Wifi
 

I have wifi running in my house and have for several years (3-4), well haven't used it in several years since i just moved back to the house, I used to get excellent signals and max speed from the router but now my connection flucates between 1.0mbps and 11.0mbps more often closer to the 1.0mbps. This gets rather annoying mainly since my max download speed is closer to 10.0mbps. I've installed a new linksys router and a new wireless adapter for my pc but it still does it. Anyone have any ideas?

Somebody probably set up a wireless network nearby on the same or a close channel. Try changing the broadcast channel to something else and see if it helps.

Remember 802.11b is 11 mbps but 802.11g is 54 mbps. You'll obviously get better throughput if all your network devices are 802.11g.

Hmm.... switching the channel down to channel 2.... numbers are moving between 18mbps and 36mbps.... we'll see if it sticks :)

Doesn't seem to be working well either :( it's moved down to 1mbps :( I've tried a few channels too.

So no other ideas?

/me sighs

Dan,

Have you tried one of those apps that tells you your signal strength in db? I can't remember the name offhand, but I can try to find it - I know PC World or someone did a story and I downloaded it onto a machine I was using wireless with. It measured the S/N ratio which was a big help in determining which channel to use.

Ethereal?

NetStumbler is the name of the program:

http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetStumbler

Update the firmware. which version is your Linksys? I suppose it's WRT54G/GL or GS, right? See below some serial numbers and their versions:

Known serial numbers (first few characters) vs versions:
CDF0 = WRT54G v1.0
CDF1 = WRT54G v1.0
CDF2 = WRT54G v1.1
CDF3 = WRT54G v1.1
CDF5 = WRT54G v2.0
CDF7 = WRT54G v2.2
CDF8 = WRT54G v3.0
CDF9 = WRT54G v3.1
CDFA = WRT54G v4.0
CDFB = WRT54G v5.0
CDFC = WRT54G v6.0

CGN0 = WRT54GS v1.0
CGN1 = WRT54GS v1.0
CGN2 = WRT54GS v1.1
CGN3 = WRT54GS v2.0
CGN4 = WRT54GS v2.1
CGN5 = WRT54GS v3.0
CGN6 = WRT54GS v4.0
CGN7 = WRT54GS V5.0

CL7A = WRT54GL V1.0
CL7B = WRT54GL V1.1

ive found disabling the 3rd party applications that come with the hardware sometimes cause problems.

Try using the windows wireless tools :)