Windows wireless network question

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/15/2008 06:09:57 PM · #1

The rental house I'm living in has an upstairs bonus room where the computer currently is. Because there was no cable up there I installed a wireless card on the desktop and have the wireless router downstairs by the cable outlet.

It works, but not as well as I want and I would like to know what's going on. Can anybody explain how to read the little wireless network icon in the system tray of Windows XP? It's that little computer screen with the waves emitting from it. Sometimes the screen is dark, sometimes it's lit. Sometimes the waves are lit, sometimes they are not. What does this signify?

The problem with the current setup is the net works in fits and starts. I'll click a link (say my profile) and it will immediately switch the screen, quickly load maybe the header only, and then take 5-7 seconds to load the rest. I'm wondering where the bottleneck is and what I can do about it.

Jessi

Mamiya 645Pro TL

Mamiya 80mm f/2.8

09/15/2008 07:32:46 PM · #2

The screen and the waves being lit or not lit have to do with packages being sent or received...I don't remember which one is which. I think the screen is packages sent? Not sure.

Don't know about the problem.

Katmystiry

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

09/15/2008 07:35:42 PM · #3

Your wireless router should be on a higher floor than the network/computers you are trying to connect to, this might be part of the problem, a not so strong signal.

MikeJ

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

09/15/2008 08:15:38 PM · #4

It doesn't take much to block the signal on these cards. Try turning your computer in 45 degree increments to see if that helps. If there are boxes, metal, furnature, printer, etc., surrounding your computer, move it out in the clear. If you have a card with an antenna on it, turn the antenna to different angles. If you don't have one with an antenna, you can get one of those and try it. You can also try moving the router and see if that helps. I have my fiber connected to a wireless router in the half basement of our tri-level house and two computers upstairs on the 2 and half floor with wireless cards and have no prob at all. One was in the far bedroom away from where the wireless router was and it had no problems either.

Also, make sure you have security turned on between your router and computer or you could be having neighbors (or even someone in a parked car on the street) hitching a ride on your internet service. I have mine set for our MAC addresses at home, although at work I have my wireless network set up for MAC address and key encryption.

Mike

Simms

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/15/2008 08:16:49 PM · #5

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

How many floors up are you? how many walls/floors between you and router? it all makes a difference. Even a metal bed frame in between you and the router can cause a massive loss of signal strength.

Nobody

Pentax K-S2

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO IF for Pentax

09/15/2008 09:08:17 PM · #6

I haven't had to resort to it, but you could always consider a powerline network.

09/15/2008 09:16:09 PM · #7

I actually don't think it's signal strength. It reads not as full, but at about 75% strenght on bars. It reads as "Signal strength: excellent" and speed is 54.0 mbps. To me, and I only have a limited knowledge of such things, it seems more like its encryption or a firewall that is periodically slowing things down.

I may try moving the router to the other side of the room it's in. Right now I'd say it's less than 35 feet from my computer, but has 2 walls and an entertainment center in between. I could shorten that to about 20 feet and no furniture. I still don't quite think it's the signal strength.

Message edited by author 2008-09-15 21:16:37.

Nuzzer

Canon EOS-7D

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

09/15/2008 10:11:24 PM · #8

We got given a new cordless phone a while back and every time we used it it killed our wireless. It was on the 2.4GHz frequency. Maybe one of your neighbours has something that interrupts the signal?

SDW

Canon EOS-60D

09/15/2008 10:30:40 PM · #9

Originally posted by Nuzzer:

We got given a new cordless phone a while back and every time we used it it killed our wireless. It was on the 2.4GHz frequency. Maybe one of your neighbours has something that interrupts the signal?

I was thinking that as well.
If he does have a cordless phone he can do a quick check to see if that is the problem.
Goto the command prompt and do a ping test to the router.
You will need to do at test of -n 25 or greater.
while testing pick up the cordless phone and turn it on.
see if the ms rating bog or the connection times out.
If it does then it's the phone interfering with the network.

