Cursed problem: Intel Pro Wireless 2200BG

Hi everyone!

I am trying to solve this problem for a couple of weeks now, hopefully
u will help me to get a proper sleep. :)

I have a small home network, 3 laptops, all connected wireless.
Everything worked fine, for about half a year, the one of the laptops
started to lose connection after about one minute. To be exact, the
connection is not lost, it still says, that laptop is connected to the
network, signal strength is excellent. However, when u start to ping
e.g. example google.com, the average packet loss is about 70%.

After trying many other things with which i don't want to bother you,
i tried to configure the network under Knoppix, to make sure, that it
is not a hardware problem. At first it was exactly the same, however,
when i set the maximum speed of wireless network to 1 mbit, everything
worked fine, connection was stable, no packet loss at all.

So, what i want to do now, is to set the maximum wireless speed under
Windows XP SP2 to 1 mbit. I was looking for some utility, which could
do that, but i didn't find any. Setting of the Intel Pro Wireless
2200BG wireless card doesn't offer options concerning the speed of
wireless network.

Do you have any ideas, how to set the speed ?

Thank you in advance!

daimoneon

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Specification:

Laptop:

IBM Thinkpad R50e, Type 1834, Model SWG,
Operating system is Windows XP SP2.

Wireless card used in this model is:

Intel (R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection

Router:

Netgear WGR614

daimoneon <daimoneon@gmail.com> hath wroth:

>I am trying to solve this problem for a couple of weeks now, hopefully
>u will help me to get a proper sleep. :)

I do my best work when I'm asleep.

>I have a small home network, 3 laptops, all connected wireless.
>Everything worked fine, for about half a year, the one of the laptops
>started to lose connection after about one minute. To be exact, the
>connection is not lost, it still says, that laptop is connected to the
>network, signal strength is excellent. However, when u start to ping
>e.g. example google.com, the average packet loss is about 70%.

Hmmm.... Sounds like interference. When faced with high packet loss,
the wireless access point slows down the speed to reduce the effects
of interference.

Have you tried changing the channel in the WGR614?
Have you done a site survey (sniff for other wireless networks)?

See if any of the possible 2.4GHz sources apply:
<http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi#Interference>
The problem is that the typical site survey tool won't show all the
networks thanks to the moronic security suggestion of not broadcasting
the SSID. However, Kismet under Linux will show these and clients.

However, you still won't see everything. The new and allegedly
improved MIMO systems can be set to be invisible and still trash much
of the 2.4GHz band. Fortunately, the default setup is "Mixed Mode"
which should be visible.

If you have access to a spectrum analyzer, you might want to do some
sniffing.

>After trying many other things with which i don't want to bother you,

Burnt offerings usually work well. I use a small hibbachi and some
old motherboards. The smoke is known to appease the radio gods.

>i tried to configure the network under Knoppix, to make sure, that it
>is not a hardware problem. At first it was exactly the same, however,
>when i set the maximum speed of wireless network to 1 mbit, everything
>worked fine, connection was stable, no packet loss at all.

Set to 1Mbit/sec how? If you did it with Knoppix (at the client),
then you accidentally set it up for ad-hoc, not for infrastructure
mode (central access point). In infrastructure modem, the WGR614
router controls the channel number, the maximum speed, and if enabled,
the flow control, packet size, and all security. There's very little
you can do with the setting on the client end except decide how and
when to connect or disconnect.

>So, what i want to do now, is to set the maximum wireless speed under
>Windows XP SP2 to 1 mbit. I was looking for some utility, which could
>do that, but i didn't find any. Setting of the Intel Pro Wireless
>2200BG wireless card doesn't offer options concerning the speed of
>wireless network.

In infrastructure mode, you do NOT set the speed at the client. It's
controllec by the access point. If you set it to ad-hoc mode, you can
set the maximum speed, but then it won't work with the WGR614, which
is infrastructure mode only.

>Do you have any ideas, how to set the speed ?

The speed is set in the access point.

>Thank you in advance!
>
>daimoneon
>
>System Specification:
>
>Laptop:>
>IBM Thinkpad R50e, Type 1834, Model SWG,
>Operating system is Windows XP SP2.

I thought you had 3 laptops.

>Wireless card used in this model is:
>Intel (R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection

What version drivers and connection manager? There are bugs in some
versions. For the latest, see:
<http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/wireless/proset/proset_software.htm>
You have the choice of using Windoze Wireless Zero Config, Proset, or
some other connection manager. I would recommend Proset for now, as
it has some useful logging and diagnostics that might tell you what's
happening. There was also a bug in early 9.x versions of Proset, that
caused the speed to drop to 1Mbit/sec and stay there forever.

