My place is set up for wireless Internet. Until recently I was using a direct line into my router and wireless only when I roamed (i.e. worked someplace besides my desk). I moved my office around a bit, and now have gone totally wireless but seem to be having problems.

When I first log in, I get Excellent as my connection - 54 Mbps. After about 2 minutes I drop down to ~2 Mbps and there I stay.

The router is netgear and the laptop is a Compaq with a built in wifi card, probably not netgear.

Oh yeah, my laptop is 40' from the router now - a couple of walls in the way but that didn't interfere before.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Merci,
MapleLeaf

Try to determine if it's the access point, or your PC:

Access Point: Use a utility like NetStumbler to observe the signal strength. If you see it dropping off after two minutes, like you describe, something is affecting the signal (interference from other RF devices, etc.). Easiest way to address this is to just change channels, and try a new one. Try a few different channels.

PC: Look in the device driver, or power settings for the WiFi card, see if anything is set to 'adjust power', or 'allow automatic radio control' or something similar sounding. If it's always happening two minutes after you establish a connection, this is the primary suspect.

I just checked the powerless settings and powersave is turned off. Is that what you meant? I will try some different channels later. Could the interference be from a cordless phone? My old 900 mhz got hooked back up recently, while it is located about 10' away (the base station) is that enough to cause interference?

Finally the router is next to a steel shelving unit - no other power devices or transmitting devices. Would simple shelving kill the signal?

As you can tell this is all a bit new to me - just trying to move into the 18th century with technology.

Merci,
MapleLeaf

A 900 Mhz phone shouldn't interfere with a wireless computer network. It's the 2.4 GHz phones you have to worry about with 802.11b/g. I had less trouble with my old phone by forcing the 802.11b network onto channel 11. My new cordless phone claims to be "computer network friendly," and so far it has been (but I think the network is still on Ch 11, which helps).

Our 5.8 ghz phones knock the DSL modem off line whenever it rings or when it hangs up.l Before the call, during, and after, no problems at all.

Anything is possible.

When it's slow try putting the laptop next to the router, and see if it's still an issue or not. If it's not an issue, then it's probably interferrence in the signal, if it is still an issue, then it's probably the laptop or router.

It could also be what you are sending, the initial login is short, fast, and bursty, so it could be coming that fast. Surfing is long packets that come and go from the router, and it may have something to do with how fast the stuff is coming in off the internet. If you are for example running DSL or a slower cable, you can't possibly hold the 54 speed, because the router can't get packets back and will slow down.

I think you're talking about throughput and not the negotiated wireless speed. The negotiated speed of the transport should stay at 54 or a relatively high number with excellent signal strength regardless of the throughput you're getting from your external connection. The wireless speed and signal strength doesn't vary based on the speed or length of incoming or outgoing packets to the external connection.

If it's going down to 2Mb, then you're getting some sort of interference. Just try moving it around a bit to try to determine if it's those steel shelves or not.

-David

Suggest you try two things. First move the Netgear router away from the metal shelves to rule out interference/reflections/refractions of the wireless signal (as already suggested).

Second, when you're roaming away from your desk and you notice your wireless speed drop to ~2Mb try plugging it into the mains. If the wireless speed stays at ~2Mb then you either need to re-site the router somewhere more central within your house (not that easy an option usually ;-) ) or alternatively look at a wireless range extender (http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WGX102.php and also http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WGXB102.php).

A cheaper option could be to fit a high-gain antenna onto the router to see if this boosts the signal strength (http://www.netgear.com/products/busi...reless_sb.php). Expansys USA have the antenna products available from their website here http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=122204.

Now the tricky part. If when you plugged into the mains your wireless connection speed went back up to 54Mb (or close to) then you most likely have PSP issue between the router and the client (your laptop). PSP stands for Power Save Poll and is a technique for reducing battery consumption at the client by selectively turning off the wireless radio on the laptop for a number of poll intervals. These intervals are usually quite short but in computer terms it's a long time, especially if your trying to download or browse the internet. When the client turns it's radio off it notifies the Access Point/Router of it's intent and assumes that the AP/Router will buffer all traffic meant for it until it wakes up and says I'm ready to receive again. If the AP/Router doesn't support PSP then it just keeps sending packets to the client blissfully ignorant that there's nothing there to receive it. So when the client is ready to start receiving data the first packet it gets is not the one it was expecting (each packet is essentially numbered but I won't go into this here) and tells the AP/Router which packet it was expecting. Consequently the AP/Router has to go and refetch all the packets in order to re-send them because chances are it's already flushed the ones the client wants from it's buffer.

Now, I hope this isn't your situation but there is something you can do. Find the support page for your Netgear router and download the latest firmware for it. Install it and see if this fixes the problem. If you only use your laptop at home and always dock it to recharge the battery every night then I guess you could turn off all the power saving features for the wireless network card.

However, if you do travel and use public wireless hotspots and need more than 1-2 hours operation from your laptop then I suggest you turn all the power saving features on.

I really didn't mean for this to be such a long post but I've seen this problem many times both at home and also in public wireless hotspots (even well known providers) across Europe. If you need any more help then please feel free to PM me.

David

Well said.

Are you in an apartment or condo, where others live above, below or to the side of you? If yes, their phones, routers, microwave ovens etc. can also cause interference.

I'd also suggest investigate all other possibilities, (e.g., does it work OK five feet from the router?, 10 feet, etc?) locations of metal shelving, router firmware, channels, etc. before adding more hardware.

Also, in the previous post I was not referring to the laptop battery/ac power settings, but to the WiFi card's device/driver settings. But, sometimes these WiFi card settings are coupled with the laptop power scheme settings, such as 'when on battery, enable Power Save Mode for wireless radio'.

One more idea to help troubleshoot. WiFi card device drivers tyically -- but not always, look at manufacturers website for utilities -- have some way to monitor the status of the card, such as a graphical signal strength meter, or a power level setting, etc.

Good point about the drivers, if you are using the cards drivers, try the windows ones and the other way around. Dramatic difference when I dumpped the SMC driver's on the wife's laptop for the windows one, much faster.

Thank you for the suggestions. I am busy working on a deadline right now but will move my shelves around later.

When I checked the power saver option, it was for the wi-fi card, not for the computer - there may be another setting that I missed. FYI I also grabbed the router user manual and will peruse that as well.

I do use my laptop quite a bit out of the house, school, church etc., so don't want to ignore power saving features overall - right now I get ~3 hrs per charge and would like to keep it in that range.

Oh yeah, I live in a duplex - the neighbour also has a router (I sometimes get his signal showing up), don't know about what type of cordless phone or other electronic devices he has.

FYI the signal drops off when I get more than 20' from the router - basically the other side of the kitchen. I am 5' away right now, steel shelves still in the area and get 54 Mbps strength.

Again thank you for your help.

Cheers
MapleLeaf