Orinoco 11b Gold & LinkSys Wireless B Router Problems

[Lunch[box]]

My network setup:

4mb Cable Internet Service to my LinkSys BEFW11S4 Wireless B Router. I have 4 computers connected via Ethernet, and 3 connected via wireless.

My laptop, using the Orinoco Gold 11b card has speed issues. While all other computers speed test around 3.5-4.5mb/sec my laptop hits only 300k. All of the included utilities claim everything is ok, however I have an average of a 40% packet loss. Signal strength in the area where I'm using it is excelent (-30db).

The same laptop works great using a LinkSys USB Wireless adapter, which I'm using on another PC. The other laptop with built-in wireless also works flawlessly.

I'm made all sorts of setting changes to the routers Advanced Wireless settings, none of which seem to make any difference. I'm not using any Orinoco configuration stuff, only Windows XP Pro Zero Configuration.

All computers are Windows XP Pro.

Any ideas? I've spent the last two hours searching this forum and others and haven't found anything that seems to help.

Thanks!

[EDIT] No firewalls running, only Norton AV (has been disabled to test), and I've also tried with WEP both enabled and disabled.

[Shawnt]

Did you try to update the drivers for the card. Like download new one and then uninstall the old drivers and install new ones?

That might help.

[Lunch[box]]

Ok, just to be sure I did the driver dance again. Uninstalled everything, then reinstalled. Same problem.

I did however add an el-cheapo Blitz wireless router to the network, and the speeds are much better. While other computers measure between 2.7-3.7mb, the notebook is about 700k less in all tests.

By this I'm assuming that the Linksys Router is the problem, however I haven't found any possible setting changes to correct it.

Any ideas on this theory?

Thanks!

[cszeto]

Depending on your notebook computer and the PC Card format, what you are seeing may not be that far out of line. The following thread should provide some insights.

http://forums.practicallynetworked.com/showthread.php?threadid=2048

The Linksys 802.11b routers have not been rated so well in performance comparisons. There has been various complaints, but the 802.11g line seems to be a lot better.

[Lunch[box]]

I've found some more information after a bit more troubleshooting this morning.

I tried the card in two other notebooks, all with the same results... terribly slow connection with Excellent Signal strength. The other two notebooks have built in 802.11b, with these enabled a speed test shows around 3.1mb, which is normal.

After seeing this, I am led to believe that the problem resides with the Orinoco card, not the Linksys router, since it has the same problems using either the Linksys or the Blitz.

I'll try to call Proxim Monday morning about the issue, hopefully they will be able to shed some light on the situation.

Thanks for all the help so far, and I'm sure this won't be the end of the problem! ;)

[cszeto]

It seems like there are a few variations of the "Gold", so the older PCMCIA format ones may not perform as well when it comes to transfer speeds versus the 32-bit Card Bus models. If it is a case between PCMCIA versus Card Bus, then there is probably not much to be done from there. It's older and 16-bit versus 32-bit processing...

[Lunch[box]]

Problem solved:

The Beacon Interval on the Router needed to be set at 500.


After doing this there is no speed loss and a mere 1% packet loss.

[cszeto]

Good deal! Too bad the defaults didn't work correctly out of the gate.

[Shawnt]

Cool!