Wireless Network Performance in a vertically-oriented 5 story home?

I'm still trying to get a grip on how wireless signals travel from a
wireless router. Many in this forum have helped me to understand. And I
appreciate that. But I am struggling with a problem of inconsistent and
unstable wireless performance in what I think is a challenging wireless
environment.

The environment is a five story town house, with an open atrium and a
semi-circular staircase that goes from floor to floor from the first to
the fifth. It is an old building contructed circa 1890.

On each floor there are three spaces, front (facing the street),
middle, and rear. On the first floor the front and middle are the
entrance and foyer. The rear is the kitchen On the second floor front
to rear are the living room, 2nd floor landing, and dining room. On the
third floor there is the library, floor landing and bedroom. On the
fourth floor there is a bedroom, the floor landing, and another
bedroom. Finally, on the fifth floor there is a bedroom, an office, and
a TV watching room/den.

The cable-modem is on the fifth floor rear. In the same room is a
Belkin Pre-N wireless router. The router is tethered to the cable-modem
by a length of ethernet cable. Another length of ethernet cable
connects an available port on the router to a Siemens SpeedStream Model
2521 Powerline Ethernet adapter that is plugged into an electrical
outlet. In the middle office there is a MAC iBook equipped with a
built-in Airport wireless adapter. In the front bedroom there is a MAC
Powerbook also with a built-in Airport wireless adapter.

On the fourth floor rear bedroom there is a Toshiba notebook computer
with a built-in wireless adapter.

On the third floor there is a Thinkpad A22p with a Belkin Pre-N PC card
wireless network adapter.

There are no computers on the second floor.

On the first floor rear, in the kitchen, there is a Thinkpad T21 with a
Belkin Pre-N PC card wireless network adapter. 8 feet away plugged into
an electrical outlet is a Siemens SpeedStream Powerline Wireless Access
Point.

Strangely, the wireless signal from the fifth floor rear room where the
router is, to the adjoining office, is inconsistent and unstable when
using the iBook.

The signal to the Toshiba in the fourth floor rear bedroom is usually
around 80%. Fine.

The signal to the Thinkpad A22p in the front third floor library is
very good to excellent, about 87%.

But the signal to the Thinkpad T21 in the rear kitchen area is
inconsistent and unstable. Yesterday, for example the signal strength
was excellent for a few minutes and then it disappeared altogether. I
clicked on SCAN in the Belkin Wireless Client Utility and got a result
that said, "No Scan Results." Couldn't figure it out. I uninstalled and
re-installed the Belkin Pre-N card and the wireless client utility and
what do you know, I get excellent signal strength to my network. An
hour and a half later, no signal at all.

I'm thinking that vertically-oriented five story spaces are especially
challenging, more so than a horizontally-oriented space.

No one in the house was using a 2.4GHz cordless phone or a microwave
oven when the signal dropped. Could it be that someone in the adjoining
home (separated by a common brick wall), could have caused my signal to
drop by using a 2.4GHz cordless phone or microwave oven.

I also found once that when there was a signal drop the computer
somehow got off my network and connected to another in the area with a
weaker signal strength. How/why does that happen. How can I keep the
computers in this house on my own network.

I'm thinking about moving the cable-modem and router down to the third
floor where it will be equadistant to the first and fifth floors. Is
that likely to help?

Sorry for the long post, but maybe it and the responses to it (if any)
will be instructive to others.

Thanks.

"dejola" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>The environment is a five story town house, with an open atrium and a
>semi-circular staircase that goes from floor to floor from the first to
>the fifth. It is an old building contructed circa 1890.

What type of construction in the walls and floors? Eduardian
construction was mostly lath and plaster which is fairly impervious to
2.4GHz wireless. You can possibly go through one wall of lath and
plaster, but that's it. If the plaster has wire mesh backing, forget
going through even one wall.

>On each floor there are three spaces, front (facing the street),
(...)
>a TV watching room/den.
>
>The cable-modem is on the fifth floor rear. In the same room is a
>Belkin Pre-N wireless router.

