Thanks for the reply. Good advice from both you and Chris.

I actually am just using the plain jane wireless adapter that walmart 
had put in this old
HP Pavilion ze4900. As a general rule it does fairly well, but not so 
well that it would
out-perform the PCI cards I use. I figure if the laptop will connect, 
the PCI card will
definitely work, usually a lot better. Unless... something happens like 
what did yesterday.

Sure wish I knew what was happening. The recommendation for wi-spy is 
appreciated.

John

Mark Williams wrote:
> I have seen this before also. Chris is right to mention that the desktop
> and your laptop are likely 
> reacting differently due to rec. sens. and / or power , IE fade margin
> differences.
>
> Not trying to shamelessly plug products here, but I find a wi-spy to be
> very helpful in this situation.
> Sometimes the noise source is simply not wifi related and the wi-spy
> will help you to identify
> the best frequency selection.
>
> Also, I HIGHLY recommend that you standardize on deployed wifi bridges /
> adapters and make sure
> you run the same equipment in your laptop. I've seen a lot of WISP techs
> who add higher end / power 
> wifi adapters in their laptops and while it may be greatly beneficial
> from a daily use standpoint, as 
> a tech it detracts from your ability to diagnose customer SINR issues.
>
> There are many non-wifi noise sources and the WiSpy is very much worth
> having.
> -Mark Williams
>
>
> On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 09:41 -0400, 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?
>>
>>     
>
>
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-- 

John Vogel - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.vogent.net   620-754-3907
Vogel Enterprises LLC
Information Services Provider serving S.E. Kansas



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