wireless hairpulling

[onemanband]

Hi folks - chime in if you can help :(

I bought the linksys router/ap and the symbol wireless networker cf type 1 card. So far, I've only been able to get it running in the 1 Mbps range, which is doggedly slow. The signal is fine, and of course, I am sitting in front of the AP for my tests. I've been on the phone with symbol and linksys: of the two, I tend to think the card is ok but the router is not getting it done. I've checked all the settings on the router, read all of Chris DeHerra's FAQ's, and I just can't get this stuff to do anything but limp.

Is this what I should be expecting, or should I be returning one or more of these components? If so, which one? Dump the router? If so, what should I use to replace it?

Symbol (socket) is the only type 1 cf format, so I hate the thought of using something else, but would if necessary.

Or is there a setting I am overlooking?

For that matter - I can't seem to active sync remotely with this thing either. Would that have to do with speed? - it doesn't even want to connect. I have pop3 e-mail working, but thats about it.

Help!

OMB

Damn - I knew I saw a step by step on this in some magazine or website, but damned if I can find it now! If you know that article, link me!

thanks
omb :cry:

[onemanband]

Hi -

Though no one took the bait, I got the netgear router and all is well from the wifi side.

Now I'm looking at the next set of problems. I tried the Pocket PC connection wizard, but am not able to sync remotely. Do I have to assign my desktop as a server to do this?

is there a good blow by blow on this anywhere out there? I ave the net and pop3 working fine, but would love to have the remote sync capability if anyone can help.


OMB

[lawnman]

I should think that somewhere for Active Sync, there is a place for putting in the IP address of the machine your trying to sync with. As for routers. . .I started out with the Linksys, but it died after only 24 hours of use. (DHCP was having to be renewed every 6 minutes!) So I swtiched to the Netgear router and all is peachy. Although I haven't tried to sync wirelessly yet. I am using the D-Link type II CF lan card. It is working very well so far.

[onemanband]

thanks for chiming in. I had a little trouble with the netgear at first, but a download of the firmware update put me right on track. 11 mbps anywhere in the house. the symbol card is working good too, though the program that comes with it doesn't all fit on my screen for some reason, and there's no scroll bar to compensate. as long as it works, i'm happy! 8)

[Macguy59]

Did you ever figure out how to sync wirelessly? I am pretty sure you have to tell activesync which pc (via it's IP) it should sync with.

[onemanband]

I was just looking at that again tonight - In the set up for active sync's remote sync settings, it does ask for the server name - nothing else - no IP or anything like that. Trouble is- it won't let me change it from the original name of the desktop to the name I am currently using - so it won't connect.

Oh well - I'm still foolin around with teh net from an armchair and having a bit of fun at it. I suppose I can get up and walk to my desktop to sync until I fugure it out.

:wink:

[dhpss]

The WINS ip address needs to be set with the desktop IP address.
If you run with PPC2002, there is an Icon in Start-Programs-ActiveSync. I am running PPC2000 (Casio E-125) I don't know how to invoke ActiveSync from my PPC. Anybody could explain how?

[Jason Dunn]

If you're having a WINS problem you'll need Pocket Hosts from this site:

http://www.zimac.de/cestuff.htm

[Kaber]

You have to first connect to the Pocket PC via ActiveSync over USB/Serial and establish a partnership with the PC before you can sync over the network... and it might help to put the IP address of the PC as the alt WINS address for your card on the PPC

[Birdman]

I was able to dial into my firm's RAS (using the "Internet" connection) and CF modem and surf the net no problem. I was basically using my firm as an ISP but I was not able to do an AS. After reading this thread, I inserted my desktop's specific IP address into the WINS field, dialed up (using the "Work" connection) and AS found my desktop computer and the sync was flawless. The only downside is that my computer needs to be on and my profile logged in in order for it to work.

I have been trying to get my mail by using the IMAP4 or POP3 feature of Inbox but I keep getting an error message that "the incoming mail server cannot send or receive mail at this time".

