Connection weirdness

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 13:36:54 GMT, Kurt Ullman wrote in :

Sounds like weak signal with a new source of interference. (See list of possible interference sources in wikis below.)

Better antenna at one or both ends of the connection.

[shrug]

I'll wander through the Wikis and see if anything pops out. The thing that (at least too my somewhat less than technically knowledgeable self) would seem to argue against interference is the fact that after the initial is made, it stays made. If it is interference, wouldn't I lose the signal again walking back? Go figger.

Thanks for the reply. The help is appreciated...

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:01:45 GMT, Kurt Ullman wrote in :

Not necessarily -- I've seen many cases where the wireless can hold a marginal connection once it has been established that way. Sounds like you're right on the edge. I'm willing to bet that even when connected you're getting low throughput.

Yep. Actually, according to my wife, low is probably an understatment (or maybe overstatement). My MacBook shows no new wireless nets in the area and I have nothing new in the way to cordless phones. I'll wander through the wikis and see if they are any help.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:51:33 GMT, Kurt Ullman wrote in :

Your wife gets the office, and you do the washing up :-)

Or maybe install the latest firmware update:

Firmware Date : April 7, 2005 Current Firmware : Version 1.52.02 Product PartNo : BEFW11S4 ver.4

As you can see, it's less than 3 years old.

I THINK I already did this. I'll check when I get a chance. Thanks.

Kurt Ullman hath wroth:

I have a BEFW11S4 v4 somewhere. I'm considering using it for target practice due to its tendency to hang without provocation. However, it does have a good radio section and works well when it's not hung. Did you try to power cycle the BEFW11S4 v4 and see if that helps? You'll need to have the power disconnected for about 10 seconds in order to do a proper power cycle and reboot.

How many walls are in the way? I could be a weak signal issue.

Well, if it worked before, it should work again. The implication is that your W98 Dell laptop is ancient. Since the MacBook works as advertised, there's nothing wrong on the BEFW11S4 end. Therefore, there must be something amis on the Dell W98 laptop. However, that all I know about this laptop so I can't offer any brilliant suggestions. If it has an internal MiniPCI card, you might check if the two antenna connections have fallen off. I seem to run into this problem a bit too often.

Stays connected with a good signal? If so, it's working. The problem seems to be making the initial connection. You've offered no clues as to the nature of the wireless device in the W98 Dell, so I can't offer any help. However, whatever is broken appears to be in the Dell W98 laptop.

Roller skates?

As I mentioned, that means the BEFW11S4 is probably just fine. Note that the BEFW11S4 is 802.11b only and will limit you to 11Mbits/sec maximum. This is not a problem is you have a slow internet connection, but will be a bottleneck for faster DSL and cable modem connections. You might consider upgrading to an 802.11g wireless router, even though there's probably nothing wrong with the existing BEFW11S4.

3 walls., assuming line of sight. The wall to my office, a "wall" that is the other side of the staircase and then the wall between the foyer and the kitchen. The laptop is against the far side of that last wall.

I had said earlier that it was a plug in to PCMIA slot and Linksys. I thought that would be enough, since it wasn't... the laptop uses a Linksys WPC 11, version 4. Is that what you needed?