Wireless Networking Problems


The newest, latest, and maybe greatest approach to SOHO networking environments is to remove the cables altogether. It's now quite inexpensive to buy a small wireless Access Point (AP) and install wireless network cards in the computers in your small or home office. This allows you, for example, to use a laptop and take it from the living room to the kitchen to the basement, or wherever you feel most comfortable working. Heck, if it's a nice day outside, you might as well take the laptop out to the deck in the back yard, work from there, and get a tan at the same time!

Wireless is a fairly big topic; for more information on wireless networking solutions, see Chapters 1823.


You should keep a few things in mind when using wireless networking, however. Both in a small office and at home, you're likely to have a microwave oven sitting around somewhere. Although this is usually not a problem, it is possible for a microwave oven to interfere with the wireless transmissions of your network. This should be easy to troubleshoot. Just turn it on and determine whether the computers in your LAN can still talk to each other. Check for signal strength and speed; even if you can connect, your range or speed might be limited while the microwave is running. Another problem is that wireless networking is bounded by how far you can be from the AP. Although you might be able to communicate with the AP from the living room, the signal might not reach the basement, or it might not be strong enough to penetrate the brick wall that separates the backyard deck from the AP. Experiment to see whether moving the computer closer to the AP fixes the problem. If it does, you can always buy one or more APs, place them in strategic locations around the home or office, and use ordinary twisted-pair cables to join the APs to a switch/router that connects you to the Internet. Some vendors offer APs that can be used as repeaters. Using a repeater is useful if you cannot easily run UTP cables between one AP and another. Note that a repeater or an AP/repeater is made to work with certain models of APs from the same vendor only. Although you can mix and match brands of routers, APs, and adapters, the AP and repeater must be able to talk to each other.

If you cannot get a repeater or don't want to worry about configuring yet another wireless device, consider these range and speed boosters:

  • Replace conventional antennas with high-gain or directional antennas. Most wireless AP and router vendors now offer these for at least some of their product line.

  • Switch from a conventional 802.11g router to a router that features multiple in/multiple out (MIMO) antenna technology.

  • Switch from conventional 802.11g adapters to those that support MIMO. Some types of MIMO hardware provide better range, even when connecting to standard 802.11g routers. Learn more about how MIMO boosts range (and might also boost speed) in Chapter 21.

Note also that other wireless devices, such as 2.4GHz cordless telephones or 2.4GHz wireless security cameras like the ones on those annoying pop-under ads, can interfere with wireless networks. This is a simple thing to troubleshoot. Just make a phone call and watch file transfers from one computer to another creep to a halt.

For wireless connections, be sure to use the management application that allows you to check/configure the Access Point, and do the same for each wireless network adapter in the network.

Before you call your cable or DSL provider, you should carefully go over every aspect of your LAN and determine how each computer is configured. ISPs don't make a lot of money off individual customersit's the large aggregate of happy customers who have no problem that pays their bills. A single call from you might negate an entire year's worth of what you are paying them.

So, to be a nice player, check such things as network addressing, cables, and other things mentioned in this chapter as a start. For example, the first thing to do is take an adapter that is known to be good (that is, it's working on one computer) and substitute it for one that you suspect is bad. Check the adapter configurations on both computers. If you suspect that a network cable is the problem, swap it with one that is working.

This procedure of swapping parts that are known to be in good working order might be the quickest way to solve the problem. Remember that if the problem does lie on your end of the line, it can likely be fixed more quickly if you find it yourself than if you have to wait days for the provider to send someone to your site.




Upgrading and Repairing Networks
Upgrading and Repairing Networks (5th Edition)
ISBN: 078973530X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 411

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