I am current wifi (54g) throughout the house and I am currently setting up a media pc in the living room. I have opted for a 54g usb dongle type network adapter for the box and I have a few issues regarding that my virus software goes and get an update before the wifi has connected ... I'll deal with that later. The main problem is that I have also opted for a wifi keyboard and mouse (2.4mhz) and although I don't get much problems normally I do have great difficulty when performing a big copy from server to client and also trying to use the mouse or keyboard. So I was wondering ... should they both work fine if they are on different channels to the network wifi plus can wifi carry Asynchronous calls or are all calls synchronous thus the difficulty when typing whilst copying?
I think you mean Bluetooth connected keyboard and mouse, not wi-fi. What make and model? Bluetooth uses the same 2.4Ghz frequencies as
802.11b/g. However, Bluetooth uses frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) instead of 802.11b/g use of direct sequence (DSSS). Unfortunately, the FHSS radios are required to hop 75 out of the 80 channels before re-using a frequency thus occupying the entire 2.4Ghz band. Therefore, there is no channel for your unspecified access point that will co-exist.
The good news is that Bluetooth uses very low xmit power and has very limited range. Some units have adjustable power output. I would experiment with positioning the keyboard and mouse away from the unspecified wireless access point, preferably on opposite sides of a metal obstruction. Moving the access point as far away from the computah as possible would probably be best. However, if the computah is connected via wireless to the access point, with an internal PCI wireless card, you're stuck with having everything far too close together. I would ditch the internal PCI wireless card and go to something wired or external.
Also, if you do NOT have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, then something is strange. The common Microsloth and Logitech keyboards use 26-27MHz frequencies (yes, it's CB) and should not interfere. If all else fails, you could probably trade your expensive Bluetooth devices for one of these and still maintain cordless operation (unless it's an Apple PowerBook or other computah with built in Bluetooth.
and I can change channels on the mouse/keybord/receiver.
I will attempt to move the hardware around to see if this changes anything.
I will also change the channel on the access point to channel 1 hopefully then if the channels are conflicting then this may help plus as I'm using xp's built in wireless control panel then when it scans to find what channel the access point is on it won't have to scan for too long ... this might connect quicker and then my virus update will connect ok.
Interesting. I didn't know such a thing existed. The above URL claims it's "2.4GHz technology" which could be almot anything. Bluetooth, 802.11, wireless USB, Zigbee, FHSS, etc. The term "Blue" in the name seems to refer to the color rather than the Bluetooth technology as there's also a "Red Cherry" keyboard available. However, it works on the more common 26-27MHz frequencies.
I found a data sheet for the keyboard at:
formatting link
proclaims that it uses "future-looking 2.4Ghz technology" which is not terribly useful. 16 channels might be 802.11, but that's 3 too many channels for DSSS. FHSS uses 80 channels, so that's also a bad fit. It's not Bluetooth or it would say Bluetooth. Weird...
Is there something in the printed instructions that might offer a clue as to what manner of 2.4GHz technology is used in such a keyboard? Is there a US FCC ID on the serial number tag available?
Yeah, I think that will be the easiest.
I changed my mind. Moving access point channels will probably help. My wild guess(tm) is that the 16 channel radio is nothing more than a simple FM cordless phone chipset. It would help if we knew what the channel numbers represented, but a good start would be to assume that the channel numbers and frequencies are proportional. Therefore, put the access point on a low channel (i.e. 802.11 chnl 1), and the keyboard on a high channel (ch16) for a first try.
On the slothish virus updates, if you mean Grisoft's AVG, they were suffering from what appeared to be excessive popularity. There web pile in the Czech Republic was oversubscribed. They went to an Akamai web cache about 2 weeks ago, and updates have been *MUCH* more reliable.
I still have the box for the keyboard/mouse so I will read a bit more and let you know ...
As for the virus updating (F-Prot) before I have made a network connection - I have moved the access point to channel #1 but it still takes too long to make a connection (if it does, sometimes it doesn't) so the virus update fails due to no network connection. I'm not too worried about this problem and I'm sure I would get a better connection time if I didn't have the pc (media pc) tucked behind the tv in a corner, running a usb dongle type wireless network adapter, hiding my SSID, using WEP with a 128 bit key .... i'm sure this isn't the best scenario for a good/quick connection!
Thanks for your time ... and if you find out any more on the keyboard/mouse let me know.
I will find out the US FCC ID serial number tag plus nay other info I read.
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