Belkin N1 card slow

I got a new Belkin N1 PC card to go with my new Belkin N1 wireless
router. This card takes over 60 sec to figure out it's network
connections when the laptop boots, way much longer than my old "b" card
ever did.

Also signal strength (poor) and throughput (~39 Mbps) does not come
close to advertised specs. If I run the laptop in the same room as the
router I do get the 300 Mbps and fulll signal strength advertised. The
best advice Belkin could give was to change the broadcast channel on the
router. That didn't change anything. There are no other wireless users
anywhere near me anyway.

Has anyone else had these long initialization times and poor performance
with these new N wireless card/router combinations?

Geoff

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:14:06 -0400, geoff <geoff@sunfishdesigns.com>
wrote in <Ot-dnb43W82bVr7bnZ2dnUVZ_hisnZ2d@comcast.com>:

>I got a new Belkin N1 PC card to go with my new Belkin N1 wireless
>router. This card takes over 60 sec to figure out it's network
>connections when the laptop boots, way much longer than my old "b" card
>ever did.
>
>Also signal strength (poor) and throughput (~39 Mbps) does not come
>close to advertised specs. If I run the laptop in the same room as the
>router I do get the 300 Mbps and fulll signal strength advertised. The
>best advice Belkin could give was to change the broadcast channel on the
>router. That didn't change anything. There are no other wireless users
>anywhere near me anyway.
>
>Has anyone else had these long initialization times and poor performance
>with these new N wireless card/router combinations?

1. Wireless signals don't penetrate walls well under the best of
circumstances, and some walls are worse than others.

2. There are many sources of Wi-Fi radio interference.

Read the wikis below.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

geoff <geoff@sunfishdesigns.com> hath wroth:

>I got a new Belkin N1 PC card to go with my new Belkin N1 wireless
>router. This card takes over 60 sec to figure out it's network
>connections when the laptop boots, way much longer than my old "b" card
>ever did.

That's about normal for a poor signal strength. If there are errors
during the initial negotiation, the wireless client oftens issues a
disconnect and starts over from scratch. It should be somewhat faster
with a strong signal.

>Also signal strength (poor) and throughput (~39 Mbps) does not come
>close to advertised specs.

Your mileage may vary. If you had purchased a generic 802.11g system,
your maximum TCP thruput would be about 25Mbits/sec.

>If I run the laptop in the same room as the
>router I do get the 300 Mbps and fulll signal strength advertised.

Are you really getting 300Mbits/sec thruput? The Belkin N1 does not
have a gigabit ethernet interface, and is therefore limited to
100Mbits/sec thruput to an external server or client. How are you
measuring your thruput?

>The
>best advice Belkin could give was to change the broadcast channel on the
>router. That didn't change anything. There are no other wireless users
>anywhere near me anyway.
>
>Has anyone else had these long initialization times and poor performance
>with these new N wireless card/router combinations?

Methinks you might be asking the wrong question. Perhaps "Has anyone
obtained 300Mbits/sec through an unspecified number of walls and with
poor signal strength"? The basic problem is the signal strength which
is apparently a function of the walls and the range. High speeds
require large signal to noise ratios which implies a strong signal.
You're not going to get that going even through one wall.

If you dig through the review of the Belkin N1 at:
<http://smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/28732/96/>
you'll find a graph of thruput versus range at:
<http://smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/28732/96/1/8/>
Looks like it maxes out at 60Mbit/sec and compares badly with other
MIMO devices. It really screws up in the upload test, where it maxes
out at 40Mbits/sec. It also can't handle more than a few simultaneous
connections. Read the article and decide for yourself.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> hath wroth:

>If you dig through the review of the Belkin N1 at:
><http://smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/28732/96/>
>you'll find a graph of thruput versus range at:
(...)

Also see:
<http://smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/26746/100/>
"Draft 802.11n Revealed: Part 1 - The Real Story on Throughput
vs. Range."

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:

> That's about normal for a poor signal strength. If there are errors during the initial
> negotiation, the wireless client oftens issues a disconnect and starts over from scratch.
> It should be somewhat faster with a strong signal.

I'll have to try booting in the same room.

> Are you really getting 300Mbits/sec thruput? The Belkin N1 does not

I'm just going by what the software reports. 300Mbs may be a pipe dream, you're right. Even
so, whatever I get is better than 11Mbs on the old b card.

> connections. Read the article and decide for yourself.

Not much to decide. I have what I have. Belkin gave me the silly thing! I've been having
problems with their routers and they keep sending me new ones. Finally they sent me an N1
and my laptop's internal "b" card just wouldn't connect with it. So they sent the "N" PC
card to make me happy. It does connect, but I was surprised at how long it takes to do it.

Thanks for the links.

Geoff

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 06:09:06 -0500, geoff <geoff@sunfishdesigns.com>
wrote in <3JOdnaGnddFPN7nbnZ2dnUVZ_oSnnZ2d@comcast.com>:

>Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:
>
>> That's about normal for a poor signal strength. If there are errors during the initial
>> negotiation, the wireless client oftens issues a disconnect and starts over from scratch.
>> It should be somewhat faster with a strong signal.
>
>I'll have to try booting in the same room.
>
>> Are you really getting 300Mbits/sec thruput? The Belkin N1 does not
>
>I'm just going by what the software reports. 300Mbs may be a pipe dream, you're right. Even
>so, whatever I get is better than 11Mbs on the old b card.

The software is reporting the maximum raw data rate, not the actual
throughput under load.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>