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Posted by BigJim on September 6, 2005, 4:19 am
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someone else is on the same channel
> About two weeks ago, I wrote here
>
>
> about self-installing Comcast HSI, and a wireless router connection for
> my daugher at her college apartment. I did that this past Friday.
> Comcast arrived as scheduled, extended existing coax to where I needed
> it, and dropped off the self-install kit. Once I connected my daughter's
> laptop to the modem (RCA DCM425C), and launched her browser, I was
> presented with a Comcast welcome screen, and instructed to "Click here"
> to install the Comcast software and configure my account. Instead, I
> called Comcast and configured my account over the phone, and was online
> in about 15 minutes. Once I had the Comcast HSI working fine, I
> installed a wireless router.
>
> I'm new to wireless, so I have some questions...
>
> My daughter has an Inspiron 8600 running Windows XPHome, with an Intel
> PRO/Wireless 2200 BG network card. She is using a D-link 524 802.11 g
> wireless router (revision c). Before enabling any security features of
> the router, the Wireless Network Connection icon in the systems tray
> showed Speed:54.0 Mbps, and Signal Strength: Excellent. After enabling
> 64-bi WEP, the speed dropped to 5.4 Mbps, but the signal strength still
> showed excellent.
>
> Also, after enabling WEP, the wireless card icon in my system tray
> indicates a poor connection, even though my throughupt seems to be just
> fine, and surfing is ok. (I suppose that's because I'm still capable of
> speeds higher than I'd get from Comcast, anyway?). For instance, the two
> icons in the system tray show:
>
> Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 BG Network Connection : POOR
>
> Wireless Network Connection (my network name):
> Speed 5.5 Mbps
> Signal Strength: Excellent
> Status: Connected
>
> How is it that the NIC can show POOR, while the signal strength shows
> Excellent?
>
> And how is it that the signal strenght can show Excellent, but the speed
> is 5.5 Mbps? Could this be because enabling WEP can greatly slow down
> speed, even though the signal is strong. The Dlink manual states: "Note:
> Your network will slow down and wireless signal may degrade when enabling
> encryption due to the added overhead."
>
> If this is true, I'm really disappointed, since the speed did indicate
> 54.0 Mbps before I enabled WEP. I have to use encryption, so does this
> mean I'll have to accept only 10% of the speeds I got without WEP?
>
> Next I'll try enabling MAC filtering, and disabling SSID. What should I
> expect when I do this? I don't anticipate slower speeds still when SSID
> is disabled, but will enabling MAC filtering slow me down more?
>
> Thanks for any clarification,
> Bruce
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