Question on Wireless Setup

Gen8888 · Post by **Gen8888** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 10:57 pm

Hi, I currently setup a wireless network in my house. The products are Links Wireless G router and Links USB network adaptor. The type of connection I have is cable modem. After hooking up the network, my signal strength is Excellent on my PC that has the wireless adaptor but i've bandwith tested and it is significantly lower than the other PC that is directly hooked into the router and my cable modem. The PC that I play PC games on is the one with the network adaptor and it is terrible trying to play and I get alot of "lag". I wanted to ask, I understand that wireless would be abit slower than just running a ethernet cable but didnt' realize it was this much of difference or is it? Would i see alot more improvement in my bandwith speed if i did get a ethernet cable long enough? Also the wireless adaptor i purchased is external and requires a usb. I read that it supports 2.0 ports and 1.1, and i know my USB port on my computer is 1.1. So do you think that might be the main problem? Should i take that back and get a internal wireless card? Would that effect my bandwith substantially? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 11:51 pm

that might be it. and the fact that is is a one way communication. if they were both the extreme G then it would be both way at the same time.

Good luck and welcome

Greg

Gen8888 · Post by **Gen8888** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:34 am

Thanks for the quick reply and the welcome.... I will try to put in a internal wireless card and see if that solves the problem.

Busby · Post by **Busby** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:55 am

That shouldn't be causing the lag. USB 1.1 is 12 Mbps theoretical throughput which is shared between devices. So given the theoretical maximum of 12 Mbps, you should see around 7 to 8 Mbps. That is no where near what you cable internet speeds are. You're talking about 1-3 Mbps per second when bursting. Playing most games doesn't even use that much. So speed testing shouldn't necessarily be less. It sounds like you have an issue somewhere else in your setup with such results. Do you have WEP enabled? What settings on the router do you have for wireless? Is it mixed mode? Straight G? Straight B?

What I would suggest is doing some ping tests and seeing how those do. To see how the wireless computer does with pings, open a Command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and type in "ping -n 10 http://www.google.com" Watch the results and make sure they are pretty much about the same. You can substitute for http://www.google.com any website you know or even your favorite game server. Running a traceroute may be necessary if you get wide varying results and/or dropped packets. My suggestion would be run the ping on the wireless computer then run it on the wired computer with the same address and compare.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:34 am

As Busby pointed out, USB 1.1 is still MORE than adequate for Internet. That's not your problem. You DO NOT want an internal Wifi NIC. They get very poor range because the metal case blocks the antenna.

Linksys routers are notorious for firmware issues concerning wireless. No way to tell how long that router was sitting on the shelf, but I'm certain it doesn't have the latest firmware installed. I would recommend you go to the Linksys website and download the latest firmware for the router and install it.

I'm not too happy with Linksys routers lately. I like their USB Nics but I prefer the D-Link wifi routers.

I would also recommend you change the radio channel the router is using. Linksys defaults to channel 6. Most routers use channel 6 and if you have a neighbor with a wifi router, you may be getting interference.

Just because you're getting an Excellent signal level, doesn't mean it's a clean signal.

Other things also interfere with Wifi. Older wireless house phones can interfere with them. You should also keep the router and Nics away from sources of radio noise like flourescent light fixtures.

You should place your router and the USB NIC in as high a position as possible (don't just throw them on the floor) for maximum range. Ideally on top of a book shelf if possible.

The Linksys router has 2 antennas on it. One should be vertical and the other nearly horizontal to maximize reception of signals (radio waves can be horizontally and vertically polarized).

Also, if you're using WEP encryption try disabling and see if it helps. WEP reduced bandwidth. Usually not enough to lag games, but worth a try. There are other was to secure your connection if that's the problem.

Hope this helps.

Gen8888 · Post by **Gen8888** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:11 pm

I will try those things you have mentioned and get back to you. Thanks again for all the suggestions...

Gen8888 · Post by **Gen8888** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 3:15 pm

I looked at my Router settings at I currently have WEP disabled. The router is on Mixed Mode. I went to their website and downloaded the lastest firmware. I also checked the bandwith speed using Cnets website that has a bandwith tester and noticed the computer that is directly hooked upto the router and modem is at around 2100kbps and the wireless computer is at around 1034kbps. Thats almost half the bandwith speed. Is that normal? I ping tested the wireless computer and acouple of times I had one packet missing, when pinging google.com etc... the other computer directly hooked into the modem had no packets missing when repeated..