Low reception - any ideas?

Bri

Ok it's been asked loads before but this time I'm stumped.

I'm living on campus (UCD) with a 3Com XJack a/b/g card working fine. I get the 'net etc. BUT I get low to very low reception everytime I extend the antenna. What's so weird is the fact that everyone around me (i.e. through the bedroom wall) has great reception, all with diff. cards and desktops/laptops. Any idea why or how to work this out?

Objects around the laptop:
Speakers/Subwoofer
Maxtor Onetouch External Drive
Wireless Optical Mouse (opp. side to the card)
'Satellite-reading' bedside clock (i.e. gets the time sent to it or something!)
A MD player and a discman
My phone

That's it! No microwaves, Mobile phone masts, etc. in my room. I'm even in the middle of the 3 bedrooms so I'm not near the kitchen!

:eek:

P.S. Computer Services here are useless so no luck there. Is there a stupid possibility that it reads low reception because it's capable of g speeds but UCD is only b? I find it boards.ie loads pretty fast but the connection gets dropped sometimes, especially just after connecting.

ChRoMeY1

Hey

Just a quick word about your wireless connection. I see that from a post on another forum you describe your card as connecting at 11mbs which puts it into the b class.

As you come across as someone who considers themself to have a good knowledge of computers I dont have to explain that the full throughput of a wireless connection cant be judged in the same was as a wired network. I also wouldnt have to tell you that g is the latest version of cards. Which supports up to 54mps (again suffers from never really getting that speed). So realisticlly you could half the number on the box so to speak.

You also mention in your post that other people in the same house have great connections with a variety of different wireless hardware. This would suggest possiblly that the card is setup incorrectly in some way or the rest of your house is using g capable cards. Anyway hope this helps.

Oh I'm an old quake head you used to know. Im sure i'll see you in the laptop area of the daedalus building sometime during term

ChRoMe

Bri

Hey Chrome. Cheers for that.

Thing is my card is capable of a/b/g (see above!) so how would I be less likely to get good reception? UCD is a b network AFAIK. I deliberately bought the card to future-proof it whilst still getting the recommended series, with the antenna so as to maximise reception. The card says its working perfectly...although now my internet is gone haywire - I get boards.ie loading at proper LAN speed, google timing out, and only half the sites I want to see load up. Even Vodafone loads but half the pictures fail and it takes ages. Yet as I said downloading certain pages (and even big files) is still at lightning speed. No changes made on the computer either, including not moving it around! Thought it was just a Sunday thing in college but this morning it's the same.

Argh!!!

Thanks again.

ChRoMeY1

Hey

The ucd network is g enabled. If the card is only connecting at 11mps its defo a problem with the settings. The fact that the machine hasnt moved around also means that you are less likely to change the signal. I had a mate who had a nice big old copper boiler in the los (line of sight). After moving the machine a few feet the reception improved. G class in my experience does have an easier time of establishing a better quality connection than the lower class of cards. So check driver software for enabling the g functions.

And sure if you dont get anywhere feel free to bring the laptop into me in the deadalus and I'll see if I can do anything

Eamonn "ChRoMe" Dunne

tribble

Once and for all

UCD IS 802.11 B - NOT G

tribble

Bri

ChRoMeY1

Heh I just presumed it was a G network since it would have been available when the ucd was rolling out the wireless network. Opps Anyway it still isint acceptable performance from your card. Still as far as I know people arnt experiencing the same problems as you. Which means hopefully that there would be other things for you to attempt to improve your signal strenght. Its always a pain I guess when it is working sometimes as its harder to determine what the actual problem is.

Sorry for the misinformation my bad. Just out of curiosity is the residences the only place where you get a weak signal? How is it around other areas of the campus.

ChRoMeY

Bri

No problem.

I don't know because my battery is screwed. If it wasn't I'd have brought the laptop everywhere by now.

ChRoMeY1

Power points in the daedalus laptop area if you want to try it there. I'm not trying to be a smartarse. Its just that I'm dealing with 10-15 student laptops a day and if anyone is having problems I'd like to know the problem (and solution if its been figured out!) As I have to support these things for the next 9 months.

Take it easy

Eamonn

happydude13

Have you tried other wireless cards ?
Have you tried other locations ?
have you tried another laptop alongside ?

Any of those would help determine if the problem is
location related
or hw related.
or...

Bri

No but I'm going to - the lack of a battery in the laptop makes this annoying.

Cheers!

Superman

Heres an idea, which may work.
1 - Get netstumbeler from netstumbler.com
2 - Have it running and it will log the signal rate of your wireless connection,
3 - Put the laptop in its bag while on and go for a walk towards the commerce building.
4 - When there look at the log of the signal.
5 - If it was very high at the time you are arround the commerce building the chances are it is not your card and probably just your location. (i knbow commerce has a few AP's in it/

Also UCD plan on expanding the WIFI.

UCD IT Dept. wrote:

Over 10 new wireless hotspots have already been installed and by January 2005, a system of over 20 wireless hotspots will be available to users at UCD.

UCD IT Dept.

Also just to to throw the cat among the pigeons, It is possible to have a high signal rate and a low link speed, Granted 11mbps is fast but if its lingering lower it may be your card settings or their settings!