Check signal using DWL-810+ ?

If you don't have wireless on your system, how are you gonna receive wireless stuf? You talk about losing the wireless connection when you turn on the flourescent lights, but then you say you don't have one anyway! I'm using the dlink USB thing right now, and I just switched programs, and it works just fine with Winc.... What happened to your 122 USB adapter?

MrSmiley wrote:

I was using a DWL-122 USB adapter for a while in my garage, but it was too sensitive to interference. I put a DWL-810+ ethernet-to-wireless bridge in it's place, but now I have no way to monitor the signal strength from the DWL-800AP+ in the house. It seems to work great, but how do I know if it's working at 1, 2.5, 5, 11 or 22 mbps? Netstumbler doesn't recognize it, and the built-in site survey screen doesn't give any display or power indication. There must be something to show signal strength/quality? Since it's a bridge, "wireless zero" service isn't used. Thanks- Rob

"MrSmiley" wrote in news:_WrVd.69219$ snipped-for-privacy@news.easynews.com:

The DWL-810+ is a wireless client device which acts as a transparent bridge. NetStumbler won't detect it since it isn't an access point. Nor of course will NetStumbler indicate the signal strength from other client devices...

What I did when installing a DWL-810+ on my home network was to use NetStumbler to perform a site survey so as to identify a location where the signal level was acceptable. I strengthened the reception by fitting a 5dBi gain antenna in place of the stock 2dBi antenna.

I then used Qcheck

to check throughput accross the network. The real life transfer rate is what you're interested in, rather than the nominal speed. On a nominal

22 Mbit/s network, expect to see transfer rates of 6 - 7 Mbit/s.

You don't say in which mode you are using the DWL-800AP+. If you are using it as a repeater, expect to see a 50% drop in throughput across it since it must first listen, then re-transmit.

Aside: one of the things that the documentation doesn't tell you is that the DWL-810+ supports multiple MAC addresses. This means that you can connect it to a switch and provide wireless connectivity to several devices behind the switch. I can confirm it works just fine for one of my teenage sons, providing wireless connectivity to a PC, PS2 games console, and an Ethernet-attached print server from a single DWL-810+.

Hope this helps

"Peter Pan" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net:

Hmmm... I'm testing Winc at the moment as I'm looking for a utility which is vendor independent.

It doesn't work at all well in an Extended Service Set (multiple APs with the same SSID) and only correctly reports the signal strength of the 'first' AP with presumably the slightly stronger signal.

For example, roughly equidistant from 3 APs the first shows 80%, the other two show 4 - 6%. NetStumbler and the native card utility report them all at 80%.

Anyone else seen this? Yes, I have reported it to Cirond and had a reply about it 'not being optimised' or somesuch...

Kind regards

Did you try shielding the DWL-122? Some people like coffee cans, others like woks. I think I read about a corner reflector but I didn't save the comment.

A person that I built the two-coffee-can setup for uses a single "3 lb" can instead. I think the two can was too directional. One day really soon now, I'm going to check a 3lb can with the dongle in the bottom instead of the side. ;-)

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'll try Winc, I didn't know it existed, I'm not too cheap to spend $20! The DWL800AP+ is being used as an access point, not repeater, so I'm hoping for 22mbps, as advertised by D-Link with their "Air-Plus" hardware. I did try the "coffee can" approach with the 122 USB adapter, but it was cumbersome and I didn't really see an improvement. If I switched on the overhead fluorescent lights, I'd lose the wireless connection. This 800AP+ in the house and 810+ in the garage work very well, I'd just like a signal indicator to optimize placement before I start drilling holes. Thanks again, I'll try Winc. Rob

Well, I tried Winc, but it won't detect the DWL-810+, as I guess it is not a wireless adapter, it's an ethernet-to-wireless bridge. The error message is "wireless adapyer not available". Any ideas? Thanks, Rob

I'm saying that the DWL-810+ is not recognized by software or device manager as a wireless device. It is recognized as a wired network adapter, because it connects to the ethernet adapter in the computer. It is indeed wireless,

802.11b. It's quite a unique device, tonight I plugged it into a hub in the garage and it will connect to as many computers as you have jacks on the hub. And, it is much more stable than the 122 I replaced. I guess I'll never know the connect speed, but as long as it works, I suppose it will suffice. You must not be familiar with ethernet-to-wireless bridges. I have reservations about these usb wireless devices, I have an AdHoc install at a business next Monday using a pair of DWL-G120's, hope it goes OK. Rob

"MrSmiley" wrote in news:MXwVd.3896305$ snipped-for-privacy@news.easynews.com:

And because it isn't an access point and therefore doesn't broadcast Beacons management frames, it will not be seen by NetStumbler or Winc.

Well, most so-called 'gaming adapters' will do this, as will most multi-mode access points when configured in wireless client mode.

But the documentation never explicitly states that such devices support multiple MAC addresses, and the configuration diagrmas always seem to show one DWL-G810+ (or whatever) per attached device...