Message edited by author 2008-09-15 22:31:18.

ambaker

Google Glass Google Glass

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM

09/15/2008 10:56:00 PM · #10

We've had 2.4 Ghz wireless phones for years. You should be able to check the channels being used, and try another one. We've not had a problem with the phone stepping on the wireless network signal.

54.0 mbps is more than enough bandwidth for any cable or DSL modem. If your connection consistently is slow, yet says that the connection is excellent, I would try a couple things. Go into Windows and "repair" the connection. That flushes a lot of crud out of the system and refreshes the addressing with the router. Power down, and then power back up the router, and your broad band modem. On occasion my cable modem gets out of sorts. Cycling the power off for about 30 seconds sometimes helps.

You don't say if it is a cable modem. My last place there never was a slowdown. Here, in a small town, at peak periods it gets iffy at times.

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

09/15/2008 11:22:43 PM · #11

Yes, it's a cable modem. I did some ping tests and I got an average time of about 215ms which seems slow. Does it matter where I'm pinging? A few times I'd get a Request Timed Out, but not more than 4%. I moved the modem to the top of the bookshelf which is now 7' high.

Could it be the Wii in between? Someone is playing it now and it seems slower. It's also 8:15 PM which is primetime TV. Maybe the whole network slows. It did not seem to matter what I did with the phone.

Message edited by author 2008-09-15 23:22:57.

SDW

Canon EOS-60D

09/15/2008 11:45:19 PM · #12

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

Wii....Is it on your network? if so YES! The Wii consistently screwed with my wireless system until I found out that the Wii is continuously online. Unplug your Wii and see what happens. It helped in my situation. Can't believe I forgot about the Wii problem.

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

09/15/2008 11:51:01 PM · #13

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

I doubt it... I have one of my XBox 360s wireless... and play some intense games on XBL while 2 laptops are connected wirelessly with no bandwidth issues.

Now I am DSL (share bandwidth with no one) and Wireless N and the router is MIMO (two radios for greater distance signal).

EDIT: after Scotts comment...must be a wii thing. Kind of like HP Wireless Printers which are the worst thing that could happen to a wireless network.

Message edited by author 2008-09-15 23:52:46.

MikeJ

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/16/2008 01:37:57 AM · #14

If you can, get a long cat 5 cable and runit directly from your router to your computer... or move your computer to where the router is and see if you have the same speed problems. The bars don't tell you a lot. You could be getting a great signal but if there is interference, noise or something else interferering with the signal, all of the bandwidth could be used up by re-transmissions because what you are getting is coming in corrupt.

It could be so many things though. If your computer buss speed isn't up to it, that's going to slow down your through put. You could need to update the drivers to the card (just because you just bought the card doesn't mean that the drivers aren't out of date), your virus program or firewall (hopefully you are running both. Zone Alarm is great for personal computer protection) might need to be tweeked. So it's hard to tell what it could be.

I perfer to find a way to run cat 5 cable (or cat 5e) though. I've used heating ducts ( a rubber ball with a string attached makes it easier to get it down the duct), I've run cable out one window and back in another, down chimminies, etc. I've found a lot of creative ways to run computer cables, phone wires and ham radio antenna cables over the years. :D

Good luck.

Mike

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

09/17/2008 07:27:55 PM · #15

Interestingly, I'm getting the same problem here at work today. I wonder if it's a comcast issue. Could they be throttling the bandwidth? Would it look like this?

When I pull up my profile, I get the top of the page (My home, challenges, commmunity, etc.) almost instantly (may be pulling from cache) and then it can take 5-10 seconds to load the rest. Does anybody else experience this?

Message edited by author 2008-09-17 19:29:24.

Apple iPhone 5

09/17/2008 07:33:37 PM · #16

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

Try //www.speedtest.net/ to test your bandwidth. If they're throttling you, you'll see your bandwidth decrease at certain times of the day.