6,250 feet Intermittent Problem

Situation:

- Charter Cable Internet

- Two Different Linksys WRT54G (802.11B)

- 25 foot SMC LMR 400 Cable

- SMC DI145 Cantenna

- Clear line of sight 6,250 feet (pasture)

- Two remote Toshiba notebook computers with D-Link DWL-120+ USB NICs

This setup worked flawlessly for 14 months. About two weeks ago the connection started dropping intermittently. The drop-outs got progressively longer and longer. Finally the Internet connection stopped completely and I could never get it to return. No trees or vegetation have grown between the AP and the remote workstations. The

25 foot cable was checked with an ohm meter and there was zero resistance. Additionally there are no kinks, cuts, scrapes, tight turns or twists on the cable. It looks new. The lan has always worked perfectly. The "local" wireless also works perfectly within about 150 feet. I called SMC & they sent me a new Cantenna under warranty. I hooked the new one up and had no wireless long distant internet connection for three days. We always have had a Net Stumbler connection with signal strength between 45 and 60 but with no internet connection. Yesterday, out of the blue, we got an internet connection for about 15 minutes then it dropped again.

The only thing I have not changed out is the 25 foot cable. Does anyone have any explanations:

-1- Why Netstumbler would show an available network but we still can't connect to the internet?

-2- Why the D-Link AirPlus utility would show the network is available but no connection?

-3- How can I actually check the 25 foot cable?

TIA,

T-Boy

Reply to
T-Boy
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What I don't understand is that the "local" wireless has never failed. Even when the SMC cantenna arrangement didn't work for three solid days (including with a new Linksys WAP) - the local wireless connectivity didn't crap out at all. My best guess is the coax has some sort of flaw. I've got a million things to do and this is really eating my lunch ...

T-Boy

Reply to
T-Boy

What's the chances the distant unit is experiencing interference from another source of RF at 2400GHz?

Reply to
Floyd L. Davidson

Because the radio still works but something inside the unit is failing to bridge packets.

Same.

I've had a problem similar to this with a Linksys WAP54. Worked for ages, then just died yet you could ping the ethernet interface and you could ping the wireless side, the unit just stopped bridging which seemed due to hardware failure.

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

With a 2.5GHz network analyzer. 8*) You could have gotten water inside the coax, which would cause it to read OK on an ohm-meter, but have very high loss at higher frequencies.

Try swapping it out.

Reply to
William P. N. Smith

I'm -> fairly another source of RF at 2400GHz?

Reply to
T-Boy

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