LeClerk

Hi,
I have been using Orinoco Silver card and external antenna for 3 months. I don't know what the antenna is called, but it should be directional, it's like 25cm*25cm tile. I'm new to this technology and completely lost with this problem, this far no-one has been able to solve it :(

I have Orinoco Clientmanager installed, and I use it to monitor my connection status. If everything is ok, I get 11mb/s connection to the AP. (it's about 800m away from me, and I got line of sight to it with nothing between).
SNR ratio is from 14 to 16, no packetloss and everything is fine.

Sometimes (like now, when I'm writing this) the connection just gets horrible, the SNR might be still 14 to 16, but I get about 10%-20% packetloss, which makes using the net at least painful (imagine using 1200bps modem) or even totally impossible.
This can happen whenever, even at 3am when all the city is sleeping and there should be minimum amount of other wireless devices in use. Then the problem might go away at any time and the connection returns back to normal.
This happen daily, I don't recall a day without packetloss periods...

Things I have tried this far...
-change the card to other computer (laptop) but the problem is same there.
-take away the big cable between the Orinoco card and antenna and connect the card straight to antenna, no help.
-change the antenna place (at least 100 times.. :P), no help.
-take the antenna outside (usually it's inside, next to the window), this didn't help either.
-let the card cool down if I have been using it for long. Again no help.
-cover the antenna with clothes/magazines whatever to lower the signal so that if something is disturbing the connection, the disturbing singnal would fade too.. :P no help again...
-turn the antenna 90 degrees, to test horizontal polarization, no help (but the connection quality is not affected by turning the antenna, even if everything works fine, I tought it should drop..)
I'm the only user using this AP at evening, and if it's good weather I can find only two other wlan cards with Network Stubler, they are using different channel and their signal is so slow that usually they can't even be spotted.

The connection quality seems to be good even if there is blizzard going on outside, but then sometimes if the weather is good the connection might get that 20% packetloss... so the weather doesn't seem to affect this.

additional question: what means the purple color when monitoring the connection with network stumbler?

If someone could help with this, or at least throw in a guess or two about the problem, I would be extremely grateful.
-LeClerk

blackwave

What type of antenna does the AP that you are connecting to has? Remember that it is possible that you can reach the AP with your high gain antenna and talk to it without a problem, but if the AP has a little crappy antenna, or a directional that isn't pointed towards you, your loss will be high.

__________________
-=BW=-

gcrocker

How long do the packetloss periods last?

Got any microwave ovens or 2.4GHz phones near ya?

-glenn

Radio Maint.

Try putting the patch antenna on your ap and point it at you. I would change channels and then log all interruptions to your data to see if there is a pattern. RM.

Forward5

That's really weird b/c I have been experiencing very similar problems but with different equipment! I haven't yet received my Orinoco Gold Card or antenna that I bought online, so right now I'm using my Compaq HNW-100 PC card with a Compaq AP. Granted, this is not my favorite wireless card or AP, but it works, sometimes. Like you said, sometimes I'll get a perfect signal and everything works fine, and sometimes my connection will slow down to a craw or stop completely (and I'm right next to my AP). But when it stops working, I can still see the AP, and my system says it's connected fine with a good signal, I just can't go online when this happens. Sometimes it will start working again if I pull out the power plug from the AP and reboot my laptop, but not always. I don't have any 2.4 Ghz phones in my house (only 900 Mhz), and I have a microwave but it's a good 100 feet away in my kitchen (and it's not being used). I can't seem to figure out what the hell is going on and it's driving me nuts. I've also tried with and without WEP, and it makes no difference. Why would turning the AP off and then back on make it work sometimes? I would appreciate any info on this matter, as it's really starting to get to me! Thanks, -Forward5

LeClerk

I tried to answer last night, but my connection went so bad I couldn't even use ICQ.. (ICQ is the only program that works when the connection is getting huge packetloss).

