Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

Mine works pretty well all over the house Intel b mini PCI with the antenna round a 15.4 in lappy screen (Inspiron 8600).

Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

One of the wierd things is that mine worked for just under a week without any problems, then all of a sudden it started dropping the connection at random intervals every couple of minutes. I noticed the longer the uptime, the more frequent the intervals. Maybe something is overheating?



I notice yours is a dell though SMHarman, stuartbe may have a point since punky is using a HP and mine is a compaq (Now owned by HP), also thinking about it, most of the laptops I have seen mentioned on google as suffering with this problem are either HP or Compaq.
Maybe its an Antenna positioning problem or something mor complicated like Firmware issues, or driver conflicts (Like I noticed mine shares the same IRQ as my Graphics card, sureley that can't be good?)

Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

OK- so moving the antenna isn't an option...

What protocol is the lan on, and how far roughly are you away from the AP?

Are there any objects in the (straight line) path between the AP and PC, notably walls, tanks, metal objects etc

As you move away from the AP the signal strength decreases in an inverse square relationship- are you too far from the AP?

Are you using the adapter's config utility or the XP one?

Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

Nope, tried all that. I've used the laptop on the desk next to the AP, and it still jumps on and off. The other wireless desktop always seems to work, even, funnily enough, when the microwave is on (it is in between the router and the other computer)

It's such a shame we have to go all through this with a nearly new laptop. Apart from the the stupid wireless modem, it is actually really nice.

Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

Must be a dodgy adapter on the laptop then- take it back/ get it fixed or get a USB / PCMCIA one instead, preferably from the same mfr as the router / AP...

Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

A quickie for you all:

I'm running a B-class wireless network (11mbps peak). All the network nodes connect at 2mbps. Does that mean if I switch to a G-class (54mbps) network, it will still be stuck at 2mbps because of the environment interference? Or is it usual for devices to connect at a figure much reduced from the peak?

Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

Thought I would add to this post

I'm currently having an issue with an Ergo laptop running the Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B mini PCI adapter at work; it's a setup for a schools network within our Hospital. It seems that the signal fluctuates anything from 1bar to 5bars on the little status display. This is when the laptop is sat on a desk no more than 5m away from the access point which is a HP 420 device (not cheap) I have tried SP2 for XP and this doesn't seem to have made much difference.

Fortunately I had the luxury of other wireless devices connecting to the same wlan of which all are working fine ranging from a Samsung P28 with integral wireless to a windows 98 pc with pci card in the back both are within the same distance.

Why is this I have no idea but I think the solution seems (from this post) to disable the on board card and use a PCMCIA or USB wireless adapter

Re: Poor wireless connectivity
 

However, intel has published a list of known problems with the Mini PCI adapter on their website. One of the articles (http://www.intel.com/support/wireles.../cs-006205.htm) described possible drop out problems due to router manufacturers not implementing PSP correctly. After following thier temporary workaround solution, my connection is back to normal.

Hope it helps all you poms.