YET another wireless connection question!

[Chris Goddard]

Got the connection up and working, then signal sttays the same 9About 49 to 56% in next room, but BLOODY thick walls!

Anyway, PC using wireless KEEPS on losing signal!! Or is unable to connect. Using Belkin PCI card for wireless. And using WINDOWS xp to connect as I CANNOT get a connection using the Belkin gizmo!! Just keeps losing the wep key!?

Anyway, next door another 2 feet of wall away is the laptop!! A samsung notebook which was rubbish at first connecting? But now is singing ALL the time when it is on!!

 

SO WHY is it the OPC will not connect? Any ideas please?? I am also oing to connect my printer wirelessly but not until I get this right!

[ColinW]

Try moving your router. Mine only works properly if I have it raised up on top of my printer, so (one day) I'll mount it on the wall. Try a few different positions for the antennas as well.

[IanR]

Why does it lose the WEP key? Mind, I'm not a great fan of Belkin (software). Does it not support WPA?

 

 

Cheers

 

Ian.

[Tog]

put some decent 'twigs' on it all Chris, standard aerials with most PCI cards and routers are pants.

[Jeff S]

What model is the router Chris? Is the belkin card A, B, or G? Sorry but what is OPC? I took this from wikipedia- its much easier than trying to put it into words myself. Wep uses a 4 way handshake... This means that you are comparing the keys against each challenge.

 

Basically: The Access Point decrypts the material, and compares it with the clear-text it had sent. Depending on the success of this comparison, the Access Point sends back a positive or negative response. After the authentication and association, WEP can be used for encrypting the data frames. This may be the issue. Are you losing the key while using the belkin software?

 

WEP is too easy to hack Chris. I would avoid it and use WPA or even WPA2. Strange that you are only getting a 50% signal and being that close. I am two walls away and getting 100%.

 

Just an off chance but make sure the MTUs on the router are set to no more than 1500 and if you can... try changing the channels.

 

Luck

[Chris Goddard]

What model is the router Chris? Is the belkin card A, B, or G? Sorry but what is OPC? I took this from wikipedia- its much easier than trying to put it into words myself. Wep uses a 4 way handshake... This means that you are comparing the keys against each challenge.

 

Basically: The Access Point decrypts the material, and compares it with the clear-text it had sent. Depending on the success of this comparison, the Access Point sends back a positive or negative response. After the authentication and association, WEP can be used for encrypting the data frames. This may be the issue. Are you losing the key while using the belkin software?

 

WEP is too easy to hack Chris. I would avoid it and use WPA or even WPA2. Strange that you are only getting a 50% signal and being that close. I am two walls away and getting 100%.

 

Just an off chance but make sure the MTUs on the router are set to no more than 1500 and if you can... try changing the channels.

 

Luck

 

 

OPC should read PC!! Sorry spelling mystake!!

 

But I am using WPA as the router is already setup with a 128bit key. But I am going to move the router to a more central position. But the laptop STILL outperforms the ruddy car every time!! Never mind, but with walls around 2 feet thick at ALL walls.............

 

MUSt try and find my old Belkin router, that worked BRILLIANTLY in the UK!! I could walk across the road and STILL connect!!

 

Thanks Guys!!

[Jeff S]

Sorry for all the questions Chris A few more... Is your router NAT capable (with it enabled) and are you using static IPs or DHCP? If your PSKs are the same at all points that shouldn't be an issue.

 

Food for thought.

Edited March 3, 2008 by Jeff S

[Chris Goddard]

And again in plain english Jeff?? BLIMEY it's hard enough trying to learn flippin French mate!! Sorry but you have lost me! LOL!

[Jeff S]

And again in plain english Jeff?? BLIMEY it's hard enough trying to learn flippin French mate!! Sorry but you have lost me! LOL!

 

Sorry didn't read between the lines. It would help if you gave me the make and model of your router.

 

Most routers these days have an option to run network address translation (NAT). What this does is translates a single IP address into many. So you can use multiple computers to access the internet without having to pay for a separate address from your provider.

 

Without getting too much further in depth: DHCP is a setting within your network interface card that allows it to 'pull' a single IP address from a range of IP addresses.

 

If you run NAT you really want to run DHCP and make things simpler... so to speak. I'll have a look around and see if I can find something easy to follow.. Or at least with pictures

[Tog]

what's the notebook connect like when sat next to the desktop PC giving hassle Chris?

Notebooks have the advantage of having the antenna go right round the screen and often get a better signal than a PCI card hanging out the back of a PC.

bigger twiggy aerials (even the 8" cheapo ones) work a lot better than the little sticks that cards come with, I've a pair doing over 300M here (mind you I've line of sight and got em damn high outside!)

Your antenna should unplug from your PCI card with a quick CCW twist.

 

If you have a USB Wireless dongle try connecting that to the PC - but up high , eye level or better may improve things.

 

I tend to stick routers upstairs, they seem to give good downstairs coverage with one twig up and one parallel if a twin stick type.

Stick to WPA encryption and use a password thats easy to remember for each PC - a number and a word, don't use the 'pseudo random' kak that some routers provide on setup, far too easy to get wrong.

 

Yep Windows wireless setup does seem to work better than the belkin connect stuff, same thing with my sons PC, kept asking for the code so I disabled the belkin software and only use XP to configure it - works fine.