Wow, that is great info. Thanks heaps for all of that!
Regards Chris Griffiths
On 29/04/2005, at 11:36 AM, Mark Secker wrote:
Wireless networking is not as easy as it sounds and their are some
basic principals you need to be aware of...
Cisco have a good basic wifi book that is sold at Angus and Robertson
(no need to trek in to Perth to Boffins)
Old microwave ovens can cause this problem too.
Really because all WiFi equipment operate on unregulated frequency
area they can be jammed by other equipment operating around the same
frequency.
If you have the old TiBook not that they have very poor reception and
can be very susceptible to even minor moves and orientation changes -
mine can sometimes drop from 80% to below 25% just by rotating it
about 15 degrees.
note that 11.g is only rated to roughly 15 meters away from
basestation then your best dropping to 11.b speed beyond that.
my biggest problem with my home WiFi is reflections from the neighbors
metal car port and when ever they park their metal covered trailer
next to the room with the base-station reception drops (signal
strength stays the same but packet count goes up and bandwidth goes
down meaning a lot of reflected scrambled packets)
an interesting thing is that I have Venetian blinds between my laptop
and base-staion (just don't ask, OK!) and with them partly open to
about 25 degrees I get a better signal strength than fully open or
fully closed.
in addition to that which have already been suggested
1: download this
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19621> on to your
laptop and walk around your office area noting hot and cold WiFi
spots when you hit a cold or hotspot below 25% above 75% stop and turn
around 360 degrees on the spot and see how that affects strength. See
how this relates to furniture, fittings and line of sight to the
base-station.
2: check to see that any furniture you have (particularly metal
filing cabinets or metal framed shelving) have been moved in the time
the problems started... try moving them away from anywhere near the
line of sight between client and base station. Also move any
transformers such as the ones for halogen or fluro desk lights away
from your computer and base-station.
3: go outside or check out other offices in your building and see if
there are any new structures within 20 Meters or so of your
base-station... maybe the office next door got a new rollo (sp?)
archive cabinet.... one area I support had half their buildings single
base-station wifi network effectively killed by one of these.
4:repositioning the base-station, move it to as central location as
possible - even hang it upside down from the center of the ceiling if
you can :)
If you have PoE (power over Ethernet) on both your base station (model
M9397X/A) and your broadband hub then you only need a longer Ethernet
cable
5: buy a directional antenna for the base station.. though you can get
some sexy "spy dish" looking ones that focus so tight you can shoot
11.g several Klm in a narrow beam what you want is one that puts out a
fairly broad spread (90 to 180 deg) along a fairly narrow plain (so
not "wasting" signal strength been sent up to the roof or down to the
floor.
6: buy another base-station to act as a repeater :(
I'm wondering if there is a solution to this. When I first installed
the airport extreme base station it worked perfectly. I could move
my laptop around the 54sqm office get the internet etc. Then about 6
weeks ago the airport just dropped out and it would go on sometimes
and off others.
I recently had a techo come out and check it and he said all was fine
and maybe there was someone in the area that is using a 2.4Ghz phone
and that was rendering the airport useless. I get a few hours use at
various times of the day but this is pretty much useless to me
because I need to transfer files all the time.
Does this mean the airport and the two airport cards that I bought
were a waste of money? Or is there something I can do about it?
Thanks in advance.
Regards Chris Griffiths
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Mark Secker Computer Support Officer
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University of Western Australia - CRICOS Provider No. 00126G
~
"Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the
impossible."
- Miguel de Unamuno
"It takes an idiot to do cool things.... that's why it's cool"
- Haruhara Haruka (FLCL)
<http://ecel-mark.ecel.uwa.edu.au/~marksecker/index.htm> (sometimes
works)
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