Wi-fi is lossy for some but not others

[digge]

Re: Wi-fi is lossy for some but not others

It might be something interfering with the signals. Just about everything use 2.4GHz these days and have a chance to interfere which might make a connection drop. Should get back up in quite short time though when nothing is interfering.

The difference in how good radios are at filtering out crap is huge between brands and even models. Some of the "cheaper" brands are worse with interference then others.

What might be interfering is hard to say, can be spikes on the electrical to the routers, but if that was the case you would have problems to. Could be a microwave, Bluetooth stuff, wireless phone or something else.

Also ive seen some laptop manufacturers shipping with drivers old as *beep*. Might want to look into that cause interference sturdiness is one thing that drivers might address to some extent.

Without a spectrum analyzer it can be tricky to troubleshoot interference but try isolating and turn of any electrical appliance in the vicinity and see how it goes.

[lmcancu]

Re: Wi-fi is lossy for some but not others

First, what channels have you configured the access points? Are the channels at 2.4GHz or 5GHz? In both case, channels are overlapping. There is about 60 Mhz available in 2.4 GHz, or three non-overlapping 20 MHz channels. 802.11n lets you operate in 40 MHz mode, so it is impossible to configure all three APs two channels apart without them being overlapping. The best you can do is adjacent to each other (1,6,11) with the 802.11n using 20 Mhz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

What do you mean by booted off? Do your roommates see the access points (i.e. what is the signal strength they see?)

[pentium]

Because of compatibility issues (no wireless B) and my laptops were the only ones on the network that were getting booted off while everyone else was peachy I rebuilt my wireless configuration.

802.11b with WEP128 and 802.11g with WPA are now handled separately by Linksys WAP11 and WAP54G access points respectively. 802.11n with WPA is being handled by a TrendNET access point. Each access point is configured so they are two channels apart from eachother which limits possible interference.
All three access points are high up on a shelf in the living room and are unobstructed.

My laptops (both using wireless G) are now working flawlessly.
My roommates however are now having problems with the G and N access points booting them off.
I experimented by streaming multiple videos on my laptop and at different locations in the house and I could not drop the connection or find dead zones. One roommate is closer to the access points, the other is further. My room in in between.

I'm stumped because I can't blame both the laptop hardware or the networking hardware on obvious grounds.