🚀 go-pugleaf

My $.02 to this thread:

I just set up an SMC7004AWBR with Orinoco USB NICs.  I have great
reception from the first floor to the attic, in opposing corners of
the house.  No mods to the antenna.

Something is definitely wrong with your hardware.  In my setup, the
crappy link monitor app that Orinoco provides says there is a "poor"
connection, but the recieved signal level is -70dBm and the SNR is
over 20.  Most of these receivers have sensitivity levels of around
-85dBm at 11Mbps.  In my engineering opinion, 15dB above the lower
level is more than adquate.

The SMC7004AWBR isn't the best (it's not a Cisco/Aironet), but then
again, I'm not setting up an enterprise network.

Don't modify the antenna circuit unless you really know what you are
doing.  Microwave designs are very touchy.

Elroy


On Mon, 29 Apr 2002 16:16:13 GMT, "Gary Funck" <gary@intrepid.com>
wrote:

>This past weekend, I bit the bullet and decided to add wireless capability
>to my home network. I bought a laptop (Toshiba), and then went to Fry's and
>picked up some wireless stuff:
>
>SMC7004AWBR - 4 port router/firewall, 802.11b WAP, with printer server
>
>USR2410 - US Robotics 802.11b PCMCIA (client) card
>
>I looked at 802.11a stuff, but was unwilling to pay $400-$500 more for the
>privilege of trying out the latest technology.
>
>They didn't have the Lucent/Orinoco 802.11b PC card. The salesman said he
>thought the USR was a good card, and since I had no clue, I bought that one.
>I have heard that the USR card may use a new TI chipset, to implement
>802.11b, but don't know if that is bad/good.
>
>Now the fun begins:
>
>- set up the WLAN (SMC) router: Not too difficult, except I had to switch
>everything over from fixed IP to DHCP, and since I have 7 fixed IP's I'd
>kinda preferred to keep things the way they were. Can't even connect to the
>WLAN router unless you use DHCP (connects on one of those funny local IP
>addresses). They say I can put things back to fixed IP, but I haven't spun
>up the CD with documentation to see how to do that. My initial attempts
>failed.
>
>- the USR PC card was more problematic. It seems the out-of-the-box driver
>does *not* support XP. Worse, the "configuration utility" deep sixes,
>causing Windows XP to "go blue" with the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). As if
>that's not bad enough, subsequent reboots would sporadically crash the
>system (probably due to the faulty driver, I was never quite sure - it
>seemed to be worse if the card was removed before rebooting).
>
>- a quick trip to USR's web page yields some encouraging information: (1)
>yes, the config. utility doesn't work on XP, and yields "unpredictable
>results" (nice euphemism). Further, the new "1.28" driver for Win2K is
>supposed to work on XP, but was only tested on the initial release of XP,
>and "might not" work on later versions of XP. Then, there is the newer "1.30
>BETA" driver which is intended for XP, but USB offers the driver as is, and
>offers no guarrantees it will work at all. Very comforting. Oh, the 1.28
>driver comes in two flavors: "ad hoc" and "infrastructure", which has
>something to do with whether it roams or not, I think, but very little
>explanation is given.
>
>- so, I chose Door #2: the 1.28 'ad hoc' driver (the BETA tag scared me off
>a bit). Installation isn't all that easy -- you have to first un-install the
>old driver using the XP driver uninstall (it took me a while to find that,
>since XP is just enough different from Win2k to be irritating), and *then*
>you have to run a little utility, downloaded separately, that *really*
>uninstalls the driver (nice). Okay, new 1.28 driver installed, after much
>frustration, I determine it just won't talk to the wireless transmitter. (I
>made sure they were using the same wireless channel, no encryption, etc.)
>
>- next, I downloaded the BETA driver. The good news is this driver comes
>with a web page that directs the user through the uninstall steps, and even
>includes the uninstall utility with the same down load. Still no config.
>utility, and I think that may mean that encryption can't be turned on, but I
>haven't explored that area yet. Well, the good news is that the BETA driver
>works(!).
>
>- now the bad news: with the laptop about 6 feet from the transmitter, I'm
>seeing signal strength of about 80%, and "link quality" oscilating between
>90-100%, and dropping to 80%. Okay, not so bad - but if I take the computer
>upstairs (40 feet, max.) the signal strength drops to 30-40%, and unless the
>card is oriented just right, the signal strength and link quality drop to
>zero(!). So much for the advertised 300 feet max. I tried moving the
>transmitter away from the DSL router and computer, but this didn't change
>things. The walls are thick here, and maybe there's chicken wire under the
>plaster/lathe, but really shouldn't I expect better performance? How do I
>know if the transmitter and receiver are working according to spec? Do
>wireless phones (just sitting in their cradles) or wireless mice interfere
>with these things?
>
>What next? The current situation isn't workable. I really expected to be
>able to use the wireless connection upstairs, and in the living room, or
>even outside. Right now, anything more than 15-20 feet (line of sight) away
>looks marginal.
>
>I see a few possiblities:
>
>1) some other combination of WAP and PC client - but which ones, and why
>would they work better? I've read that the SMC is about as good as it gets
>for reasonably priced WAP's, so perhaps the only thing to try is a new unit.
>I tried out a friend's Orinoco Gold USB client, and it did work a bit better
>(and maybe even works well enough for my application, at the margin), so I'm
>going to try that next.
>
>2) somehow increase the effectiveness of the PC client's antenna. I don't
>see any place on the PC card to plug in a piece of wire though.
>
>3) Multiple WAPS: get another wireless "access point". This can be a
>non-router, and might cost $125/so (just guessing). How do I configure that?
>On the same channel,or a different one? How does DHCP work in that setting
>(note: I'd position it upstairs, because upstairs and downstairs are
>connected by CAT5). I'm thinking that I'd configure the upstairs WAP to use
>a different channel (and let the client roam to find the strongest), disable
>DHCP, and connect the WAP to my local ethernet line using a cross-over
>cable, (connecting it to the WAN port). Anyone tried this? will this work?
>
>4) Spend the additional $400 and go with 802.11a. Is it reasonable to assume
>that if 802.11a is faster, that it will more reliably transmit/receive on
>weaker singals? Maybe I won't see 72Mbs, but at least I'll see decent
>ability to connect/transmit? I overhead some customers at Fry's saying
>802.11a was evem more sensitive to interference, and couldn't tansmit as
>far, btw. I assume they were talking about transmitting at full speed but
>who knows?
>
>----
>
>I'd appreciate hearing you thoughts/suggestions.  thanks - Gary
>
>
>