Wifi problems

[BBM]

Hi all,

I was previously just running a Dell Dimension 1100 with an unbranded router on an ADSL connection. There were never any problems with my broadband connection before.

I recently bought a Dell Inspirion 1101 with built in wifi. This laptop runs Vista Home Basic, and the desktop runs XP Home version. I replaced the old router with a BT Voyager 2094 (a rebranded D-Link I was told?) that is connected to the desktop via ethernet (as the old one was) and is running okay, and the laptop connects via wifi link.

Now, by and large it works, but I feel there are still some problems. I hope you guys can help me resolve them.

Firstly, I cannot get a site I use often using my wireless connection on the laptop, which is wwwDOTiiiDOTcoDOTuk, and I cannot even ping it using the command line. Yet the site works fine on the desktop.

I cannot post the URL properly as I have less than five posts here.

Secondly, downloads are a snail's pace using the wireless despite the fact I have an 8mb connection. I can download iTunes on this desktop in around 50 seconds, yet it took me about 2 minutes to download an mp3 of about 4mbs from a legal download site using the wireless connection.

Furthermore, when transferring files from the desktop to the laptop using a home network utilsing the wireless connection, the transfer speed at best was 600kb/sec.

I can return the laptop upto a certain point in time, and I would therefore like to resolve these problems before the so called 'point of no return'when I cannot send it back. I want to get rid of the desktop and run with the laptop only from now on, but I cannot do that if it doesn't do the basics I expect.

If I can give you further information, give me a shout. Thanks for your help.

[dave87]

hmm, have you tried doing 'tracert www.iii.co.uk' in the command line?

Oh, and don't BT routers have access controls? Have you made sure they are turned off?

[Vroomparrot]

With regards to the speed issue:
Have you tried using netumbler? This can be a very useful tool for diagnosing wireless speed/reliability issues? If you walk around your house with this running it will highlight any areas that suffer from interference (poor signal to noise ratio). It will also pick up any other wireless access points your neighbours may be running - make sure you choose a channel that is as far away as possible from other channels in use (generally channels 1 6 and 11 should be the only channels that are used).

[BBM]

With regards to the speed issue:
Have you tried using netstumbler This can be a very useful tool for diagnosing wireless speed/reliability issues? If you walk around your house with this running it will highlight any areas that suffer from interference (poor signal to noise ratio). It will also pick up any other wireless access points your neighbours may be running - make sure you choose a channel that is as far away as possible from other channels in use (generally channels 1 6 and 11 should be the only channels that are used).

My wireless device is not identified by this piece of software, however using Vista's network connection screen I can see that the quality of the signal is 5/5, and I am picking up a neighbour's connection which is 4/5.

[Metier9]

quality and strength are two different things.

Is it running at b band?

and remember wireless communication is half duplex in nature

[BBM]

G band, channel 6

I have looked at both strength and quality and both appear to be fine.

Would TCP settings be an issue? Earlier on a Vista screen appeared asking me whether I wanted to "optimise TCP settings" and I clicked yes, after that III.co.uk worked fine but the other sites didn't....

[BBM]

Furthermore, the title of the site appears in IE almost right after typing in the URL and hitting enter, but it's just the site content that takes an age....

[Vroomparrot]

Ok, what channel is your neighbours wireless running on? If it is also 6 (or even anything else other than 1 or 11) that could be causing some problems for you - change your channel to 1 or 11.

If it's not that it would be a very good idea to test your laptop using a friends wireless connection and have a friend use their wireless laptop using your connection. If you don't know anyone with a wireless connection try a public one - you can find one using this site: http://www.myhotspots.co.uk/index.aspx. If the Dell is still slow in this instance I would contact Dell, if the Dell is ok but a friends laptop is slow using your connection contact BT about the router.

[Metier9]

If your secretly settings are too high and encryption for wireless it will slow it down alot... downstairs have a dell laptop and when you use some good wireless security it slows down to a halt at times.