wireless LAN problems, Need Heellllllp! 2

[nelljack]

I am not sure what the problem is but I have a wireless LAN service and there have been problems since Nov 2001.

I even bought a new computer and the problems are still there.

Can anyone point me in a direction to find a cure?

Will an onboard modem have any affect on the installed NIC card? If so, what do I do to fix this?

Any help wil be greatly appreciated.

 

[edfair]

What kind of wireless card? Any indication of errors on boot up, or in device manager?
How are you using it? To a WAP? Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[cdogg]

need more info...a description of the problems would be nice

 

[nelljack]

I have a 3COM PCI fast ethernet card installed. I am on a wireless network thru a provider.

When the service works the web pages or email comes up in about three seconds, but when it is not working properly it takes 3 minutes or more for a web page to come up. These same pages when working took about 3 seconds.

The provider sent some techs out and replaced the black box and things seemed to get worse after that. I unplugged it yesterday for about 15 minutes then tried again and it was fast again for about 3 pages, then it started again taking time to load. The pages are all the same from the same site. Even search engines are slow to come up.

I don't know if this is the info you wanted. I bought a 1.6 P4 with 256K RAM so I know the machine is fast.

Any other ideas? I am having them to come out and replace all of the equipment, but if that doesnt work what else could it be?

 

[edfair]

Good tech would have a laptop with software installed to use it as a test. Compare their speeds with yours.
You could, in theory, log onto their test machine and look at webpages from their win..\temporary internet files folder to see if the pages are slow from there.
There could be some problems between your NIC and their box but it more likely their box or communications between their boxes.
You might also try locking the NIC at 10mb if that is a possibility on both ends. You should have a 3-com utility for that. Might resolve a NIC issue.
Haven't seen the service. Sounds interesting. What price, setup fees, etc? And where are you? Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[cdogg]

I agree with edfair. Get on the horn and demand they actually "test" the connection, whether they have to bring out their own laptop that is known to work. That would solve the argument that it's a setting on your pc.

Chances are that if it's an intermittent problem, it's the connection and not your pc...

 

[MISAdmin]

It's wireless in your house, but what is it from the ISP... they must have a feed connected to your access point. Cable? DSL?

Sounds like a low signal problem. It could be from them, or, if it's cable based, it could be related to where in the house they located the access point and how your house is wired. If your cable tv line is wired in series, the signal will get weaker and weaker as it reaches the end of the line. This is no problem for Cable TV, but a cable modem is much more sensitive. If that is the problem, you may consider running a direct line to the access point, or relocating the access point to an area closer to the hook up....

 

[cdogg]

MISAdmin,

Good point, that was my intial thought as well. However, it appears that the service provider itself is Wireless? If it were hard-lined, I would recommend bypassing the router and hook it directly into the PC. However, I don't think that's the case.

nelljack, how about clearing this up for us?!!

 

[nelljack]

There is an outside "antennae" which points to a tower up on the hill. That tower, from what I understand, then looks at another tower which relays to the main office. If you want to check them out and find out what they have my provider is:

http://www.cedarcity.com.

They did at one time last month go downf or two days. I myself think it may be the server is defective.

There are no cables except the one coming from the outside "antennae" to the black box inside, then the connection to the PC from it. I worked in a computer lab and know this should be working really fast at 512K speed, but I am very frustrated.

I paid $450 initial setup and 49.95 month for 256K and 69.95 for 512K. I will go back to 256K if this keeps up. I don't think I will go back to a modem (56K) again. Anyway, when I get all the info/help I can I will print this out and give it to the provider. Maybe someone else can reach the inner sanctum of their brains, I can't.

 

[edfair]

Their site is unavailable. this on Saturday, noon. Figures.
they probably have some diagnostic tools for this type of problem. You just haven't found the pressure point yet or a tech who cares.
And until you can set 2 computers down together on a network and look at pages across the net, you might not get a tech who will admit that you have problems.
I've fought the same type of problem with the telephone system where I've had to set up diagnostic tools to show the repairman what the problem was. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[nelljack]

Thanks a lot for all your help. The provider did come out and check with a laptop and "says" the black box (MaxTech) is okay. They are to come out on Friday, 3/29/2002 with diagnostic tools, etc to check out everything. They did not replace any equipment today though.

The explanation from one of the managers is there is another user who is tying up the bandwidth with huge email sendings. It is hard to believe this can happen, but I guess it does.

Can anyone tell me if a satellite internet service would be any better? I guess the weather (clouds and rain and wind) would affect that too much too, right?

Anyway, points/kudos to you all.

 

[edfair]

You understand that this isn't two way. So you'll be tying up a phone line. And weather can be a hinderance. I haven't used it so I don't know the pitfalls.
Your problem is partially with the user. But part of the problem is with capacity. Sounds like your supplier needs to do some measurement and possibly disengage from the problem user. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[MISAdmin]

Edfair is right, and wrong....

Satellite WAS one way. It was fast download but not upload, so it did still use a phone line for connection, however, depending on what provider you choose... some are offering upload AND download for Satellite now. It uses the same dish (although it's a newer updated dish, so if you had one previously, you'd probably need to upgrade it.)

The drawback is that it uses two internal slots in the PC. It has one card for upload and another card for download... They still haven't combined the two functions on one circuit board :-( ...Of course, with the old system you needed two cards as well... One for the Satellite download and the other for your modem... Go figure...


You said they checked the "black box" and that it was fine... But I'm not sure what that means. Does that mean the physical hardware is functioning fine... I would have already assumed that to be true. I'm wondering if the cable that runs from the "antennae" to the "black box" is experiencing some loss... That would cause a low signal strenght at the black box which would cause the problems you describe. If you don't know for sure, make sure they check incoming signal strength at the black box...

 

[cdogg]

Like MISAdmin said, satellite internet service currently comes in two flavors - one that only has downstream capability and the other that has both. The last price for the service (2-way) I recall reading was around $90-$100/month. Like you said, weather can and will have an impact at times.

The tech that came out to inspect the black box...Did he just run a diagnostic on the black box? I'm guessing that the diagnostic didn't actually test response times from the server. It's the speed that concerns you, not whether it's functional. Some techs don't seem to listen and just read their instructions from paper. Try and let the next one know, if they'll listen!

It also wouldn't hurt as edfair mentioned earlier for you to duplicate the problem just before the tech arrives. Can't beat an example!

 

[Adminman]

Everything that I know about wireless networking, the advise given above in right on target. The cable lenght and signal loss would be of concern to me... The only thing that bothers me is the "When the service works the web pages or email comes up in about three seconds, but when it is not working properly it takes 3 minutes or more for a web page to come up." this seems to me to be pipe related or buffer overflow on the bridge (black box). When I was working with John Hopkins University, they had a problem with the buffer and slow response times. The other problem could be the intermediary bridge between you and the main site. The thruput on that bridge could be an issue depending on their setup.

Have you tried to ping or trace route any sites to see where in the connection the slowdown occurs? I hope you are able to resolve these issues.

Adminman

 

[nelljack]

Thanks for all of your helps. The provider told me they were paying $15,000 or more to fix the problem on Thur/Fri last week (3/28-29/2002). It works a little better now but not at the speeds I had in the beginning. I think what I will do is save this file as a html and then email it to them. Maybe some input from outsiders will help.

I give up.