More Wireless Questions

Ok, I went with the card and router that others suggested in the other thread, but now I'm having some other problems. I have the modem downstairs (almost directly) and the main computer is plugged directly into the modem with a cord. My computer upstairs has a wireless card.

The computer downstairs is downloading at a mind boggling 182kbs off downloads.com... roll

Mine upstairs is going at like 80 max... (

It says it has an "excellent" connection and is showing connection speed of 11 Mbps. My card and router are supposed to be 54Mbps though... ?

Also, BitComet is working fine down there, but I can't get it to connect up there. I even tried forwarding the ports for the computer up here, it just doesn't want to connect...

The funny thing is that last night, I was using the neighbors connection and I was downloading at 150kbs off BitComet and had faster download speeds.

Anyways, I'm new at wireless, help a brother out....

nooby nooberson !

answer use your neighbor's.. haha thats what im doing right now P

Im not sure but there might be a setting hidden somewhere in the wireless router that you can change from 11-54Mbps. Also, the issue of using a WEP or WPA key might also slow it down since the laptop has to continuously send the key to the router. shrug

all 802.11g cards can fall back to 802.11b (i think)

802.11g == 54 Mbps
802.11b == 11 Mbps

With your laptop upstairs it is probably falling back to 802.11b. Try moving the wireless router antennas around, maybe you can point them towards the room your laptop is in and get the card to run @ 54Mbps again.

Otherwise, you can purchase external powered antennas that will extend the range of your wireless network, increasing the gain on the RF signal coming from the router. If you end up deciding to do this, look for an omnidirectional antenna that will add a gain of at least 5db.

What brand of card and router is it?? Some of the cards can be configured to increase their default gain. For example, the builtin wireless card in my Toshiba laptop (Intel PRO) I can set the signal strength in the properties of the card under the Windows Device Manager. Additionally, the router may also have a similar configuration option.

[quotea508226b88="agroman"]all 802.11g cards can fall back to 802.11b (i think)

802.11g == 54 Mbps
802.11b == 11 Mbps

With your laptop upstairs it is probably falling back to 802.11b. Try moving the wireless router antennas around, maybe you can point them towards the room your laptop is in and get the card to run @ 54Mbps again.

Otherwise, you can purchase external powered antennas that will extend the range of your wireless network, increasing the gain on the RF signal coming from the router. If you end up deciding to do this, look for an omnidirectional antenna that will add a gain of at least 5db.

What brand of card and router is it?? Some of the cards can be configured to increase their default gain. For example, the builtin wireless card in my Toshiba laptop (Intel PRO) I can set the signal strength in the properties of the card under the Windows Device Manager. Additionally, the router may also have a similar configuration option.[/quotea508226b88]

I went with these...

[quotea508226b88="Brok3n_Sword"]Linksys wireless G router
http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124010

PCI card for the PC(s)
http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833130118[/quotea508226b88]

It's a desktop with antenna card...

What agroman said. The network runs on whatever the slowest connection is.

you should get whatever my neighbor has.. it freaking works in MY bedroom... upstairs. P

[quote890dfc6177="bballp6699"][quote890dfc6177="agroman"]all 802.11g cards can fall back to 802.11b (i think)

802.11g == 54 Mbps
802.11b == 11 Mbps

With your laptop upstairs it is probably falling back to 802.11b. Try moving the wireless router antennas around, maybe you can point them towards the room your laptop is in and get the card to run @ 54Mbps again.

Otherwise, you can purchase external powered antennas that will extend the range of your wireless network, increasing the gain on the RF signal coming from the router. If you end up deciding to do this, look for an omnidirectional antenna that will add a gain of at least 5db.

What brand of card and router is it?? Some of the cards can be configured to increase their default gain. For example, the builtin wireless card in my Toshiba laptop (Intel PRO) I can set the signal strength in the properties of the card under the Windows Device Manager. Additionally, the router may also have a similar configuration option.[/quote890dfc6177]

I went with these...

[quote890dfc6177="Brok3n_Sword"]Linksys wireless G router
http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124010

PCI card for the PC(s)
http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833130118[/quote890dfc6177]

It's a desktop with antenna card...[/quote890dfc6177]

You made some good choices. I personally love Linksys stuff. They were purchased by Cisco a year or two ago. Good stuff.

