Low Wireless Reception

Hi All,

I used to get 99% reception when I was at my desk near my access point. All of the sudden, that dropped to 60%. Although the find wireless screen in access connections shows it at close to 100%, when I actually connect, it drops to 60%. I know that this is not an issue with the accesspoint as I was at my girlfriend's house and reception from her access point is also much lower. The only thing I've changed was install Returnil, which I have uninstalled and it is still at 60%.

Anyone experienced this before?

Thanks in advance,
Jeremy

 

I would re-install the latest version of the driver for your wireless card. In my experience a lot of reception problems are caused by driver issues.

If that doesn't work, check the power properties for your wireless card in Device Manager.

John

 

John,

What card are you using? Also if you are interested, I've developed a rather sophisticated wireless scanner/monitor which runs on Vista if you are interested. It will allow you to do among other things, a time-series study on the signal strength. One thing I have noticed is that some vendors don't have drivers that feed me overly reliable data. Often if you have old drivers, a newer one will help.

 

I would be interested in a program like that. Is there anyway you could sent it to me?

 

i'm interested too

i'd also be interested in checking if I can "juice up" the wireless card

 

there is no way to juice up the card.

Please use a PM and send me your email addys.

 

Also try changing the channel on the router you could be getting some sort of interferance

 

you are right about that. My wireless monitor will allow you to spot that.

 

Sean,

You can get a new card. I would recommend Atheros. They should be directly compatible with the t-61. Remember Lenovos bios have a lockout for almost all wifi cards. The Atheros 5006x is a card used by Lenovo itself and it is not locked out to the best of my knowledge. If you do get a card locked out by the bios there is a simply software mode, that will not change the bios but changes the bit that process uses to decide to check cards. This mode will not effect warranty.

Also the N card by intell seems to be a pretty good card. I found the 3945 to be horrible.

 

I agree that it's most likely a driver issue. I was also only showing 60% wifi signal strenght but after installing latest drivers, signal strenght is now between 80-90%.

 

I would be VERY careful about the idea of changing a driver and having better reception. Drivers are really bad about the data they provide and intel and microsoft drivers for the 3945 are particularly bad.