Rear? How close is the Belkin Pre-N box to the atrium? That's the
shortest distance between the access point and the various clients.
Have you tried putting the Belkin Pre-N box in the atrium instead of
in an isolated room?

>Strangely, the wireless signal from the fifth floor rear room where the
>router is, to the adjoining office, is inconsistent and unstable when
>using the iBook.

How many walls between the 5th floor rear room with the router and the
adjoining office with the iBook? If more than one wall, I would
expect trouble.

>The signal to the Toshiba in the fourth floor rear bedroom is usually
>around 80%. Fine.

Probably because it's going through a wooden floor instead of a lath
and plaster (possibly with wire mesh) wall.

>The signal to the Thinkpad A22p in the front third floor library is
>very good to excellent, about 87%.

OK. That goes through two wooden floors, but how many walls?

>But the signal to the Thinkpad T21 in the rear kitchen area is
>inconsistent and unstable. Yesterday, for example the signal strength
>was excellent for a few minutes and then it disappeared altogether. I
>clicked on SCAN in the Belkin Wireless Client Utility and got a result
>that said, "No Scan Results." Couldn't figure it out. I uninstalled and
>re-installed the Belkin Pre-N card and the wireless client utility and
>what do you know, I get excellent signal strength to my network. An
>hour and a half later, no signal at all.

Now, that's weird. Are you using the latest firmware for the Pre-N
router and latest drivers for the Pre-N client card? It's probably
not interference or all the other client radios would behave in a
similar manner.

>No one in the house was using a 2.4GHz cordless phone or a microwave
>oven when the signal dropped. Could it be that someone in the adjoining
>home (separated by a common brick wall), could have caused my signal to
>drop by using a 2.4GHz cordless phone or microwave oven.

I don't think it's intererence or you would have similar symptoms with
the other client radios.

>I also found once that when there was a signal drop the computer
>somehow got off my network and connected to another in the area with a
>weaker signal strength. How/why does that happen. How can I keep the
>computers in this house on my own network.

Assuming you're using Windoze XP, there's a setting under the Wireless
properties to "connect to any available network". Kindly disable this
mis-feature.

>I'm thinking about moving the cable-modem and router down to the third
>floor where it will be equadistant to the first and fifth floors. Is
>that likely to help?

Yep. Reduce the distance and the number of walls it has to go through
and life will be somewhat better.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:53:23 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote :

>"dejola" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:
>

>>But the signal to the Thinkpad T21 in the rear kitchen area is
>>inconsistent and unstable. Yesterday, for example the signal strength
>>was excellent for a few minutes and then it disappeared altogether. I
>>clicked on SCAN in the Belkin Wireless Client Utility and got a result
>>that said, "No Scan Results." Couldn't figure it out. I uninstalled and
>>re-installed the Belkin Pre-N card and the wireless client utility and
>>what do you know, I get excellent signal strength to my network. An
>>hour and a half later, no signal at all.
>
>Now, that's weird. Are you using the latest firmware for the Pre-N
>router and latest drivers for the Pre-N client card? It's probably
>not interference or all the other client radios would behave in a
>similar manner.
>

I had a similar problem with a new NetGear USB wireless adapter for a
desktop PC. It installs fine, connects, 90% signal, then after 3 to 5
minutes loses signal completely. A Toshiba laptop sitting alongside
continues to receive the signal from the router no problems.
The problem is fully repeatable, every time.
NetGear said the adapter was faulty - perhaps your Belkin card is too.
--
Regards,
Peter Wilkins

Thanks so much, Jeff, for your once again comprehensive response.
Last night I changed the router's channel to 6 from 2 to match the
Speedstream Powerline Wireless Access point. Could change the access
point's channel because I needed a password that I've forgotten from
when I used other routers, once a Speedstream and once an SMC.

I'm going to move the route out into the open area and see what
happens.

Thanks again. Nice to know you're out there.