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WRT54GS and WRT54GC - severe packet loss

Hi,

I've been searching for a new router and two of the latest ones I've tried are the Linksys WRT54GS v2.0 and WRT54GC. Both appear to suffer the same problem - severe packet loss over the wireless connection. Wired connections are fine. The wireless client is connecting via a WMP54G v4.0 card. Signal strength reads very good (sorry I don't recall the connection strength details). Here are some diagnostics:

WRT54GS v2.0 (Firmware v4.70.6 - latest as of today) Channel 1 (most surrounding networks have consumed channels 6-11) WPA2 enabled (AES encryption)

WRT54GC (Firmware v1.02.8 - latest as of today) Channel 1 (most surrounding networks have consumed channels 6-11) WPA2 enabled (AES encryption)

WMP54G v4.0 (Driver version 3.0.3.0 - latest as of today)

Just to clarify, I'm running these routers one at a time to see the impact on my network. I've tried several settings on each but could not fix the packet loss issue. The packet loss is sporadic over a series of pings. I'm running 10 ping requests both to/from the wireless client. Strangely, the wireless client can receive and respond to the ping requests well. However, when sending ping requests out, it has difficulties. All ping tests were just between the client and the router.

Anyone have any ideas on what to do to fix this? I may try disabling some of the security features to see the impact on the network. But it's been rather troubling to see a 50% packet loss to the router.

Thanks. K

Reply to
lunyee
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Well, nothing definite, but possibly some guesswork.

So, ping works well in one direction but not the other? That's weird. Also, test with ping using small packets tend to hide problems. Use larger packets (about 8KBytes) and see if things get worse.

You might want to drag the computer with the WMP54G PCI card over to different location that is free from possible interference. A network where the user is hiding his SSID will not show up on the site survey tools. You may think that channel 1 is clear, but it may not be. Also, it might be infested with cordless phones, wireless TV transmitters, and other sourced of interference. Try a different channel (1, 6, 11) even if you know there are other networks on the channel and see if it make a difference.

Yeah, 50% is really bad. If Windoze also do a big file transfer and run: start -> run -> cmd netstat -esn | more to get some additional statistics.

It's possible that some of the advanced features are causing problems. I general turn off just about everything and reduce the router to a basic box at the start of testing. That means turning off any "turbo" modes, turn off 802.11b compatibility, no encryption, no MAC or IP filtering, No CTS/RTS flow, No fragmentation threshold, etc. I also like to fix the wireless speed to perhaps 12Mbits/sec OFDM. If it works like that, I then start turning on the features until the culprit is identified.

Good luck...

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks. Yeah the one way ping was weirding me out. I'll try out pinging with larger packets. I'm starting to think that it's interference related from neighboring networks that aren't broadcasting their SSIDs. I've never had a problem with channel 1 before is the odd thing. In any case, this problem disappears during "non-peak" hours. Which is why I'm a bit suspicious of interference.

I'll try dropping all the other features and see how it goes as well. It's kinda bizarre. Thanks for the suggestions!

Reply to
lunyee

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