I don't know what kind of antenna the AP has, but here is some statistics:
At the moment, connection is quite good (not perfect, I still lose some packets 1% or so).
This station:
SNR is 18-19db
Signal level is -80dBm
noise level is -97dBm

Test partner (ISP AP):
SNR is 13-15dB
Signal level is -79dBm
noise level is -93-95dBm

This is irritating.. While writing this message, my packetloss started to raise, now I'm getting again that 10% packetloss. Great

I don't have any microwave ovens or 2.4GHz phones near me. The microwave oven is about 10m away and is not in use. Don't know about my neighbours above and below me, they could be using something like that.


What do you mean by patch antenna? (my english is not too good...)
Last time when the channel was changed (from 10 to 9) the packetloss went away for that time, but now when the channel is 9, the packetloss keeps coming like normal. Changing the channel helped only for short time (that evening), but it seems that the interference in my connection is not only on that channel.

I found a picture of my antenna (attached).

thanks for all the help, I really appreciate your kindness

Attached Images

ulko2[1].jpg (8.2 KB, 178 views)

LeClerk

Addition to this topic:
I have Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro- keyboard and mouse. They both use radio waves to communicate with the receiver unit.
I have checked what happens if I don't use them (take batteries out) while getting packetloss, and it doesn't seem to affect anything.
They use following frequencies:
27.045 MHz (Keyboard)
27.145 MHz (Mouse)

Because I'm paranoid and totally fed up with this problem I'm going to get analog keyboard and mouse right now..

gcrocker

I assume you're detecting the packet loss with ping or a similar utility. Would you post a traceroute to the ping partner? Maybe this is just an IP-level problem.

Are there any other connection types you can get to that same provider, like a modem connection?

You might also try running a packet sniffer and see if there's some kind of extraneous traffic killing your link.

-glenn

fitzStewart

Hey LeClerk

I saw your image of your antenna. Do you have any details of the antenna manufacturer or type? Who you got it from should be able to help with that. It looks like it's a directional antenna (probably in the 14dBI range), but it might also be a ceiling mount ground plane antenna. The type is crucial, as these two antenna types have drastically different orientations. One way you can tell is that directional antennas usually have an arrow on the back to indicate which way is "up" on it.

Forward5

Hey LeClerk, I too have a Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro- keyboard and mouse, and even though you don't think that they're causing it, it is something to note that we both are experiencing the exact same problems and we both have the same keyboard and mouse. What do you think? The really weird part is that when I had my Compaq AP close to my computer (with the keyboard and mouse) both the keyboard and mouse started acting very funny, and they just started screwing up. I thought it was just something random, and then I moved my AP downstairs, and now I've noticed that the keyboard and mouse aren't weird anymore. But even with the AP downstairs, it still has the same problems even though the keyboard and mouse seem to be better, so that's why I thought they had nothing to do with each other. Let me know what your view on this is. -Forward5

LeClerk

I have been on summer brake for a while, sorry about the huge delay in my posts.

The antenna is directional, and it has an arrow in the back. The ISP uses vertical polarization. Altought if I turn my antenna to horizontal polarization, it doesn't affect connection quality at all.. strange..

The worst thing is that I have no idea of the manufacturer or type. I'm trying to reach the person I bought it from to ask if he knows more about it.
All I know about the antenna is that it should be extremely powerful, it exceeds the maxium allowed transmit power in Finland if I use short cable instead of the long one I got between it and my computer.
(when I get the packetloss I have tried to remove the cable, the connection signal gets very strong, but the packetloss stays).

I detect the packetloss with Orinoco Client Manager, which shows the connection between my computer and the AP I'm connected to.

One additional possible reason have come in my mind..
When I use the Orinoco Silver wlan card, and connect it to the external antenna, does the WLAN cards internal antenna still operate? What if it's the one which takes that disturbance, not the big antenna? I have tried to move the big antenna around the house when I get packetloss, but the location has no effect, I still get as much packetloss. So how about the internal antenna in the card, I haven't moved my computer around the house while getting packetloss... I must try this with laptop..


In reply to Forward5,
I changed my keyboard and mouse to basic no-radio ones. It didn't help at all. I have now changed back using the Logitech Cordless desktop again, as it didn't seem to affect the connection..

If anyone has any ideas, please reply