Wireless LAN connection problem

[Barley]

Since Emma and I moved into the new house I've had my computer up stairs, but the router is stuck down stairs. To get around this I bought a wireless access point and a wireless NIC for my laptop. this worked fine.

I then used a bit of Cat5 to connect my PC to the laptop, so my PC was piggybacking it's internet connection from the laptop.

Today I finally got around to receiving the wireless PCI NIC for my PC to save me having to use the laptop all the time.

I connected the card and Windows detected it right away, I went on to install the proper drivers anyway. Established an internet connection which seems to work fine, can browse the net and download at normal speeds, and when I refresh the CS servers in Steam the pings are all normal.

However. I joined a CS game earlier, only for my ping to be utterly mad!! It kept jumping on net_graph 3 between 40 and 350ms. In the scoreboard it was showing as a steadyish 250ms though. Whenever I try to move I just get ultra mega lag, completely unplayable. When I refresh the CS servers from inside CS the pings are also really mad!

Does anyone have idea what I might be able to do to smooth things out? As I say it makes no sense because everything else seems ok.

[Gh0st Face Killah]

Yes get rid of the wireless stuff and install some Cat5 cable.


Sorry I have spent all day working on wireless networks and I don't care what anybody else says they are crap. Cisco are compatable with centrino technology my Ar$e.....!

[Barley]

If I owned the house I would, but it's rented and the landlord won't let me drill holes in the walls or nail cables to the skirting rails

[suicidal_monkey]

just drape the cat5 around the place and use more subtle cable ties/nail-things. tbh we never used to ask about stuff like that, just got on and did it (never drilled any really big holes though, ...apart from the one to run a cable from one house, through an alley, to another house 10m away

On the wireless front - as soon as you're a couple of meters away (and especially through walls) you'll likely see a huge drop in performance. I'm doing some work with wireless stuff. Part of the problem is that the cards and hubs etc aren't very standardised in terms of quality. Some cards are good and will hold up your connections, others will drop you down badly. Also is the laptop on when you experience this bad pinging? might be network traffic/interference partly too?

[Anonymous]

I have this Access Point and this Card.

I get 54Mbps in most places. The worst I get anywhere in the house is 12Mbps and that is diagonally through lots of bricks.

The AP is available as a bundle with a card but not the card I mentioned above. the card bundled with the AP is cr*p frankly!

[albert]

Bob, you get a thing called latency happening with wireless. To give you an example, put a Terrestrial TV and and Sky TV side by side and watch BBC1, they are out of sync. This is because the satelite or radio signal take more time to travel through the air as it come a much further distance. This is the same with wireless, if you want interactive performace to be immediate, cable is the only way I'm affraid, the electric signal move much faster than wireless radio.

[Jamoe]

Aye, download speeds dont really mean you going to get good pings. Hence why on my 64k isdn line i only get about 12-15k/sec download but i still get a ping of around 60-80.

[suicidal_monkey]

Originally posted by albert@Jun 30 2004, 10:43 AM
Bob, you get a thing called latency happening with wireless. To give you an example, put a Terrestrial TV and and Sky TV side by side and watch BBC1, they are out of sync. This is because the satelite or radio signal take more time to travel through the air as it come a much further distance. This is the same with wireless, if you want interactive performace to be immediate, cable is the only way I'm affraid, the electric signal move much faster than wireless radio.

um ... sort of ... but not really ... :learn:

digital tv signals tend to be delayed more because they take longer to process. You're correct to say that if you're getting your signal via satellite then the distance is much further and you get a delay, but tbh 10m (like your indoor setup) isn't much of a problem lag-wise for something that's travelling at the speed of light (electricity in wires cannot travel faster than radio signals, if indeed it does travel as fast! I forget...)

Your home setup gets latency because the card and hub etc are failing to set up successful links quickly enough either due to faulty/poor hardware or are rather poor at processing the signals. This will be due to either poor arials and/or receivers on the NIC and/or the hub. Then if the card is not very good it may be slow at decoding the received radio signal introducing more delay.

Try the link with your pc in the same room as the router to see if it's failing to transmit through the floor/walls. If the laptop ping is fine upstairs but the pc isn't and the pc remains poor even when in the same room I'd guess you have a bad NIc - ask for another one perhaps?

If however the pc gets a good link when you're in the same room a few feet away then I'm afraid you have bought a poor wireless NIC. Does it have any connections for external arials?

Also, have you tried angling the various arials in different orientations? Long shot, but can work wonders!

[Barley]

Cheers guys those are some good tips.  Enough to keep me thinking and experimenting for a few days  :thumbsup:

[Rad_Man]

I have the same setup as you as my router is upstairs. I get good ping (except for our servers.....something to do with international bandwidth yadiyadiyadi) but when i play on the NZ servers I get really good ping but lag every 30sec or so which is a bloody nusiance. I then decided that i will hard connect cat5 and everything is hunky dory(except for our servers.....something to do...)

Anyways wireless is good for the general shape of the internet and home networking stuff but shyte for online gaming.

[TeaLeaf]

Originally posted by FoCA|Bob_Barley@Jun 29 2004, 08:28 PM
However. I joined a CS game earlier, only for my ping to be utterly mad!! It kept jumping on net_graph 3 between 40 and 350ms. In the scoreboard it was showing as a steadyish 250ms though. Whenever I try to move I just get ultra mega lag, completely unplayable. When I refresh the CS servers from inside CS the pings are also really mad!

Just a thought.  The variable ping may nto be due to the wirelless connection.  We are all currently experiencing regular lag spikes on steam CS servers with pings jumping as high as 3500 and lock ups lasting anything up to 10 seconds.  So it might not be you wireless connection at all.

TL.

[GhostMjr]

I am not an expert in this field probably albert is as he is into networking but mayb a microwave might be distorting the signal! it might seem weird but try it without any other appliances switched on and it may work!

[suicidal_monkey]

Originally posted by GhostMjr@Jul 6 2004, 02:19 PM
I am not an expert in this field probably albert is as he is into networking but mayb a microwave might be distorting the signal! it might seem weird but try it without any other appliances switched on and it may work!

you should see the performance drops some of these wireless systems experience as soon as you open the door of the anechoic chamber they are sittnig in for testing! ...and yes, in fact microwaves do give big jolts of radio when runnnig, but somehow I doubt bob'd have the microwave going constantly while sitting at his pc

[Barley]

I fixed the problem now, I got so sick I threw the WAP onto the floor and broke it, thus solving the problem

I've run a huge piece of Cat5 cable up the stairs for now and am going to buy a decent D-link WAP when I get paid at the end of the month.