I had a lot of good feedback from my post on the problems I was having with my new WiFi setup. The most important advice came from Scott and Kirk.
Scott told me to update my drivers for both the Router and WiFi card. I knew the router was up to date because Microsoft’s routers have Windows Update built into them and when I hooked it up it automatically went out and got the most recent update. My WiFi card on the other hand needed an update. After a not-so-quick visit to Dell.com support I had new drivers which cut down on my disconnects quite a bit.
I was still having problems though so I looked into what Kirk told me about switching channels. Yes, it’s just like your phone. Some channels are noisy. And guess what, they are on the same frequency as 2.4 GHz phones. Oh and I’m living in an apartment complex full of them, So I poked around in my WiFi card utilities and found a signal strength meter. After cycling through all of the channels on the base station I found that Channel 9 had the best signal to noise ration. So that’s where it’s staying for now.
Finally, I enabled MAC address filtering and WEP to help keep the hackers at bay. I’m not enabling WPA because some of the devices on my network don’t support it. I’m hoping for an upgrade soon that will allow it.
Anyway it’s working much better now. I still have an occasional disconnect but I think that’s more from the 2.4 GHz phones in the area than because of my set up. < rant: Why do many of the people in my neighborhood feel the need to stand out on their porch and talk on their phones? Its friggin cold out there! Don’t they realize that everyone can hear them out there? Especially when they stand right under my window. />
The second episode of the second season of Red vs. Blue is now available.
Come hear Kelley DuBois, of Microsoft, address key security topics relevant to Microsoft technologies at tomorrow's HRSSUG meeting. Time: 6:30 pm, Place: ESI in Virginia Beach.
UPS delivered my new laptop last night. YIPPEE! I've been feverishly updating everything on Windows Update and McAfee like a good little developer. This is my first experience with WiFi (802.11g in this case) and I'm having a lot of trouble with disconnects. I'm wondering if this is common? Or if I have a problem? I'll be sitting there downloading updates and once the update has finished downloading I get the little bubble above the tray saying there's a WiFi network available.
Now I know it's the same network that I was connected to a few seconds earlier, my home network. But at this point I'm disconnected. I have to click on the bubble, wait for another window to open up with a button that allows me to re-connect. This can be a real pain.
There MUST be a way for it to re-connect automatically. But I haven't found the setting yet. I'm going to have to put Win XP Pro on it eventually. I need IIS. The home version is on it now. Maybe Pro is more reliable in this respect? Any assistance anyone out there can give me would be greatly appreciated.
It's a Microsoft Router, with WEP enabled, Channel 6 is the default.