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Wireless woes
Grundlterror
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I recently decided to do away with the cable running across the floor of my room and went wireless. I got a Linksys Wireless-G PCI Adapter with Speedbooster model WMP54GS.
It works fine when I'm surfing the internet for the most part.. but when I play World of Warcraft I sometimes disconnect. Sometimes the speed goes down to like 1mbps (getting 54mbps right now), usually the linksys app crashes and goes gray and another one is auto launched.
This is quite annoying especially when I'm in a group/instance, but sometimes it will work for like 3 - 5 hours straight.
Anyone have any idea how I can diagnose the problem or what the problem may be?
Edit - also when I do disconnect it is usually preceded by the game freezing for a second a couple of times
It works fine when I'm surfing the internet for the most part.. but when I play World of Warcraft I sometimes disconnect. Sometimes the speed goes down to like 1mbps (getting 54mbps right now), usually the linksys app crashes and goes gray and another one is auto launched.
This is quite annoying especially when I'm in a group/instance, but sometimes it will work for like 3 - 5 hours straight.
Anyone have any idea how I can diagnose the problem or what the problem may be?
Edit - also when I do disconnect it is usually preceded by the game freezing for a second a couple of times
Grundlterror on
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Try changing wireless channels on the wireless router, move it away from any other electrical devices, especially cordless phones and other devices that may use wireless communication.
If that fails, try re-siting your router in a completely different area of the room, or even a totally different room, and see if the problem persists.
I mean thats what seems like is going on, because it quickly reconnects just after it disconnects and the computer does a little 'hiccup' right before I get disconnected.
On top of that I only notice it when I'm playing World of Warcraft... although when I used to download torrents it happened then too so I was thinking maybe I have to limit the number of connections somehow
Though, you're talking to a guy who got rid of a wireless card, and dug up the corners and sides of his carpet in his apartment complex and ran 100ft of network cable along a wall, up a door fram, accross the top of two doors, down another door frame, under the carpet, around a corner, behind the tv, out of the carpet and into the computer....
I prefer cables... Made my 1.1TB backup take 24hrs over gigabit speeds instead of 4 days at 154~103mbps....
Movie Collection
Foody Things
Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
I'll give it a shot and report back here
I'm thinking about just running a cable to my computer and giving up on this wireless crap
Wireless is good, don't get me wrong, I've wireless for months, nay, years... The biggest thing that made me switch was because I got a Home Server to hold a concurrent backup of all my data, and it was taking 4 to 6 days to perform a full backup of the computer, and occasionally the network would shit on day 3....
Movie Collection
Foody Things
Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
I'll pay to have someone run cables through vents if I can't because wireless is inferior in every other respect.
Not always the case... Wireless N is proving to be faster than a standard wired connection (10/100), NOT faster than gigabit though..... My Wireless N network was able to hit over 100mbps consistantly, but for some reason I'd have erractic connection speed dips... But I think it was related to my apartment complex...
Movie Collection
Foody Things
Holy shit! Sony's new techno toy!
Wii Friend code: 1445 3205 3057 5295
Come on now, I got mine 'cuz my apartment had cables running everywhere and it has yet to be noticiably slower(I haven't done multi-day huge endeavours yet. I did download Psychonauts from Steam though)
1) Wireless operates in the 2.4GHz spectrum. OP, do you own a 2.4GHz cordless phone? If so, replace it with a 5.8GHz model. This is something I had to do.
2) OP, do you own a microwave oven? Those also use the 2.4GHz spectrum. The reason that microwave ovens work is that radiation at this frequency agitates water molecules, causing them to heat up. That's also the reason that 2.4GHz wireless signals don't propagate very far compared to other wireless technologies; they tend to get absorbed by water vapor in the air, converting signal power into waste heat. Why do you care? Well, if someone nukes a burrito in the vicinity of your wireless access point, there's a good chance that they'll also leak out some noise at 2.4GHz. I know my microwave does. Every time my girlfriend heats something up in the microwave, my connection speed goes to crap, but that's mainly because my access point is in the kitchen (it's the most central room in the house). There's really not much you can do to prevent this, it's just something to be aware of.
Funny story. My Dad knew a guy who used to work on the network of microwave towers that spans Canada. When working at high altitude and/or in cold weather, he would often briefly put his hands in the path of the microwave beams between towers to warm them up. He was essentially microwaving his hands. And no, he never got cancer, because microwaves are non-ionizing radiation.
As if cordless phones and microwaves weren't enough, Bluetooth devices and baby monitors can also interfere with wireless networks. I haven't run into problems with those personally, but again, something to be aware of in case you do own some of these devices.
3) OP, are there any other access points in your immediate area? Download NetStumbler and see if it detects any other wireless networks in your vicinity. Pay particular attention to what channels they use. Most wireless networks default to channel 6 out of the box. Because wireless networking uses something called spread spectrum, channel 6 actually overlaps with many other channels. In order to completely avoid interference with other wireless networks, I recommend switching yours to channel 1 or 11, as long as there are no existing networks in your area using those channels or any adjacent channels.
4) As much as I like my LinkSys' hardware, their firmware and software leaves much to be desired. On the client machine side, you should be able to let Windows configure the wireless connection, rather than using the LinkSys desktop app. I recommend doing so, the Windows tool is actually pretty decent. At the very least, it won't randomly crash like the LinkSys widget seems to be doing.
On the router side, does your router support any open source firmware (e.g. dd-wrt)? If nothing else works, that might help. I know LinkSys firmware has historically had problems with apps that open a lot of network connections (e.g. torrents). The DD-WRT firmware I run on my access point has none of those issues, because it let me raise the connection cap and lower the timeout on stale connections. It also allowed me to boost its wireless signal strength by increasing voltage to the antennas. Replacing the firmware with open source is not for the faint of heart, though. It technically voids your warranty, and there's a possibility that you can brick your router during the flash process.
5) Is your wireless signal strength really variable? This was a problem I noticed at my mother's house. My sister has a PC in the basement connected via wireless, and the access point is upstairs. The signal strength was quite variable, and the software kept toggling between different speeds. Every time it toggled, it would actually drop the connection briefly, then reestablish it. I hard-set it to 24Mbps, which kept it from toggling around and got rid of the disconnect/reconnect problems. Your internet connection is likely to be the bottleneck anyway, so don't be afraid to scale down from 54Mbps if it helps.