What's required to make wireless reliable?

[Otto Haliburton]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:redhat-install-list-
> bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Otto Haliburton
> Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 5:42 PM
> To: 'Mark Knecht'; 'Getting started with Red Hat Linux'
> Subject: RE: What's required to make wireless reliable?
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:redhat-install-
> list-
> > bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Mark Knecht
> > Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 1:54 PM
> > To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> > Subject: What's required to make wireless reliable?
> >
> > Hi,
> >    While we've had wireless workign for 2-3 months it's never been as
> > reliable a connection as I'd like. We get lots of audio dropouts when
> > streaming ogg files, etc. I'm wondering what sort of signal strengths
> > are required to really keep it working? Here are a couple of scans
> > that are representative of what we see:
> >
> > [root at dragonfly root]#  iwlist wlan0 scanning
> > Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 17
> > of Wireless Extension, while this program is using version 16.
> > Some things may be broken...
> >
> > wlan0     Scan completed :
> >           Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:XX:YY:ZZ
> >                     ESSID:""
> >                     Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
> >                     Mode:Managed
> >                     Frequency:2.462GHz
> >                     Quality:0/100  Signal level:-56 dBm  Noise level:-
> 256
> > dBm
> >                     Encryption key:on
> >                     Bit Rate:1Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:2Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:11Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:6Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:12Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:24Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:36Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:8.5Mb/s
> >                     Extra:bcn_int=100
> >                     Extra:atim=0
> >
> > [root at dragonfly root]#  iwlist wlan0 scanning
> > Warning: Driver for device wlan0 has been compiled with version 17
> > of Wireless Extension, while this program is using version 16.
> > Some things may be broken...
> >
> > wlan0     Scan completed :
> >           Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:XX:YY:ZZ
> >                     ESSID:""
> >                     Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
> >                     Mode:Managed
> >                     Frequency:2.462GHz
> >                     Quality:0/100  Signal level:-54 dBm  Noise level:-
> 256
> > dBm
> >                     Encryption key:on
> >                     Bit Rate:1Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:2Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:11Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:6Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:12Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:24Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:36Mb/s
> >                     Extra:bcn_int=100
> >                     Extra:atim=0
> >           Cell 02 - Address: 00:09:5B:XX:YY:ZZ
> >                     ESSID:""
> >                     Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
> >                     Mode:Managed
> >                     Frequency:2.462GHz
> >                     Quality:0/100  Signal level:-71 dBm  Noise level:-
> 256
> > dBm
> >                     Encryption key:on
> >                     Bit Rate:1Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:2Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:11Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:6Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:12Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:24Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:36Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:47Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:32.5Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:37Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:32.5Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:37.5Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:3Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:53.5Mb/s
> >                     Bit Rate:60.5Mb/s
> >                     Extra:bcn_int=100
> >                     Extra:atim=0
> >
> >
> > For those of you using wireless what sort of signal strength do you
> > see for your connections and are those connections really reliable?
> > With these levels it generally takes 5 minutes for the PC to establish
> > a connection with the router in the morning and we get dropouts all
> > day long.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Mark
> >
> I'm not sure what your problem is but in general, a wireless transmitter
> has
> a range of about 300 feet and since all of your wireless stuff is within
> that range since you are in your house, I don't think your problem is with
> the strength of signal unless... If all of your computers, I seem to
> remember your have 3 are dropping the signal then you might have a faulty
> router, otherwise you have something that is interfering, which happens.
> The thing to do is move the router to a different location and see if it
> improves.
> 
> 
I have heard that some people do the thing they used to do to tv antennas
and that is added aluminum foil to the antenna and sometimes a coat hanger
with aluminum foil.  Don't know if it works or not hahaha