[kfluet]

After fooling with a bluetooth dongle and my new 3970 for a few weeks, I went out and bought a Linksys wireless router and Linksys WCF-12 type 1 cf card. I was expecting a data rate increase of about 20 X (from 250 kbps to at least 5 Mbps), but I'm only seeing a 4 X increase (1 Mbps). What gives?

I'm determining data rates both by looking at what the WCF12 Config Utility on my iPAQ says the Rx rate is (130000 bytes/sec) and by downloading a 10 MB file (via file sharing with Win2K server via FTP to a UNIX box--both on my local LAN) and timing it with a stopwatch. The figures agree. I'm only getting roughly 1Mbit. :-(

The WCF12 Config Utility claims that the radios are talking at 11Mb/s, and shows the Link Quality and Signal Strength both at 100% (Excellent). I am, of course, testing within a couple metres of the router/access point at all times. Encryption is turned off for a slight increase. I have turned on Short Preamble, also for a slight increase.

I am kind of thinking I have packet loss because I get the occasional file transfer failure and web pages pause a long time once in a while, and I am wondering if this might explain the slow speeds as well. Does anybody know a good tool to test for packet loss on a WiFi link?

Is this normal for WiFi or do I have a bad setup? What real-world throughput are other people seeing with their PocketPC's?

Thanks very much for your help. This is a really great forum.

[Jason Dunn]

I've never tested Wifi bandwidth over my Pocket PC, but the CPU and bus certainly can't keep up with the bandwidth that a laptop would pull down 1 megabit per second is pretty fast. ;-)

[kfluet]

I've never tested Wifi bandwidth over my Pocket PC, but the CPU and bus certainly can't keep up with the bandwidth that a laptop would pull down 1 megabit per second is pretty fast. ;-)

Ah. I had never considered that it might be a limitation of the iPAQ. So, I plugged in the Socket CF 10-BaseT Ethernet card I have and tested it the same way. It gets exactly the same transfer rates. Silly me for not testing it before.

But, after further testing I also see that things like streaming an MP3 off of the file share work fine via my Ethernet card but they fail horribly on the WiFi. So it isn't a speed issue. It's more likely packet loss.

I heard from someone else with a similar problem with my (the Linksys) WiFi router. I think I just need to get some different gear.

Thanks for helping me clear this up.

-- Kevin

[Jason Dunn]

As for 1 Mbps being pretty fast, that's true, but it isn't fast enough to allow me to stream mpeg videos off the server share.

Yeah - Pocket PCs are slow in many regards. Even with a burly CPU, they're using slow RAM on a tight bus - the OEMs really haven't unleashed much in the way of true performance on it. When I use my XDA sometimes I can see the screen redraw chunk by chunk, and it sucks. :evil:

[Ravenswing]

Tell me I'm talking through an inappropriate oriffice, but it seems to me like WiFi sucks at streaming large amounts of data. Could be packet loss, but I wonder if it's a fault in the protocol.

I sat watching my laptop copy files onto my desktop over WiFi one day and it took ages. Since then I've always plugged the laptop into my hub to do bulk file copies, and that works fine.

Anyone know if the basic protocols behind 802.11b are badly equipped to handle relatively constant data streams? Maybe causes excessive collisions on the channel?

[Jason Dunn]

Tell me I'm talking through an inappropriate oriffice, but it seems to me like WiFi sucks at streaming large amounts of data. Could be packet loss, but I wonder if it's a fault in the protocol. I sat watching my laptop copy files onto my desktop over WiFi one day and it took ages. Since then I've always plugged the laptop into my hub to do bulk file copies, and that works fine.

Yeah, I see the same thing. I haven't done any hard-core testing, but while you're probably getting 100mbit/s with your hub, you're getting less than 1/10th of that with Wifi (11mbit is optimal, real world is probably closer to 8mb/s). So it's not a flaw in the protocol, it's just simply not as fast as wired transfers.