Wireless network disconnects

I have a problem whereby when copying large quantities of data from one computer using a wireless connection to another with a wired connection, the wireless one drops connection for a few minutes. This means it is impossible to copy lots of data at one time.
The router i am using is a Belkin F5D7632-4.

Any help would be appreciated,

Alex

 

Make sure that 'Use 802.1x authentication' is unchecked in the Wireless adapter properties sheet.

If there are newer drivers for adapter and firmware for the router, apply them.

If you are both using XP, make sure that Service Pack 2 is applied to both end points.

There should be no significance to the wireless-to-wired aspects of the communication.

 

The XP SP2 redirector had as one design goal to try and limit this issue. In my opinion it has succeeded. I cannot do much if the buffers on the router fill, without proper notice to the clients.

But your note above does nothing to address my claim that wireless-to-wired is not the issue; it can just as easily happen wired-to-wired, or wireless-to-wireless.

The big question is how large the buffers are on the router. And how efficient the router firmware performs the task of moving the contents and informing clients of errors. Then the question becomes how well the client adapter software responds to error conditions. The router firmware should easily be able to handle a buffer congestion condition, and do so without dropping the wireless AP service to clients.

But again as I mentioned, remove periodic polling that is unecessary -- for example, wireless clients polling for non-existent 802.1x authentication servers can easily break the connection during these long transfers. These occasional polls for a RADIUS server usually go unnoticed, but can take up to thirty seconds.

It might be worth using Robocopy in this instance. The XP SP2 compliant release explicitly checks for network related errors, and recovers.

Include the /Z optional parameter:
/Z : copy files in restartable mode (survive network glitch).

The default is 1 million retries, but you can increase it. <grin>

This is not a native OS utility, but part of the XP/2003 Resource Kit Tools set (free):

Discussion and Download link
http://www.ss64.com/nt/robocopy.html

I will ignore this time your rap against the Linksys WRT54G. I am not sure what model you were using, but mine (albeit with third-party firmware) would not have this issue. (If it was an issue, I would have heard from my hacker-15-year-old, as he transfers large video downloads [of dubious origin] from machine to machine regularly.)

And Happy New Year, Tony.
Bill

 

The WRT54G never used a PRISM chipset. It has been nearly exclusively Broadcom. (Though your description does fairly match the WAP11)

The mini-pci board version was 1.0, quickly replaced with an integrated Broadcom version in 1.1. The Linux core was available up until version 5, and still available in the WRT54GL version. The third-party firmwares available were all written for Broadcom chipsets.

I honestly do not know of any special disconnection issues relating to the WRT54G, with proper client settings. While I am sure you can Google and find hits, this in itself does not tell you very much. The router after all has some 70% of the SOHO market. You can expect people to have setup issues. For example: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=netgear+ap+disconnects

I am sorry your experience with the WRT54G has not matched mine. I think it is just a great piece of hardware.

 

Wireless Connection Drops and WRT54G

With the wireless connection dropping.
First check for interference from neighbours.
It does not take much at all.
Sometimes you can not even see the other router in the windows wireless connection utility ( which is next to useless anyways - very limited).
Change the channel in the router from the default channel 6 .
Channels 1 and 11 are the next best bests although it may be trial and error as the other routers change as well. ( They can be on an automatic channel setup).
You can use a more sensitive scanning utility such as netstumbler

http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Please note:

- many of the routers now set up the wireless beacon in a non broadcasting mode as the default for security reasons so even if the router is on and broadcasting you will not see it.
Netstumber may see it , give you the channel but not the ssid ( network name i.e defaults default of linksys).
- the competitive signal may be sporadic. The default for dsl connections is to connect on demand.


Secondly there seems to be misunderstanding and misconceptions on the Linksys WRT54G router - 3rd party firmware and chipset history here.
The latest hardware version is version 5.
It uses the broadcom chipset.
Anything pre version 5 ( 4 and down) has the Linux based operating system and will take the 3rd firmware upgrades. Lots of extra feautures.
Most noticeable is the power boost. Default power of these routers us 28 mw. With the 3rd party firmware upgrades you can go to 250 mw .
Not that the performance is a straight line to the power. However my son says with his xbox wireless adapter that speeds are really enhanced. If you know linux commands there is a shell you can go into for all kinds of extra whatever,
The changes in the chipset did not immeadiately follow takeover by Cisco.
The version 4 Linksys WRT54G is clearly stamped in front left "Cisco Systems ".
My understanding is that someone or group in marketing look at sales numbers and said " gee. We are selling hundreds of thousand of these routers.
How can we improve profit levels ? "
The quickest way to improve profit levels is to reduce ram. One vendor showed a way to reduce ram from the 8 mb to 1 mb onboard. A cost saving.
It will cost for the propietary operating system of the vendor to run the diffirent chipset. However look at this graph. With the savings in the ram cost , with the volume of sales it more than will make up for the extra cost of the OS.
You can now have a router that will not and cannot take those 3rd party firmwares for the Linux based OS. Initially the version 5 router was said to be lacking due to firmware problems. Linksys released firmware upgrades pretty soon after the version 5 release to fix problems. However these never have really solved problems with these routers. Some of the current reviews of the WRT54G ( version 5 is the current product line) are at the point of stating that the version 5 product is overall a poor product all by itself.


further info at : http://www.linksysinfo.org/

http://seattlewireless.net/

This marketing decision at Linksys / Cisco is comparable to decisions made at GM head office with their highly paid upper executives having lunch in the top floor executive lunchroom devoid of any reality and not understanding their function in life or their customer base and its needs and concerns.

 

I do not have any misconceptions about the WRT54G.

The Version 5 comes with 4mb, not 1mb. The WRT54G series started with 4mb, went to 8mb, and went back down to 4mb. Decisions on the Linksys product line are made by Linksys and not Cisco, as both companies have explained ad nauseum.

Nor is it true that you cannot use third-party firmwares. Hyper-WRT, for one, has a small model firmware for the WRT54G V.5

Again, as I said earlier, you have no issues with third-party firmwares if you use the Version 5, WRT54GL.

The biggest problem now faced by third-party firmwares for the WRT54G V.5 was their dependence on the 8mb address space. Some have grown too large for a 4mb space, although all began with this limitation as a given in the original WRT54G releases.

And I fail to see how Cisco-bashing adds to the technical value of this discussion.