Lost Wireless Connectivity -- Help!

[edgestrato]

I've been running two wired and two wireless machines from a netgear MR 814 router without problem. Shortly after my kid kind of moved the router around (but didn't seem to harm anything) I suddenly had a connection that was a crawl. On the one wireless machine with W98 I have the Orinoco manager loaded and the link test showed that the connection seemed to drop in and out, in an on/off fashion. when it was on it was perfectly adequate (13-15 db)but the result was an unusable signal. the w98 machine uses an external usb antenna and the other wireless (thinkpad/xp) uses an orinoco card --it all ran great until recently. the router seems fine; antenna tight, etc.

the two wired connections are perfect. i move a 10mb file in one second and shared net connection screams.

what the heck happened?? any help greatly appreciated! --paul

 

[micker377]

What do you mean by "kind of moved the router around"? Was it moved to check something and put back, or moved to another location?

 

[edgestrato]

no... just moved and put back to the same location. i have a parabolic reflector which fits on the antenna (has worked great) which wasn't positioned perfectly before I adjusted ... but no big deal ...

this is a strange problem. have commandered the router from my kids and have been hard-wiring it for the last few days. But the mutiny draws nigh and I need to get the wireless back up!

 

[bcastner]

I know from using the Michael Erskine parabolic reflector trick that the focal point is critical. If the holes for the reflector are enlarged even slightly you might be better off without the parabolic, or redo it.

"Errors of 1/4" are unacceptable at these frequencies. It may help to "fiddle" with the positioning as small irregularities (~> 1/4 inch) will move the focal point slightly. If the dipole is not in the focal point, you will loose gain."

http://osiris.urbanna.net/antenna_designs/projects/template/804

http://www.freeantennas.com/

 

[edgestrato]

I know from using the Michael Erskine parabolic reflector trick that the focal point is critical.

Yeah, I've played with these an awful lot as well (recomend them highly). I wanted to elimnate the reflector as a variable. So I removed it, and sat literally 3 feet away from the router with my laptop and orinoco. There was the signal strength indicator (XP) indicating max signal ... but files at a dead crawl across the network, and the shared dsl net connection ... forget it...

 

[bcastner]

I suspect something on the wireless side of the router. I would RMA it.

 

[bcastner]

You are positive no settings changes were made on the client side: 802.1x disabled, for the notebook Hotfix Q815485 removed with Add/Remove programs (if it exists), machines were tested without passkeys, etc. just an open wireless connection, nobody pushed the reset button while carrying the thing around, SSID is correct, different channels were tried, etc.

 

[edgestrato]

Yes, all good thoughts, but I am confident no changes were made on client side. I've now got the router in a different location (my office) and am successfully communicating wirelessly to the 4th machine which uses an exteranl usb orinoco adapter. Link test showed 11mbs with no packet loss as previously. Net con shared no prob. I have only tested it twice for about a minute each. The problem was intermittent preivously, so can't say it's "fixed" yet...

I would RMA it.

What do you mean by this?

BTW, thanks for pitching in here I was gettin' awful lonely!

 

[bcastner]

RMA = call and get a Return Materials Authorization, and send it back.

I have seen routers were the wireless side died but the wired side still worked perfectly.