Wireless Networking reception erratic

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Subject Author Date
reception erratic mm 05-14-08
Posted by mm on May 14, 2008, 10:15 am
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I don't seem to get results with my wireless laptop that I think
others do, and maybe you all can explain it to me.

I'm on a long trip to my brother's and I stayed in 4 motels getting to
him and one so far on the way back, plus he has wireless and I stopped
by a mall, a bar, and a library.

The motels first. All 5, even the cheap ones, had wireless. Last
night I couldn't get a signal in my room, but could in the motel
office. At my brother's house, it works fine in the bedroom with the
computer and the other one iirc, but outside, if I'm more than 20 feet
from the front door, it doesn't work. I paused in front of a lot of
houses on his street, in my car, and nowhere was a strong signal, even
an encrypted one that I couldn't use. He lives in an expensive n'hood
and I'm sure he's not the only one with wireless. Here and elsewhere
I get the feeling my range is weak.

My computer is from 2000 or so, an IBM Thinkpad 600E with 2 slots for
PC cards.

Could that it is an old computer matter? Doesn't everything depend on
the wireless card itself?

I use the top slot because that's where it seems to go. Could that
matter? When I don't get a signal and I think I should, I rotate the
computer in all 3 planes, and that can make a difference, but not
enough.

I'm running WinME. Can that make a difference? If it never worked, I
would suspect it more, but when it works, it works fine.

I have two wireless cards One is about 5 years old and only gets B.
The PRISM software is the newest they have, almost 5 years old. It
works in the office but not in the motel room. Is that because the
design was weaker 5 years ago? It has no jack for an antenna,
like I've seen on some even older ones..

(I also have a card I bought 6 months ago, D-Link, but I've messed up
its software and fixing it will take a lot of time, when I get home,
but when it worked, it seemed to have problems too.)



Parked outside the restaurant bar, next to the food court at the mall,
as I drove up, I got a fairly strong signal, but by the time I
stopped, it had dropped to zero. I moved forwards and backwards 11
times, and the same thing each time. Moving, even a couple miles an
hour and the signal wen up to 40%, which can be enough for me to get
email etc. but when I stopped, it was zero!!! Was it interpreting
some radiation from my car as a wireless signal?? I don't think this
happens just anywhere, but I'll check some more if someone suggests
it.

Thanks a lot.

Posted by Bill Kearney on May 14, 2008, 7:59 pm
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> I'm running WinME.

Yeesh, what's with the ME users coming out of the woodwork lately?

The time wasted posting all of that could've bought a new low-end laptop.

Many new networks deliberately disable 802.11b. So with a b-only card
you're probably missing more than a few networks.


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