Hi Mike,

Well, I've just had about the most awful day I've had for ages.

I was still very wary of the claims for the Wireless LAN kit, so I searched locally (easier to take back!) and came up with the "EZ connect wireless Network Kit" by SMC. It had good reviews including a "best performer" award from a top UK magazine, and worked out just a little more expensive than the D-Link and LinkSys kit you recommended.

I got an extra long Cat5 cable, and threaded that up behind my shelves and cupboards so I could site the Access Point and its aerial as high as possible, above all the clutter of my PCs etc. It ended up sitting at about 8 foot above ground, just above and to the right of a door.

I installed the PCMCIA card into my notebook, get the drivers sorted (after a while -- nothing on the supplied CD-Rom matched anything in the skimpy manual, of course, but that seems to be the norm for network stuff these days). I had to disable my on-board 10/100 Ethernet adapter before it would connect to my wired LAN, but then it was okay -- a little slower than I'm used to of course, but working.

So, I went into the next room (the kitchen) through the door adjacent to the aerial with the notebook -- still okay. But then so was the junked Diamond Homefree.

Outside the far door of the next room. Ooops! Lost it a moment (must've been the fridge-freezer in the way) ... to the door the opposite side of the hall (now about half-way to the Patio and conservatory, where I'd want it to reach ... lost contact, totally!

I'd expected it to become a bit slower, in steps, but not just lose contact. The spec says it has various downgraded rates, right down to 1 mbps from the nominal 11, but this is ridiculous. It is actually only very slightly better than the Diamond Homefree one I picked up for £24 all told, and the latter was with a PCI card receiver down nearly at floor level.

BTW my remote telephones, which have a slightly larger range, are DECT -- those use the same frequency, don't they, not the lower one you mentioned? They have a slightly better range than this, but I think that's only because the base station is upstairs. You still can't get outside with them.

Anyway, I'm totally disgusted and disappointed in this technology. It is probably okay in modern houses with almost cardboard thin walls, and offices with skimpy partitions, but put a few 120 year old bricks in the way and they've had it. I really daren't risk buying a DLink or LinkSys based system by mail order on this showing. As it is this kit is going straight back in the morning as "unsuitable for purpose stated on box"!

Thanks for the help, though. It seems it's just wasted here. I'm stuck working in my office.

Regards,

Pete

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• RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),Ben Chiu, 04:25z, 04-20-02
  • RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),PeteDowson, 08:57z, 04-20-02
• RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),Mike_Greenwood, 02:08z, 04-23-02
  • RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),PeteDowson, 10:00z, 04-23-02
    • RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),Tarmack, 22:12z, 04-23-02
      • RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),PeteDowson, 00:44z, 04-24-02
        • RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),AlanParkinson, 18:48z, 04-24-02
          • RE: Wireless LAN -- UGH! (to Mike),PeteDowson, 23:57z, 04-24-02

Hi Pete:

PMFJI, but all of this stuff can be conquered if you're willing to throw some money at it. There are all kinds of antennas, repeaters and other devices designed to extend the range of these units. Your solution may require you to place outdoor antenna(s), and/or one upstairs.

You'll have to go to each manufacturers sites to see this extra equipment, but it does exist.

Hope this may help.

Ben

Hi Ben,

> PMFJI, but all of this stuff can be conquered if you're willing to throw
> some money at it. There are all kinds of antennas, repeaters and other
> devices designed to extend the range of these units. Your solution may
> require you to place outdoor antenna(s), and/or one upstairs.

Yes, and therefore lots more wiring, which is what I wanted to avoid. If i'm going to have to wire stuff i might as well simply provide a LAN connection is the rooms where I want them, including one on the outside wall near the patio. At least them i get 100mbps and 100% reliability, not the paltry 11 down to 1 mbps at great expense!

I expect some of the more expensive ("professionsl") wireless systems would cope too, but they start at around £600 for the Access Point, and it isn't worth that much to me.

Thanks anyway,

Pete

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Hi Pete,

Sorry for my delay in getting back to you.

Man, I'm sorry you had such a rough time with the installation. It didn't sound like fun at all.

>>BTW my remote telephones, which have a slightly larger range, are DECT
-- those use the same frequency, don't they, not the lower one you
mentioned? <<

I'm not sure. the 802.11b frequency range here is 2.4 ghz and is called DSS (direct spread spectrum). It's entirely possible that we have different names for the same thing...wouldn't be the first time

>>I really daren't risk buying a DLink or LinkSys
based system by mail order on this showing.<<

Yeah, I really can't blame you. Ben's idea of an additional antenna is viable, and I even found a few sites with instructions on building your own, but then like you say, you're running cables.

