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.