Re: [BAWUG] Linksys Wireless USB Adapter Troubles

[David Neves]

Another word of caution to add to this discussion, a better signal strength (signal power) _doesn't_ necessarily translate to better signal quality... You might be getting a signal with more power but also with more interference, or, in a worse case scenario, you might be getting mostly interference on the same band than the signal.   I'm not really sure what the meter  is indicating, but if it's only RSSI (signal strength) it's not so surprising what you're getting... There is usually another indication that some drivers supply (at least on Windows XP and WinCE) that better relates to the actual "Link Quality" (usually goes with this name). You probably should refer to this indication to better estimate the performance of the wireless link.   As Luke said, your problem might also be related to the platform you're using, rather than the actual wireless link (radio environment). A possible source for your trouble might be the USB device driver... Not that the USB should be a significant bottleneck as this bus' performance achieves 12Mbps (unless you have large bandwidth devices on the bus like USB hard-disks or CD-Recorders) but a buggy device driver could cause a great degradation of performance... As a first approach you should check for updated drivers! (really!) :-)   =---------------------------------===----------------------------------= David Neves                      -<|>-           [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: Luke To: Raymond Sinatra Jr. Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 8:03 PM Subject: Re: [BAWUG] Linksys Wireless USB Adapter Troubles Surfing speed is directly affected by CPU and real memory available. You don't say if you have equivalent CPU's, but I'm guessing you don't. My surfing speed went up a lot when I upgraded. USB probably doesn't help. It's another layer of bus and drivers to go through, and has a much lower B/W than pcmcia or PCI. The drivers, in XP's case, might be quite significant. Also, your PC may not be correctly setup in the TCP/IP parameters. Try the performance tests at dslreports.com. Specifically look for the TCP/IP (MTU) configuration wizard. Signal strength has quite a lot to do with antenna orientation and position relative to concrete walls, metal boxes (computer case, fridge, oven). Also, remember that radio waves bounce around, and can form peaks and valleys in intensity. Closer to the router will not necessarily give you better results. Also, his meter might just be calibrated differently than yours. If he's getting good performance, I wouldn't worry about what the meter says. But, you can move the box around the room and between rooms to see if the power meter changes. Lastly, attach your box to the network with a wire and compare the performance results to see if it is your computer or the wireless connection. Luke At 09:39 AM 9/23/2002, Raymond Sinatra Jr. wrote: Okay, frustrated wireless guy here. My roommate has a laptop with Windows XP and a wireless network card. I have a desktop with Windows XP and a USB adapter. My roommate and I are roughly the same distance from the router (his room is 10 feet further away from the router). All equipment is Linksys. His signal strength is never better than 'good' and oftentimes stands at 'low'. My signal strenght is 95% of the time listed as 'excellent'. He is currently surfing at much higher speeds, most times more than twice the speed. What gives? Does signal strength have anything to do with the speed of surfing? Is the fact that the adapter is connected via USB slowing me down? Please help... Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo!