Wireless Router Help

We have a wireless network set up in our apartment and it's less than reliable. In the mornings (pre 8am), when my Mac is the only one on my speeds are usually good. In the evenings with the Mac and PC (or just one) on the speeds are horrible.

It also goes looses the connection quite often. I unplug the router and plug it back in then it works. Sometimes lightning fast speeds too. However, on an average weekend, we loose the signal 3 times a day.

To say the least I'm not the happiest with the network. But I don't know what's the issue. We thought it was the old PC it was configured with and when we got a newer PC it didn't help.

Here is the setup.

High speed internet that comes though the phone lines. Then it runs into a Belkin Wireless Cable/DSL Gateway Router ($19.99 on sale). Then one cord goes into the PC and the wireless router broadcasts an encrypted signal to my Mac.

Any ideas on what our issue could be? Or what I could try? It should be MUCH more reliable according to our building since we are like one of three apartments on this internet.

 

I've tried and tossed several of the Belkin brand WAP's into the junk bin, they were very unreliable... Staying with my Linksys WAP/Routers. I've got two one upstairs and one down... can connect to either at any time I wish, uptime has been over a year without any maintenance (other than adding new MAC addresses to the MAC filters).

 

Maybe I need to buy a new wireless router.

 

I have both Linksys (dialup system) and D-Link (ADSL). Like them both.

 

I've also experienced very poor signal with multiple PCs on a network with just one wireless. As a result I had to incoporate the wireless as a LAN aswell. Since I've not had difficulties with speed at the least.

The combined efforts seem to have propelled my transfers to a significantly higher capacity.

 

I would download Network Stumbler and check out the other wireless networks in your area. Possible that there are other networks on the same channel, with the same SSID or some other reason that you can see with NS. It is a cool program to have on your laptop (if that is what you have) anyway.

 

I've changed the channel ID before and it didn't help. Until recently I saw no other networks around, however there is one or two now.

 

Hi,

it may not be the router. I use Dlink but use Buffalo cards. I have one older laptop on 98 this uses the dlink card (was a bundle) that one looses signal every now and than and is noticably slower sometimes, whilst the lap top beside it is entirely happy.

Also I would advise to chase the latest firmware for the router and the W-AP.
Some cards can be flash upgraded and it ight well be a good idea to chase the latest firm ware and drivers for that one.

Expat

 

Ok looking at the Linksys site I see B and G wireless routers. I have an airport card not an airport extreme card in my Powerbook. Does it matter which router I get? Both look to be around $50. I know a little about wireless routers but not much. I'll take suggestions please.

 

Try switching the channel. In my experience, channels 6 and 11 seem to work the best. Do a site survey (usually all wireless drivers have this functionality) and see who else is using wireless around you and try one of unused channels. See when you lose the connection if somebody in your household used a microwave or a cordless phone - these things may cause a great deal of interference.

You can fiddle with some of the wireless parameters, such as switching to a short preamble (the long one is the default). Be careful with this though - make sure you wrote down all initial values and that you do these experiments from a wired PC, not from your wireless workstation.

Last but not least, turn on encryption - your neighbors may be hijacking your connection, stealing your bandwidth and messing with your connection. WEP is not a panacea - with enough traffic one could break it within hours, but it's better than nothing.

J.D.

 

Thanks JD
1) I'll change the channel again
2) I'll keep the interference idea in mind
3) Short/Long programmable? I'm not that wireless smart but I'll look into it.
4) Encryption is on.

 

In case if you are not joking, that was preamble - it's some sequence that wireless devices send before sending data. Choosing a short preamble usually results in slightly better throughput (not much, though).

Other parameters are better left alone. May be except one - I usually disable Open System authentication (because it allows anyone in, as long as they support the same protocol levels as your AP). Some wireless devices don't support Shared Secret authentication, so check your Mac adapter docs if this is something it can do.

J.D.

 

sorry I'm no Mac expert looked up and Airport card is 11mb but there are software updates for it around.
snooping I only found
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58578

You may have to hunt for latest updates of both base station and card.
As I said it is advisable to update to the latest before throwing it away.
Expat

 

I have had problems before when a cordless phone caused interference for the wireless connection. Switching channels on both the phone and the router helped.

 

I had a problem similar to this, in which it would drop out for no reason and then a reset of the router seemed to solve the problem, couldnt source it, but I have now went to Linux and believe it or not, touch wood, the problem is a little bit better now, ive not had a drop since going to Linux!!! I have a Belkin NIC and Linksys AP.

 

More evidence that I need to buy a new one.