Chris- The laptop and the PCI card in the desktop are not equal... the laptop is an old hp pavilion ze4900 with the stock card/antenna, and the PCI card was branded LevelOne WNC-301. Not sure of the specs on either, but I have used a lot of those PCI cards... 40+, and they have consistently performed well, and way better than the laptop has. So yes, it is possible that the PCI card is hearing something that the laptop isn't... but it doesn't seem to be affecting the AP. I did try a small panel antenna on the PCI card instead of the omni that came with it, and there was no difference, but that little panel (one of the D-Link 7db ones i think) isn't overly directional either.
It is just really strange to be sitting next to the desktop unit, logged in with my laptop, able to use WinBox to manipulate the channels on the AP, never drop the connection with the laptop, never even have to re-login to winbox, because the laptop followed the AP channels fast enough, cycle through all of the channels, and watch the desktop right next to me fail to even detect the AP on channels 1-8, and connect with RSSI's of 60-65 on channels 9-11. I thought of interference from something, but... Is it possible that the interference could be within the Desktop unit itself? It was a Dell. Could it have been a driver issue? I did change the PCI slot the card was in also, but that didn't change anything either. John chris cooper wrote: > John- > > It sounds like you might have noise impacting the local AP on channels > 1-6. Is the power and receive sensitivity the same on your laptop vs. > the customer PC? That might be the reason you are seeing the difference > in performance between the two. Did you run netstumbler or otherwise > look at the spectrum? Any chances of a local interferer in the house or > garage? > > chris > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of J. Vogel > Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 9:28 AM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: [WISPA] Some days I don't seem to know anything. > > Is it possible for interference to prevent a signal from showing up in a > > site > survey in Windows Zero Configuration utility? I set up a relay AP at a > home yesterday, the AP being on the roof of the garage (couldn't get > a link to my tower from the house). The wireless card I put in the > customers > computer would not connect to (usually would not even see) the AP, > although > it would find APs in other homes 1/2 mile away at times. My laptop, > sitting > on the desk next to the computer, connected immediately, with great > signal > strength. BUT, if I changed the channel to either 9, 10, or 11, then the > desktop unit would connect, also with great signal strength. I changed > out > the radio on the garage, changed the PCI wireless card in the desktop, > antennas, > everything, but as long as the AP was on channel 8 or lower, the desktop > would usually not find it, and when it did, the RSSI was very low. My > laptop > however, did not have any problems connecting no matter what channel > the AP was on, with excellent RSSI reported on all channels. > > Is there an explanation for what I was seeing? > > -- John Vogel - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.vogent.net 620-754-3907 Vogel Enterprises LLC Information Services Provider serving S.E. Kansas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
