Wireless setup help

_X_

I was looking at a thread in G&T and it mentioned setting up a wireless connection without broadcasting the SSID and then hooking up by just entering the information manually.
Would this have any advantage over not broadcasting or encrypting the connection? I ask because my wireless currently likes to cut out randomly when it feels like it.
I have a linksys adapter so I have the setup through the program that came with the adapter. It seems to only hook up by using a broadcasted connection so could I just switch to the Windows Wireless Setup instead?

fforde

Turning off your SSID broadcast is just another method of securing your network. It is obviously not very secure because all anyone has to do is know your SSID or scan for it with a freely available program, however it prevents casual theft. Your neighbor is a lot less likely to 'borrow' a little bit of bandwidth here or there, because unless he goes out of his way, he wont know your network is there.

And yes you can turn off the Linksys software and use the Windows version instead. Although I am not familiar with Linksys' app, so I couldn't direct you to what you need to switch...

supabeast

You could switch to the Windows configuration tool, but it won't solve your connection problems. Arbitrary disconnects are a pretty common problem with a lot of wireless systems, and as more and more wireless technology sharing those spectra appear, there will be more interference, and the problems will keep getting worse

_X_

I'm just looking for other options besides going out and getting a 25-30 foot cable to run from my roommates room to my computer. The wireless ran excellent at my old place where it was Linksys adapter to a Speedstream modem(Bell Canada DSL). Now I'm using the same adapter going to a D-Link router which is plugged into a Rogers cable modem.

fforde

You may try switching your network to a different channel. I was having interference issues recently, causing my network to not be so reliable. Switching the channel helped a lot.

_X_

I switched channels from 6 to 10 and i think it actually worked. The connection was only showing at 24Mbps but it just went up to 54 but so far I haven't experienced any slow downs. Let's just hope that it keeps this up.

Grimm

Everyone so far has been giving great advice. I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I would suggest you also use mac filtering.

I've heard that sometimes wireless hardware made by different companies don't like to play well together. Might be the reason why things worked before and not now. Could just be interference too though.