Do wireless cards lose sensitivity over time?

I am having a problem with a Linksys WPC11/WDT11 insertable PC card/
desktop combination on an XP PC.

It installs both something called WIreless LAN and a Linksys
configuration utility. On boot the generic looking Linksys WLAN
utility called Version 3.0a (April 9 2002) using driver 1.07.37 which
inserts a monitor-like icon in the systray opens up and connects to
the WPC11. The Linksys configuration utility WLAN monitor v 1.5
(copyright also 2002) also inserts into the systray but says it cant
find any WPC11 card! The standard windows utility doesnt work as it
recognises that something else is controllng the card, though
occasionally I see it trying to operate and failing while the WLAN is
aimlessly scanning

In any event the WLAN starts up and starts scanning and sees nothing
whatsoever. There are about 30 networks in my immediate area
including one DD-WRT_VAP which is in direct line of sight and only 15
feet away.

The lights on the card light up and blink normally and the utility
scans and scans and just doesnt see anything at all. I have noticed it
try to attach onto something for a second or two but normally it just
scans and scans.. Sometimes it "ASSOCIATES" and shows NOT the SSID
but the MAC address?? and then after less than a second it starts
scanning again. The Tx shows 0 all the time while the Rx wavers
between 450 and 650 while it tries to associate with something,
usually on channel 6 which seems to be its favourite channel.

The only thing I can think of is that somehow the card has lost all
sensitivity over time. Actually I have two or three of these cards and
none of them seem to work properly. They do very occasionally link
onto an AP while in a router without the WDT11. T(hey are all
completely firmware upgraded)

Does anyone have any idea what is going on please?

DManzaluni wrote:

> The only thing I can think of is that somehow the card has lost all
> sensitivity over time.

I reckon it's more likely that you now have more wireless network traffic in
your vicinity than you had before, therefore the signal to noise ratio is
getting worse, leading to poorer reliability. Although you'd have to be
very unlucky for 15 feet not to be close enough to counteract this.

> Actually I have two or three of these cards and none of them seem to work
> properly.

Did they work in the past?

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
15:34:44 up 138 days, 16:45, 3 users, load average: 0.00, 0.05, 0.01
My god, said I, with my one liquid eye, am I dreaming, or am I insane?

On Apr 22, 10:39*am, alexd <troffa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> DManzaluni wrote:
> > The only thing I can think of is that somehow the card has lost all
> > sensitivity over time.
>
> I reckon it's more likely that you now have more wireless network trafficin
> your vicinity than you had before, therefore the signal to noise ratio is
> getting worse, leading to poorer reliability. Although you'd have to be
> very unlucky for 15 feet not to be close enough to counteract this.
>
> > Actually I have two or three of these cards and none of them seem to work
> > properly. *
>
> Did they work in the past?
>
> --
> *<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpE...@ale.cx)
> *15:34:44 up 138 days, 16:45, *3 users, *load average: 0.00, 0.05, 0.01
> *My god, said I, with my one liquid eye, am I dreaming, or am I insane?

No my point is that these cards never seem to have worked well in any
computer, whether with the 'adapter' or by itself and the traffic (on
all channels, they wont work on any channels they scan) is about
what it has always been. I couldnt believe that Linksys could have
put them out on to the market with sensitivity this bad: They didnt
start reducing the quality of (components and memory in) their WRT54G
routers until some years later, , so I wondered whether sensitivity
had dropped off in some way. I dont suppose there is any way of
measuring this.

Especially when they wont even pick up a DD-WRT router 15 feet away!

But there is definite evidence for what you say irrespective of an
prolbem with either this linksys card or its utility: In the evenings
where I live, the networks do slow noticeably or stop completely. It
happens every evening and seems to happen on all networks (we have
TimeWarner, RCN and apparently FioS here so I dont know which local
networks use which carrier but I HAVE noticed that ALL networks seem
to suffer from degradation of signal/speed EVERY evening)

On Apr 22, 7:11*pm, DManzaluni <dmanzal...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Apr 22, 10:39*am, alexd <troffa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > DManzaluni wrote:
> > > The only thing I can think of is that somehow the card has lost all
> > > sensitivity over time.
>
> > I reckon it's more likely that you now have more wireless network traffic in
> > your vicinity than you had before, therefore the signal to noise ratio is
> > getting worse, leading to poorer reliability. Although you'd have to be
> > very unlucky for 15 feet not to be close enough to counteract this.
>
> > > Actually I have two or three of these cards and none of them seem to work
> > > properly. *
>
> > Did they work in the past?
>
> > --
> > *<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpE...@ale.cx)
> > *15:34:44 up 138 days, 16:45, *3 users, *load average: 0.00, 0.05, 0.01
> > *My god, said I, with my one liquid eye, am I dreaming, or am I insane?
>
> No my point is that these cards never seem to have worked well in any
> computer, whether with the 'adapter' or by itself and the traffic *(on
> all channels, they wont work on any channels they scan) * is about
> what it has always been. *I couldnt believe that Linksys could have
> put them out on to the market with sensitivity this bad: * They didnt
> start reducing the quality of (components and memory in) their WRT54G
> routers until some years later, , so I wondered whether sensitivity
> had dropped off in some way. *I dont suppose there is any way of
> measuring this.
>
> Especially when they wont even pick up a DD-WRT router 15 feet away!
>
> But there is definite evidence for what you say irrespective of an
> prolbem with either this linksys card or its utility: In the evenings
> where I live, the networks do slow noticeably or stop completely. It
> happens every evening and seems to happen on all networks (we have
> TimeWarner, RCN and apparently FioS here so I dont know which local
> networks use which carrier but I HAVE noticed that ALL networks seem
> to suffer from degradation of signal/speed EVERY evening)- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I wonder if it is possible that it is really the piss-useless Linksys
utility dating from 2002 which is at fault?. It uninstalls WZC from
services when it installs!

I reinstalled WZC by editing the registry and enabled the windows
connection and suddenly the card started working!!!! Not particularly
well but at least it works and sees lots of networks and even manages
to connect to one and get onto the Internet.

Having uninstalled the utilities (both of them) I wonder how I can get
rid of that stupid utility icon in the systray (the single monitor
with the aerial coming out of the top which doesnt look like a windows
one) or will it just defer to the Windows one whenever I reboot?

DManzaluni wrote:

> I wonder how I can get rid of that stupid utility icon in the systray (the
> single monitor with the aerial coming out of the top

Bring up the task manager and kill some likely looking processes. When the
icon disappears, you've found the culprit. Can't guarantee it won't destroy
your system, of course. You could then locate the offending binary and
delete. Or perhaps look in services.msc. Have fun!

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
19:57:04 up 140 days, 21:07, 2 users, load average: 0.18, 0.12, 0.04
My god, said I, with my one liquid eye, am I dreaming, or am I insane?