rob m wrote: > #1, 2, 3, and 4: > > THANK YOU!!! for all you are doing to make this card work. > I wish I could help somehow. I've been lurking on this mailing list for > a while now, and most of the emails are way beyond my talents. > > I am, at this very moment, using a broadcom "4306" as reported by > iwconfig, on Debian Etch, installed in early July 2007. My question: > > What software do you use to determine the quality of the > connection to the AP? > gkrellm says that I have a -253 "level". I know enough about radio > transmission to know that -253 db is useless, but this interface is > working fairly well as long as I'm relatively close (up one floor, over > one room). I can't connect at the opposite end of my home, <100', which > is where I want to hang out.
All of the 'quality' numbers from any program are rather useless. The only thing that matters is how much data one can stuff over the airwaves per unit time. If you have another machine on your LAN, you can use the Iperf package. It comes as client and server for almost any machine. My server runs Linux, which makes it easy, but there is a server for Windows and OS X. This program transmits a random string of bits across the connection and reports the results. On my server at ftp://lwfinger.dynalias.org/patches are a couple of Perl scripts that test the link at different speeds. One uses an Iperf server, the other copies a file to a server and copies it back to get the transfer speed. If you don't have another machine on your LAN, you are limited to the browser speed tests, whic in my case measure the speed of my broadband line - my link is much faster than the line. On most of the BCM43xx cards that I have seen, the noise level is anywhere from -70 to -90 dBm, depending how close you are to the AP, and the general 2.4 GHz noise level of the room. The signal level varies from -30 to -60 dBm. I hope this is clear. If not, please ask questions about the part that isn't. Larry _______________________________________________ Bcm43xx-dev mailing list [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/bcm43xx-dev
