Small amount of wireless packet loss inevitable?

Zab

I was looking at a home wireless network belonging to a friend of mine. When pinging the broadband router via wireless, something around 1% of packets were being lost. This isn't a lot, but it did seem that during a loss period nothing was getting through, so if I happened to send 100 pings in that 1 second period none of them would get through (1 second is a guess).

I assume this is due to some sort of interference. I haven't played around with different channels yet, but I'm just trying to find out if this sort of loss is inevitable, or if the "perfect" wireless connection is possible with the average 802.11b/g setup.

Thanks!

Karoma

There's no such thing as normal:)
I wouldn't expect packet loss unless there's interference TBH. Possibly if the distance is stretching capabilities (Even then,I'd expect a high ping response time but not much packet loss)..

How far away from the router were/are you?
Any obstacles? More specifically: any interference (From cordless phone,bluetooth, another network, or anything on 2.4GHz spectrum??)
Is it 802.11 b or g?

Switch the channel in use. And test with Netstumbler or similar.
Failing this, ensure that power saving modes/schemes are disabled on all device.

Zab

Hey Karoma,

Did I say normal anywhere?

Distance isn't far at all, under 25 feet. Some thin walls may be involved. No cordless phones or bluetooth, and I didn't pick up any other 802.11b/g networks. Obviously, I can't say if there is anything else running at 2.4Ghz. There may be both b and g devices running on the network.

I tried switching it to channel 1, which was a disaster. It would totally disconnect every 1-2 minutes, windows ping reporting time outs, hardware errors, no route and then start working again. Changing back to 11 solved this problem. Ping times, when working, are fine, except for the first one after each packet loss.

My PDA can do a site survey, so I may give that a go next time I'm over there. I'll have a look at the power saving features too.

To be honest, I was just trying to find out if this is worth working on, or if it isn't going anywhere.

Karoma

More a case of paraphrasing. I've learned my lesson.. *breaks fingers and sulks*
It's worth working on.

Apiarist

Zab wrote:

.......
I tried switching it to channel 1, which was a disaster. It would totally disconnect every 1-2 minutes, windows ping reporting time outs, hardware errors, no route and then start working again. Changing back to 11 solved this problem. Ping times, when working, are fine, except for the first one after each packet loss........

BTW, I've run Network Stumpler at my place just now and found out that out of 7 AP visible (Cork city center), 4 were on channel 11. Would they conflict to any degree on the same channel?
(Also only two had encryption turned on. :v: )

Karoma

victor8600 wrote:

BTW, I've run Network Stumpler at my place just now and found out that out of 7 AP visible (Cork city center), 4 were on channel 11. Would they conflict to any degree on the same channel?
(Also only two had encryption turned on. :v: )

Er, Stumbler perhaps?
They'd have to be within a closer proximity than the same city..

Apiarist

Karoma wrote:

Er, Stumbler perhaps?
They'd have to be within a closer proximity than the same city..

Yes! Awfully sorry for the mistake, as you said it is Stunbler, not Stumpler