Wireless connection problems


Forum: Networking
Topic: Wireless connection problems
started by: shadowman

Posted by shadowman on May 25 2005,18:53
Hello all:

I'm fairly new to Linux and DSL.  I'm running DSL from a hard-drive installation on an old Toshiba laptop -- Pentium 130G, 48MB ram. (which DSL runs magnificently on, by the way)

I'm using a Linksys WPC11 v.3 wireless card and a linksys wireless router (with 2 wired desktops also connected).

I was able to get the card running using the first part of these instructions:
< http://linux.oldcrank.com/tips/wpc11/ >

Basically, I just created the /etc/pcmcia/hermes.conf file noted in the above link, and everything seems to be running.  However...

The connection "drops out" frequently (even within 10 feet of the router).  It will maintain a good connection for a minute or so, and then the link light on the card will begin blinking to indicate no connection for a short period, and then reconnect.

I've tried changing the channel on the router, but that seems to open up a whole new can of configuration problems on the card side -- I've only been able to successfully get a connection on channel 6.  I've tried changing the settings with wlcardconfig and the other configuration tools (netconfig? I forget what it's called now).  So I'm obviously doing something wrong there, although I'm not sure the channel is even the problem.  I have 2 cordless phones, but both are 900Mhz -- but there's an apartment next door and upstairs that may have interfering devices of some sort.

In the configuration tools, I've only been setting the channel and SSID.  And again, the only way I've gotten any connection at all has been to set the router on channel 6, and everything else accordingly. I don't have encryption enabled yet -- I'll deal with that once I get this thing running smoothly.

Anyone have any advice?  Thanks in advance.

Edit: Someone suggested installing the linux-wlan drivers and using those instead.  Anyone have any experience getting that set up on DSL?

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