🚀 go-pugleaf

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?

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I'd appreciate hearing you thoughts/suggestions.  thanks - Gary