Wireless.....................................

[Roger - The Bargain Hunter]

Have you tried to delete your wireless profile / alias and create a new one. some times they get screwed up. Also linksys has some good online help, that is generic and could apply to any setup even belkin [wtf2] , remember linksys = cisco so they know their stuff. I don't use any other brand. Do you live in an area where there could be a lot of interference ? As an example, my computer is close to the kitchen, if the microwave is on I get no signal. A direct connection will always be faster. Also some dsl/cable modems have wireless built-in, SBC sent me one of these by mistake and I could not get my network to run until I removed my router. Once they sent me a non wireless one everything was fine. Finaly some wireless nic cards like to use there own software and not microsofts , also check for updated drivers , and if possible try moving the computer. If you have close neighbors you should at least be able to see their network, if not the problem is in your computer not your network. One last debug is to use a neighbors network and see if the problem persists , then you know its not your network.

[Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo]

Hey Tommy, 

I'm not sure what equipment you are using, but I would not tweak any system settings until your wireless box is definately working 100%.   Do not use that TCP optimizer program unless you are sure you have a good connection.   Those tweak programs determine buffer sizes by the average delay on your dataline.  A poor connection with a 500ms delay can result in a huge buffer on your system and then IE will freeze while waiting for packets to catch up.

What brand is you wireless?  Linksys?  Netgear?
All the wireless boxes have different channel ranges available for broadcast.  You may find that you need to change it to channel 1 or 10, versus the common default channel.   Some cordless phones will cause problems with wireless.   You might even have a neighbor within 1500 feet who has wireless on the same channel...that can really mess with your network.

As far as security, there are many options so nobody uses your connection.   The easiest is to turn off the SSID broadcast and then secure the router to only allow your MAC address to connect.    Basically, for someone to use your wireless, they would have to know your wirless network ID (SSID) and also clone your computer's wireless card MAC address.   (Or steal your computer, or have access to your routers admin screens)

As an alternative, you can run with 64-bit WEP and password/keys, but it really slows your connection down and is about pointless because it does not block someone from using the connection anyways.  

Let me know how to help....  Working IT for over 23 years, and working security for the Fed/State computers, I'm pretty versed in the field. 

Tommy I completely concur wth every word here. I was thinking of posting these very things when I scrolled down and saw this.

Be advised tho, if you do not broadcast your network and you have any vista machines you want to hook up, you need to go out of your way to tell vista you are connecting to a non-broadcast system (stupid MS). It causes you no harm at all, it just makes your computer believe you typed in your net id correctly instead of trying to match it to one of the ones it is reading via broadcast.

trust these things, Absolutely no one will hack into your network.

[Admin]

With Belkin, I would recommend changing the channel first.   I believe that many of the Belkins operate around the 2.4Ghz range, which is also the range of many cordless home phones.    Channels 1, 6 and 11 are the only non-overlapping channels for the 802.11b routers.  You are probably on 6, which ALL the Belkins ship as default...as well as Linksys and Netgear.    Change it to channel 1 or 11.

Chances are, that will solve the problem.   If not, then there is still a couple other options.   I'm not sure of your computer OS, but I'll assume its XP.    Windows XP can connect to any wireless on its own without the need of additional drivers.   Netgear provides its own software which shows up in the bottom right taskbar showing connection details.   I personally have run into problems using the software packaged with the router, versus the plain-jane microsoft wireless connection.   I've also had the opposite where the microsoft drivers would not work..and would drop the connection every 30-60 seconds.  (Sound familiar?)   If you installed the Belkin software on your system, try the uninstall and then use windows to connect to your wireless network.   There is also an option in windows to always connect to any wireless network it finds available.  The windows setup can get a little more technical because its more generic to adapt to the many different networks.

Of course, if you are already using the microsoft "Connect To" to get onto your wireless network, then do the opposite and load the Belkin drivers onto the system and see if they are more stable.

I have 4 systems on wireless at home, plus my Playstation 3.   All work fine, but one only liked the Netgear software and would not hold the connection using the generic XP drivers.   I don't know why this happens, maybe has to do with data compression with that manufacturer, but that sometimes fixes the connect/disconnect/connect issue.

For security (SSID), MAC address filtering, etc...  that is done after you know you have a good solid connection.

If none of that works, a 100' spool of Cat5 is the way to go! 

[Tommy2guns]

Thanks for all the help guys,i'm gonna try your suggestions.

[tafdom]

Are you ready to PUKE. I just finished a 20 minute call to the 24/7 # of my router manufacturer and all I can say is YAAAAAAAHO. They built it so I guess they now it. My speed went from 963 to a whopping 10017. Good luck man!

Click the link to check your speed. 

 
Last Result:
Download Speed: 10017 kbps (1252.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 3170 kbps (396.3 KB/sec transfer rate)


http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

[Admin]

Last Result:
Download Speed: 10017 kbps (1252.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 3170 kbps (396.3 KB/sec transfer rate)


http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Thats odd tafdom,
10017kbs is really 1222.78 KBs 
3170kbs is 386.96 KBs

Something does not seem right with those results...   You might want to try a different site as those numbers seem to be doctored/incorrect.    Comcast is pretty good, offering 12Mbs connections, but in real life its about 8Mbs with bursts of 10-11Mbs at times.   If they unlocked your cable modem, thats great...  but I would check with another site to see what numbers you get because those just don't add up mathmatically.

Try DSL reports...
http://www.dslreports.com/stest


Also, now that you unlocked your modem for max speed, you can improve your windows XP throughput as well.   By default, XP limits 10 concurrent connections at the same time.  While thats fine for a dial up connection, you can gain some serious performance by tweaking your buffers and the max connections.
Read this article:
http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=4226patch/faq

You can tell if you are hitting your limits by looking in your system log files to see if you have any warnings on Event ID 4226.    Most XP systems that download larger files, music, videos, etc. will constantly reach the limit of "10".   Mine is set for 50 and its smooooth.

[tafdom]

Eric, all I know is that it was 900 and now it's not. My pages would time out and now it is loaded as soon as I let off the trigger. Now it is instant page. I am pumped whatever they did.