in an attempt to fix this
>problem). It offers nice bar displays for signal
quality
>and signal strength. Prior to losing connection, I can
>see the signal quality dive to 0 a few times (frequency
>of about once per 2-3 seconds) with the signal strength
>staying up at full. Eventually, the signal dives to 0
as
>well and I'm disconnected. It's almost as if the MN700
>is getting some interference thus giving up and
>saying, "screw it" and shuts down the radio. It is
>unaccessible at this point for a variable amount of time
>up to about 20 seconds. This is happening mostly during
>the day. Doesn't happen much in late evenings. Nothing
>in the base station log to indicate anything happening.
>The Intel Proset utility will increment the "AP did not
>transmit" count everytime this occurs. This happens
>regardless of distance to AP. I have been within 2 feet
>of it when this happens. All wireless clients are
>disconnected at the same time. Strangely enough, I can
>still access either one of 2 AP's nearby.
>
>Configuration:
>- MN700 is configured in access point only mode
connected
>to a Linksys BEFSR41 router. There is another laptop
>running win98 with the MN740 adapter and occasionally,
my
>pocket pc. 64 bit WEP is enabled and MN700 is
configured
>to run mixed b/g.
>- Access point is located on a shelf about 4 ft above
and
>15 ft away from where I usually work.
>- There are 2 other networks in my area that I can see.
>Both are running without WEP and are sitting on channels
>6 and 11. One of these is an Xmicro wireless router
>(based on the SSID I get) and the other is unknown but
>started up sometime early this year. I have moved mine
>to channel 1.
>- I live in a 4 floor apartment building. I have no
>2.4Ghz phones, only 2 900Mhz phones.
>
>Questions:
>1. Is what I'm seeing the result of some phone
>interference or one of those baby monitors? It almost
>makes sense when I see the quality bar dive to 0 in what
>almost seems like a phone ringing interval and then
>complete lost of network.
>2. How does the MN700 handle interference? Does it
>shutdown completely or has the source of the
interference
>completely blanked out the signal?
>3. Anything I can do to get past this? Some timeout
>value I can set somewhere? Get a Linksys or D-Link? I
>want to stop short of wallpapering my apartment with
>tinfoil or getting a huge honking antenna, 500W RF
>amplifier and cobbling together a giant transmitter
>beacon?
>4. Could this be something other than interference?
>Could power source (no surge protector on power bar) or
>something else cause intermittent transmitter shutdown?
>It's strange that only my AP gets taken offline by
>these "black outs".
>
>
>Thanks for any help or confirmation of the symptoms of
>connection loss I am seeing.
>.
>

This just in from MS support... I've been told to call
some 1-800 number to get a new router... I don't think a
new router will do though to be honest.

Dee Dubya.

I don't think this would work... I've tried EVERYTHING...
I've even turned all security off and I still have the
problem...

dee dubya

>-----Original Message-----
>Don't throw the baby out with the dishrouter!! It is
not the router
>it is the setup of the client card...in most cases if
you disable or
>remove the 802.1x protocol in your network settings it
will be
>resolved.
>
>see this solution from SMC:
>
>Description of problem:
>Windows XP SP1 also changes the default behavior of the
802.1x
>authentication setting when used on wireless networks.
When this
>setting was enabled before applying SP1, if no
authentication server
>was found, the setting was ignored and a persistent
connection could
>be obtained. Stricter enforcement under SP1 prevents
attaching to a
>rogue access point. If 802.1x authentication (which must
be used with
>WEP) is enabled under SP1, if no authentication packet
is received
>after three minutes, the connection will be dropped.
During the
>installation of SP1, any settings enabling 802.1x
authentication for
>wireless connections will be removed. If you find that
you lose your
>connection every three minutes, authentication may be
enabled on a
>network that does not have authentication servers.
Verify that 802.1x
>authentication is turned off if your network has no
authentication
>server by following these steps:
>
>
>
>
>Solution: (For the SMC card)
>Right-click the wireless connection, and then click
Properties.
>Select the Authentication tab. Make sure that the check
box for
>authentication is not selected.
>
>Note: DLink, SMC etc all exhibit this problem !!
>
>God luck Bob Rhead
>
>"atari" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:<ltFTb.7197
$(E-Mail Removed)>...
>> sell the POS and get a Linksys
>>
>> "Cheek" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message
>> news:7f4801c3e969$10d55480$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I have a problem with my wireless connection
occasionally
>> > dropping out on my MN 700.
>.
>