On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 10:52 PM, linux-yug <[email protected]> wrote:
> Wireless question... > > Have Googled and didn't get any answers I liked.. > > > You have box with with Wireless b/g/n > > And you have router with g/n... > > Can you force the box to connect with either g/n? > > Or how is the connection determined? > > > TIA > > > Linux-yug > Typically the connection speed is auto-negotiated with the WAP/router depending on the type of card you have and the current signal conditions. Why do you ask, are you getting a slower connection than 54MB/s or 105MB/s or whatever 802.11N is supposed to be? It might be a problem of low signal strength. If you are too far away from the WAP and the signal is weak (or there is a lot of interference), the wireless device in your system should negotiate a slower speed in order to ensure a stable connection. Trying to force a higher speed might not give you any performance benefits. If this is the case, you have a weak signal, the best thing to do is boost the signal. Some WAP devices will allow you to tweak the settings and notch up the transmit power (such as if you have a router with DD-WRT or OpenWRT or similar), however this is not always the best way to do it. The best way is to get better antenna(s). You can get 3rd party bigger antennas for the router, and depending on the device, antennas for the wifi device in the computer. This is easiest if you have a PCI device, the antenna just screws in the back, you can get an external one with a cord, and set it up as high as possible. If you have a laptop with built in wireless your antenna options are more limited. A good compromise might be to get a USB wireless device, and build a parabolic reflector dish for it (and disable the internal wireless device). There are plans for such things around the net. I am a Ham Radio operator, and one of the first lessons to learn about radio propagation is that boosting your radio transmit power helps up to a certain point, but getting a better antenna, and one higher up, will always help, and in many cases can be less expensive than boosting power (such as with an amplifier). Also with 802.11a/b/g/n you are limited by the FCC how much transmit power you can use. 802.11 is radio technology, in fact part of the 802.11 band overlaps one of the Ham bands. In Ham Radio one can build a small transmitter into an Altoids tin, throw a wire antenna across a couple of trees, and work people around the world with less than 5 watts. Of course that is the HF bands (3-30mhz), where 802.11 is in the 2.4Ghz band and is line-of-sight. OK enough Ham speak for now... 73 de K6LNX :) ---------- Matt M. LinuxKnight _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
