[Wirelessdriver-support] Re: Signal Strength

[Russ C. <ru...@do...>]

>Message: 4
>Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 12:42:47 -0600
>From: bh...@ma...
>Subject: [Wirelessdriver-support] Signal Strength
>
>I have a Powerbook G3 Wallstreet with a Orinoco Gold Card connecting to
>a linksys base.  The driver seems to load just fine but ...i was not 
>getting was a signal strength.  The only
>quirky thing about the Linksys and a card that is not theirs is that you
>have to I believe put a "$" in from of the hex key. ...
>Brian

Is the behavior any better with WEP disabled?

I have a PBG3 Lombard with an Orinoco Silver card. I'm using an 
Airport Base Station rather than a Linksys access point, but I have 
experience with Linksys access points and cards. I have Lucent 
range-extending antenna connected to my base station, as well.

I my situation, I have seen great fluctuations in signal strength, 
including dropping to zero for what seems like an eternity. I'm 
certain there are at least three things going on:
1. Definitely interference from my 2.4 GHz phone system
2. Relative placement of the access point and PB. My house is full of 
surprising dead spots
3. Some wireless cards seem to not want to reconnect with the base 
after a severe signal drop-out. I have a Netgear card, for example, 
that has to be manually told to rescan for a signal in those 
situations.

Changing the network channel at the base station has produced good 
results for me. Try a channel as far as possible (numerically) from 
the one you're currently using and see if the signal quality 
improves. It's a trial and error process. Keep a log of channel 
settings and observations.

-- 
Russ Cusimano