>Router:
>Netgear WGR614

There are 7 hardware mutations of the WGR614. Which one do you have?
Have you checked if you have the latest greatest firmware installed?
<http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/wgr614.asp>


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

Hi Jeff!

Thx a lot for a quick response.

> Hmmm.... Sounds like interference. When faced with high packet loss,
> the wireless access point slows down the speed to reduce the effects
> of interference.

Yes, that's what i thought as well. There are new wireless networks
nearby as i found out. That's why it stopped worked suddenly.


> Have you tried changing the channel in the WGR614?

Yes, i did. I tried all the channels, still the same result.



> Set to 1Mbit/sec how? If you did it with Knoppix (at the client),
> then you accidentally set it up for ad-hoc, not for infrastructure
> mode (central access point). In infrastructure modem, the WGR614
> router controls the channel number, the maximum speed, and if enabled,
> the flow control, packet size, and all security. There's very little
> you can do with the setting on the client end except decide how and
> when to connect or disconnect.

I am pretty sure it worked in infrastructure mode, basically this is
what I
did (writing from memory):

iwconfig wlan0 essid ESSID
Now it worked, but ping loss was about 70%. Note that it worked on 54
MBit/s
(checked by "iwconfig wlan0" command), no matter how long I waited (I
hoped
that AP adjusts the speed at some point).

iwconfig wlan0 rate 1M
At this point, it started to work reliably, no packet loss.

Now if I only knew how to do equivalent of "iwconfig wlan0 rate 1M"
under
Windows...

> In infrastructure mode, you do NOT set the speed at the client. It's
> controlled by the access point. If you set it to ad-hoc mode, you can
> set the maximum speed, but then it won't work with the WGR614, which
> is infrastructure mode only.

Well, it seems it worked. I didn't change the settings of the router,
it was still set as access point, and the other two laptops have
worked with no problems at all.

> The speed is set in the access point.

All what i found in router settings was if i want to have as b, g or
both. i tried all the three possibilites with no success.

> >System Specification:
>
> >Laptop:>
> >IBM Thinkpad R50e, Type 1834, Model SWG,
> >Operating system is Windows XP SP2.
>
> I thought you had 3 laptops.

Yes, but the other two work well, so that's why i didn't specify them.
Do u need it ?

> >Intel (R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
> What version drivers and connection manager? There are bugs in some
> versions. For the latest, see:
> <http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/wireless/proset/pr...>


I have done it before. I have updated both access connections and
drivers to make sure, they are compatible.


> You have the choice of using Windoze Wireless Zero Config, Proset, or
> some other connection manager. I would recommend Proset for now, as
> it has some useful logging and diagnostics that might tell you what's
> happening. There was also a bug in early 9.x versions of Proset, that
> caused the speed to drop to 1Mbit/sec and stay there forever.

I disabled the Wireless Zero Config in services and used Proset, as u
recommend. It worked in exact same way as before.


> >Router:
> >> There are 7 hardware mutations of the WGR614. Which one do you have?
> Have you checked if you have the latest greatest firmware installed?
> <http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/wgr614.asp>

It is Netgear WGR614 version 6. I have updated the firmware on it as
well.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Boris (daimoneon)

daimoneon <daimoneon@gmail.com> hath wroth:

>All what i found in router settings was if i want to have as b, g or
>both. i tried all the three possibilites with no success.

Somewhere in the Wireless settings on your WGR614 router is a setting
for wireless speed. It's usually set to "auto" but can be set to any
speed.l

>Yes, but the other two work well, so that's why i didn't specify them.
>Do u need it ?

Nope, unless they also have Intel 2200BG cards. But I didn't notice
that they work "well" (is that at 1Mbit/sec)? If that's the case, I
vaguely recall the bug in 9.x versions of Intel Proset causing the
speed to drop to 1Mbit/sec and staying there forever. Proset version.

>I have done it before. I have updated both access connections and
>drivers to make sure, they are compatible.

Ok, I won't ask for version numbers.

>I disabled the Wireless Zero Config in services and used Proset, as u
>recommend. It worked in exact same way as before.

Then it's probably some type of interference problem. Can you drag
the WGR614 wireless router and this laptop to a basement or some place
where there's no possibility of interference? Setup any desktop with
open shares or a web server to act as a simulated internet connection.
If it works there, then it's an interference problem. If it screws up
again, then there's something weird with the 2200BG or operating
system setup.

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