XP preference to go for my neighbours WLAN 1st !

Hi,
has anyone else seen this behaviour?

boot up laptop and it connects to my neighbours network rather than my own
which preferred.

My access point is only a few metres from the laptop - so much closer and
greater signal strength.
I have to force the connection to my system

Brief set-up details
Running XP SP1
I have a WEP key configured on my system but neighbours is open
I have my system as preferred or 1st choice

not a big issue but really annoying
Thanks for any help
F

 

There is an option (possibly in Advanced settings) in the Wireless
settings for Windows to only connect to preferred networks. Put a check
in that and you won't connect to your neighbor's network.

Malke

 

Also use a different channel to your neighbour, Channels 1, 7 or 11 are the
best for not overlapping.

 

Tony,

Unfortunately, the solutions provided above are not adequate.
There is a check box that states "Automatically connect to non-preferred
networks" (in the Advanced dialog box), which will make your machine connect
to any network. However, by default this is off. Please make sure that
this is the case, as is not a good idea to have it checked.

Now the only reason that the Wireless service would connect to your
neighbors network is because it has the same name. If they were both called
"Default" then the problem is pretty clear- we can't tell one from the
other. Changing the SSID of your network in the AP and on your client will
definitively fix your problem, as then they will appear as different,
non-confusable networks.


--
Brian Wehrle

Software Test Engineer/Wireless Networking
Microsoft Corp.




P.S. Changing the channel is also a good idea, if your neighbor is using
the default (1), go to 7 or 11. However, this is not directly related to
your problem.

 

Great catch, Brian. Serves me right for trying to remember the wireless
settings when the laptop isn't on. Thanks. I'm betting that you're
right about the SSID name. Most home users just leav it as "Linksys" or
"Default" or whatever.

Malke

 

Malke,

It seems that there should be some better way to remember a network, like
the ethernet address of the AP.
However, since these can change, or there can be multiple AP's in a network
the SSID is defined as the network identifier.
It was very short-sighted of the manufacturers to use their current naming
scheme (among other things, like the channel settings).

I see very few cases of the above problem, surprisingly! I assume it will
become more and more of a problem as time goes on.
Brian

 

Some manufacturers have proprietary setting to force the WLAN
adapter to connect only to APs with certain BSSID (sometimes called "ethernet address" ).
But unlikely that it is meant as remedy for naive users who can't configure
their AP and WZC.
--PA