You could get a pair of these for $35 from NewEgg to extend your range.

http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124156

Check out the search results, things to look for when shopping

li Gain db bigger is better
li Omni-directional this increases the range in 360 degrees. Directional will only increase gain in one focused direction (which is good for bridging networks).

I noticed that you got a PCI card, so I'm assuming that its in a PC that won't be moving often. You COULD go for a directional antenna, but if you ever decide to connect a laptop that will be moving around your house you'll probably regret not getting an omni directional antenna.

here's search results
http//www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Go&DEPA=0&type=&description=antenna&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Oh yeah, one other thing. The connectors on the antenna's aren't always the same. There are different couplers that are used, so pay attention to that. Pairing a Linksys antenna with your Linksys router might be the best option.

[quote04901934ed="bballp6699"][quote04901934ed="agroman"]all 802.11g cards can fall back to 802.11b (i think)

802.11g == 54 Mbps
802.11b == 11 Mbps

With your laptop upstairs it is probably falling back to 802.11b. Try moving the wireless router antennas around, maybe you can point them towards the room your laptop is in and get the card to run @ 54Mbps again.

Otherwise, you can purchase external powered antennas that will extend the range of your wireless network, increasing the gain on the RF signal coming from the router. If you end up deciding to do this, look for an omnidirectional antenna that will add a gain of at least 5db.

What brand of card and router is it?? Some of the cards can be configured to increase their default gain. For example, the builtin wireless card in my Toshiba laptop (Intel PRO) I can set the signal strength in the properties of the card under the Windows Device Manager. Additionally, the router may also have a similar configuration option.[/quote04901934ed]

I went with these...

[quote04901934ed="Brok3n_Sword"]Linksys wireless G router
http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124010

PCI card for the PC(s)
http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833130118[/quote04901934ed]

It's a desktop with antenna card...[/quote04901934ed]

Those are the exact ones I have, they've worked great for me.

[quotee0bfabf6f8="johnjimjones"]Those are the exact ones I have, they've worked great for me.[/quotee0bfabf6f8]

Cool!@ That's good to know. Because, I desperately need to buy a pair too! wink

My xbox is across the house and is running @ 11Mbps, blech.... It sucks when I'm streaming mp3s and videos to it, and burning everything to DVD is slowly costing me more than an antenna. )

[quote77949df7dd="EatChex89"]you should get whatever my neighbor has.. it freaking works in MY bedroom... upstairs. P[/quote77949df7dd]

You've proven your point on how ~li~liAWESOME~li~li you are by stealing your neighbors wireless signal. Try helping this guy out.

Bball, sometimes my signal drops just the way yours does. I'm not positive on what causes it, but the person who said to point the attena towards where your laptop is located is right. Works like a charm for me. )

Yeah, I'm going to give that a try. Should I point my cards antenna down towards the router?

Any ideas on the torrents not working, but working on the downstairs computer?

[quotea7c69254b2="bballp6699"]Yeah, I'm going to give that a try. Should I point my cards antenna down towards the router?

Any ideas on the torrents not working, but working on the downstairs computer?[/quotea7c69254b2]
It's probably the firewall settings on the router. For p2p apps you have to make sure the router is letting traffic pass to all your PCs through the corresponding ports.

As for overall speed, if you have 182 on one and 80 on the other, maybe 260kB/s (I don't know if you correctly distinguished kB/s and kbps) is the overall speed you get from your ISP? I used to get that speed until they upgraded us. You probably know that you won't get 54mbps from your ISP.

Yeah, I just don't understand why the downstairs computer can connect to bitcomet just fine and it's through the router.

...and yeah it's kBs...

[quote6f7f8d2942="bballp6699"]Yeah, I just don't understand why the downstairs computer can connect to bitcomet just fine and it's through the router.

...and yeah it's kBs...[/quote6f7f8d2942]

Then its definitely not your firewall settings. I'll betchya it will work fine with better antennae.

http//triefeldt.com/triefeldt.com/BUGS/bugs.gif/Proboscis.gif[" alt=""/img6f7f8d2942]

[quoted3732bec86="bballp6699"]Yeah, I just don't understand why the downstairs computer can connect to bitcomet just fine and it's through the router.

...and yeah it's kBs...[/quoted3732bec86]
Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. I know they both must be through the router, but one of them has permission, the other doesn't. If a p2p program doesn't connect, it's most likely firewall settings, either on the pc itself or in the router.

So if that was kBs, ~260 might be your max bandwidth.