Wireless Belkin Pre-N problem sending emails

Hello,

I'm very new to this networking world and have just installed a Belkin Pre-N modem/router and Pre-N PC card to my distant PC (my 1st PC is wired in). I'm on Aquiss ADSL (very impressive BTW). My connections are very good on the wireless machine, despite massive walls and a fair distance, so I'm happy with the range performance (the reason for buying the Pre-N).

However, although I can send emails from my wired machine OK, the same is not true from the wireless machine. In that case, I can only send very short emails (containing a few words at most). Anything longer results in a timeout error message in Outlook Express. All the OE settings for the account are correct. I am baffled, as I expected that either I would be able to send nothing or everything. Emails are being received without any problems on both machines.

I'm set up with WPA, NAT, etc. all enabled. Browsing on the wireless PC is fast and furious, I just seem to have the problem trying to send. Does anyone have any ideas please?

 

Test for the appropriate MTU setting, then set both router and client MTU values.

Discussion of the issue:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/794/router_mtu.html
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;319661


Test & Discover MTU settings: http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks
Set Client MTU: http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp

The MTU setting for the router can be found in its configuration pages.

 

Thanks for this - very informative - but the router does not have any capacity to set or adjust its MTU.

How do I work around that restriction?

 

OK. But still set the MTU value for the clients.
For ADSL it usually is 1492; although it does vary. AOL, for instance, is 1400 for its DSL service.

 

Thank you Bill & Tony for your advice - I shall experiment along the lines you suggest when I arrive back home. I did notice a few other "issues" that were unique to the wireless machine.

I could not log onto eBay (but I did log onto other sites eg. Paypal) - no problems on the wired machine.

The dslreports test would not send anything from the wireless PC, despite working very well at 1492 MTU on the wired machine.

The Windows update service would not function on the wireless machine, even with the router firewall turned off.

I will try the MTU first and report back at the weekend. Once again, many thanks for your input.

 

I can happily report that setting the client MTU as described in the links you provided, Bill, has worked perfectly. Thank you once again, Bill and Tony, for your concise and accurate help - it is much appreciated.

 

Well that is good news.

Best of luck.