Selecting accespoint?

LeClerk · 10-02-2002

Hi,

I tried to search if someone had already asked about this but didn't find any threads..

Is there any way to tell the client manager which channel to use, or which accesspoint to connect?
Or which not to connect..

Situation:
- I got Orinoco Silver card and external yagi antenna pointed towards my ISP's accesspoints.
- They have two accesspoints in the same building, and I can see both of them. They use channels 1 and 12.
- Orinoco client manager selects randomly either one of them, the channel 1 is not as good as 12 (about 2dBm difference in SNR rating). For some reason the client manager usually switch to channel 1 no matter what I do. I can't adjust the antenna so that it would only see the channel 12.
- The problem is: channel 12 network speed is about 10mb/s when transferring data while channel 1 is totally messed (don't know why) and is less than 250kb/s. Naturally I would like to connect to the faster one, but it seems to be impossible to select which channel I want to use and keep it.

The strangest part is that the channel 12 is better by all ways. It's signal level is higher with nearly no noise, but still the connection is usually to channel 1.

Can anyone tell me how to force the channel 12 as only channel or how to force the connection only to specified accesspoint?

-LeClerk

blackwave · 10-02-2002

"The 802.11b standard defines a total of 14 frequency channels. The FCC allows channels 1 through 11 within the U.S.; whereas, most of Europe can use channels 1 through 13. In Japan, you have only one choice: channel 14."

Anyhow if you are non-US make sure you are using a non-US client card and be able to answer these questions:

Is the AP you are authorized connect to requiring a WEP key?
have you asked the administrator if that particular AP is MAC filtering?

have you ever connected to channel 12 using your currentl client?

LeClerk · 10-02-2002

I live in Europe, in Finland to be exact.

The AP's don't require WEP key. (it's optional, I can use it if I want to).
All the AP's have MAC filtering and my MAC is added there (to all of them) so that I can connect to them.

At the moment I'm connected to channel 12 with the client. But at any moment the client just may change the connection to channel 1.

sparafina · 10-02-2002

The orinoco clients don't allow you to select the channel, but a lot of the clients for prism-based cards have that feature. Maybe there's a hermes chipset client that lets you select channels.

LeClerk · 10-03-2002

I have now tried the client managers for Artem, Avaya, Dell Truemobile and toshiba. All of them seem to have same client manager, it always looks same and has same features. This means no channel and accesspoint selection or restriction.

Is there any possibility that I could somehow be able to use Prism based manager with Hermes based card... :P
Buying a new card doesn't sound too good

zev · 10-03-2002

I am assuming from this discussion that both of the AP's have the same SSID. Maybe you could get the sysadmin to change the names so they are distinct, and then you can use the ssid of the desired channel in your client manager.

LeClerk · 10-04-2002

Yep, they have same the SSID. But as that SSID is used to identify the network thruout the country I don't think they would be willing to change the SSID for one accesspoint so that I could select it...
This network is used so that you can open your laptop about anywhere in the country and if there is an accesspoint nearby you can use it. This actually means that in the bigger cities you can use it, they don't have accesspoints everywhere.
But I can ask what they think about this idea.. :P

10-02-2002	#1 (permalink)
LeClerk Registered Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 10	Selecting accesspoint? Hi, I tried to search if someone had already asked about this but didn't find any threads.. Is there any way to tell the client manager which channel to use, or which accesspoint to connect? Or which not to connect.. Situation: - I got Orinoco Silver card and external yagi antenna pointed towards my ISP's accesspoints. - They have two accesspoints in the same building, and I can see both of them. They use channels 1 and 12. - Orinoco client manager selects randomly either one of them, the channel 1 is not as good as 12 (about 2dBm difference in SNR rating). For some reason the client manager usually switch to channel 1 no matter what I do. I can't adjust the antenna so that it would only see the channel 12. - The problem is: channel 12 network speed is about 10mb/s when transferring data while channel 1 is totally messed (don't know why) and is less than 250kb/s. Naturally I would like to connect to the faster one, but it seems to be impossible to select which channel I want to use and keep it. The strangest part is that the channel 12 is better by all ways. It's signal level is higher with nearly no noise, but still the connection is usually to channel 1. Can anyone tell me how to force the channel 12 as only channel or how to force the connection only to specified accesspoint? -LeClerk Last edited by LeClerk : 10-02-2002 at 02:20 PM.

10-02-2002	#2 (permalink)
blackwave Do I look like I'm joking Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: SoCal, OC Posts: 4,507	Re: Selecting accesspoint? "The 802.11b standard defines a total of 14 frequency channels. The FCC allows channels 1 through 11 within the U.S.; whereas, most of Europe can use channels 1 through 13. In Japan, you have only one choice: channel 14." Anyhow if you are non-US make sure you are using a non-US client card and be able to answer these questions: Is the AP you are authorized connect to requiring a WEP key? have you asked the administrator if that particular AP is MAC filtering? have you ever connected to channel 12 using your currentl client? __________________ -=BW=-

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

10-02-2002	#3 (permalink)
LeClerk Registered Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 10	I live in Europe, in Finland to be exact. The AP's don't require WEP key. (it's optional, I can use it if I want to). All the AP's have MAC filtering and my MAC is added there (to all of them) so that I can connect to them. At the moment I'm connected to channel 12 with the client. But at any moment the client just may change the connection to channel 1.

10-02-2002	#4 (permalink)
sparafina Registered Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: TX,MD,NY Posts: 1,430	The orinoco clients don't allow you to select the channel, but a lot of the clients for prism-based cards have that feature. Maybe there's a hermes chipset client that lets you select channels.

10-03-2002	#5 (permalink)
LeClerk Registered Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 10	I have now tried the client managers for Artem, Avaya, Dell Truemobile and toshiba. All of them seem to have same client manager, it always looks same and has same features. This means no channel and accesspoint selection or restriction. Is there any possibility that I could somehow be able to use Prism based manager with Hermes based card... :P Buying a new card doesn't sound too good

10-03-2002	#6 (permalink)
zev Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 20	I am assuming from this discussion that both of the AP's have the same SSID. Maybe you could get the sysadmin to change the names so they are distinct, and then you can use the ssid of the desired channel in your client manager.

10-04-2002	#7 (permalink)
LeClerk Registered Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 10	Yep, they have same the SSID. But as that SSID is used to identify the network thruout the country I don't think they would be willing to change the SSID for one accesspoint so that I could select it... This network is used so that you can open your laptop about anywhere in the country and if there is an accesspoint nearby you can use it. This actually means that in the bigger cities you can use it, they don't have accesspoints everywhere. But I can ask what they think about this idea.. :P