A good clue for multi-mode devices is that they implement repeater mode. This is an implementation of WDS (Wireless Distribution System) which by definition must support transmission between multiple MAC addreeses. If it uses WDS for one mode, it's likely to use it for wirless client mode as well. But I've never yet seen it referred to in the documentation, certainly for D-Link kit with which I'm most familiar.

As I said in another post, I would use NetStumbler for the site survey to identify good placement, then run speed tests using Ixia's Qcheck product.

Don't expect to see 22 Mbit/s - that's just theoretical. In practice, you will be lucky to get much more than 6 Mbit/s.

Hope this helps

"MrSmiley" in message

Hi,

I also have a couple DWL-810AP+'s in the house. I mainly just use them for game consoles, but they also are great for whenever someone comes over and wants to use their laptop on the network but doesn't have any wireless hardware. Great little animals.

Likewise, I also had the same throughput concerns with them and also would've liked to have seen signal strength included in the DWL-810AP+'s firmware's "site survey". The AP feeding the DWL-810AP+'s, however, do include signal strength for connected clients (including the DWL-810AP's), so can at least see what how well the AP is receiving them.

Not the answer you are looking for, I know, but as for throughput with the DWL-810AP+'s, from time to time I hook up my laptop to them and do a large file transfer across the WLAN. Been very happy with their pipes.

Not surprised about the interference with the DWL-810AP+'s though. I'm only using the antenna it shipped with, yet often my DWL-810AP+'s are the only wireless hardware I have that will pick up a faint signal from the neighbor's SSID.

Cheers,

-Eric

Thanks for the info. On a large file transfer, I get about 740kbps using a TCP/IP traffic utility. What would that be in "wireless" terms? Thanks, Rob

740 Kbytes per second is not bad at all for 802.11b

Taking overhead into consideration, which I'm too lazy at the moment to look up what it actually accounts for with 802.11, I'd put that just slightly over 6 Mbits per second.

Cheers,

-Eric

Thanks, I get confused with bits, bytes, throughput, etc. 6Mbps sounds good, Richard mentioned that was the practical limit of these devices. I must say that these things (DWL-800AP+ and DWL-810+) are very stable, unlike the DWL-122 I was using. I have no sudden disconnects, works good 24 hrs a day! I must confess that I had 2 DWL-800AP+'s and reflashed one of them with 810 firmware from this discussion:

I got a good strong connection from two cheap ($26) D-Link units. One is used as an AP, the other an ethernet-to-wireless bridge. I ordered another one just to have around. One other thing- I also did the "power output" hack as described here: that may have helped a bit. Interesting stuff, this wireless. I have an install job next week, will be 2 computers in an Ad-Hoc setup using 2 DWL-G120's I picked up for $25 ea. at pcbay.com - hope it goes well. Rob

is

I'm with you, the DWL-810AP+'s are very cool! Likewise, I've also found them to be very stable. They are very versatile and just great little animals. Going to pick up a couple more "just to have around" also, as it seems that every time there is a great product on the market it gets pulled for some reason. Don't have any DWL-800AP's, but read many good things about them as well. One poster is this NG stated he was using like four DWL-800AP+'s, in series, to extend an 802.11b SSID down his street to a relative's house. Guess he had very nice neighbors that allowed him to put a DWL-800AP+ in their homes.

Needed to extend a range not too long ago to get a "Media Center" into the loop. As the "Media Center" uses 802.11g and my DI-764 Router/AP (802.11a/b) wouldn't be able to give the best pipe for it (media files would be coming of a tower in the WLAN), picked up two DWL-7100AP's (802.11a,

802.11g/b). Used one as a second AP plugged directly into the DI-764 router and the other in repeater mode. (They support WDS, which the DI-764 does not.) It works, but the firmwares for the DWL-7100AP's seem to have some issues, especially with FCS (error control). Been all the way up to DLink's "level four" (or whatever) tech control before they finally stated it was firmware issues and they will work to correct it with a future firmware release. Wireless isn't a "perfect science", but fun noneless. :^)

Just started using a free and open source "WIFI Gateway" program called "ZoneCD" recently that is also pretty cool. Got one 802.11b SSID that I keep wide open for anyone (can get to internet, but not to WLAN). Neighbors use it often from their back porch, along with friends and family. Everyone that I expect to be using it are trustworthy, but still was a little leary about keeping an open pipe with absolute no control. "ZoneCD" proved to be an excellent solution, giving gateway control and logging. Filtering is also possible, but not doing any of that. Don't expect anyone using it to be downloading child p*rn or spamming -- which would be "worst case scenerios" with such an open SSID.

An eldery woman that lives across the street and few houses down asked if she could also use my wireless after seeing my neighbors using it from their back porch. Told her if she purchases an AP for her side, I'd be happy to get the hardware necessary for my side -- along with hardware needed to build and mount two cantennas to do a shot across the street. Thats my next project. Fun stuff. :^)

Cheers,

-Eric