One thought is that the phones my be interfering with the transmission. Have you tried unplugging the base station for the phones to see what happens? Just thinking out loud...

--Greenie
**6 miles SSE KSJC**

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Hi Mike,

> Sorry for my delay in getting back to you.

No problem.

> One thought is that the phones my be interfering with the transmission.
> Have you tried unplugging the base station for the phones to see what
> happens? Just thinking out loud...

Tried changing frequencies ("channels") to no avail.It's not a "deterioration" which you would expect from interference, the signal just goes from "good" in one room to "none" in another. I don't think its anything to do with range or interference, but impenetrable obstacles. <G>

I had exactly the same thing with the £24 ($34) Diamond system -- PCI card to PC Card -- and that was with the PCI card+aerial on the back of a PC at floor level. Raising this newer system to 8 feet above floor level did extend the range a little -- about 4 feet to be precise, with the door open! The Diamond one was intermittent through that doorway.

I think it's the brick walls. The house is 120+ years old. The bricks are very dense/hard compared with modern ones, and the internal walls are double. The outside walls are triple -- single, cavity, then double -- for about 16" of thickness.

I guess the extreme high frequencies aren't good at penetration. No trouble in any of the rooms will FM radio reception with a small aerial, not for that matter with UHF TV with a small aerial, but those frequencies are low compared with 2.4GHz.

The annoying thing is the advertising and blurb on the boxes, quoting 500 metres range maximum -- this is line of sight of course, and it sometimes says so somewhere. But they imply they can be used all over your house, with no mention of walls being any sort of problem. All I would need is about 30 metres but through three or four walls. Even if I went for extension aerials I'd need several of those I reckon just to cover the interesting shape and get to where I'd want to be! <G>

BTW when I took them back for a refund, there was no quibbling, and the technical support guy there who handled it agreed that they are pretty useless, all of them --just okay for open plan offices, and modern houses with partition walls. I think they get a quite a lot of returns!

Regards,

Pete

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Pete,

I tried a wireless system, in a new house, with those newer and thinner walls last fall.....same results.....not worth a buck of warm spit.

I went up in the attic and ran LAN cable to the rooms I wanted connections to...drilled some holes and was in business....forever.

I have heard of guys here in Florida that have run T-based cables for over 1000 feet with no noticelable loss.....and I have had an external cable...out of the eaves and down along side a pool patio enclosure for 6 months now.......and today when I mowed the lawn.......the cable looks like new yet....even though it is in the sun almost all of the day.

Regards,

Mel

Hi Mel,

> I went up in the attic and ran LAN cable to the rooms I wanted
> connections to...drilled some holes and was in business....forever.

Yes, that's something I might do -- I've only really got about three places -- lounge, conservatory and patio, all on the North West side (my office is North East! <G>). Maybe, when we've built this gazebo in the East-side garden I might want one there too -- but that'll need to run overhead or underground, or it may be the only candidate for wireless, if I poke the aerial out of the wall somewhere! <G>

Regards,

Pete

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Hi Pete,

I've been following this thread with much interest, but without anything constructive to contribute.

I was chatting to a fellow on the phone last night, who's been having almost the exact opposite problem with his wireless LAN setup. He's recently set up an apartment in Manhattan and took his Apple Mac wireless system with him from Europe. Like you he's in an old, thick walled, isolated house over here, and had a certain amount of trouble with range, but in New York, when he switched on the system he found four other networks in the building, all within range. Quickly he strengthened his security settings to make sure no-one could see any of his data (he couldn't see theirs), but it was only after a week or so that he found that he was connecting to the internet through one of his neighbours' ADSL lines, not his own!

Alan

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Hi Alan,

> I was chatting to a fellow on the phone last night, who's been having
> almost the exact opposite problem with his wireless LAN setup. He's
> recently set up an apartment in Manhattan and took his Apple Mac
> wireless system with him from Europe. Like you he's in an old, thick
> walled, isolated house over here, and had a certain amount of trouble
> with range, but in New York, when he switched on the system he found
> four other networks in the building, all within range.

Blimey! What do they make the walls and floors with over there? Sounds like it must be a relatively old wood-built apartment building? I would have thought the modern concrete-floored efforts would be as bad if not worse than my bricks! Or perhaps the interference was all within one floor, and due to partition type walls?

> ... it was only after a week or so
> that he found that he was connecting to the internet through one of his
> neighbours' ADSL lines, not his own!

Ah, so there were some advantages! <G>

Regards,

Pete

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