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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DIR-655 => Topic started by: uconnray on July 09, 2009, 10:00:52 AM

Title: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 09, 2009, 10:00:52 AM
I've been using the dir655 for about a year now and never had a problem with it until recently. Now if I'm one room away from the router the rate and single strength drop to next to nothing. If I'm in the same room they both are ok strength, although not as high as I would like.

I installed firmware 1.31 to see if that would help but it did not. I'm a bit of a novice and haven't been able to find anything software/hardware related that would do this.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: mackworth on July 09, 2009, 10:36:43 AM
Do you live in a populated area?  Has someone else moved in near by and maybe they have a router too?
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 09, 2009, 10:44:21 AM
Apartment building. Not sure about the moving though I don't think so.

I tried everything I could from reading forum posts etc...to increase the signal but I'm pulling 1 Mbps about 20 ft away and nearly line-of-sight.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: Sammydad1 on July 09, 2009, 01:14:56 PM
Hi,

I second the vote for (new) neighbors causing your issues....

You may have to manually set the wireless channel, if in fact you have a neighbor now using another wireless router (or access point).  Many units default to channel 6....

It is not uncommon for apartment buildings to become flooded with WiFi signals, and with a limited number of channels, eventually there will be problems.


Sd1
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: mackworth on July 09, 2009, 03:08:28 PM
This may not even be it, but atleast we could rule it out.

http://www.xirrus.com/library/wifitools.php

try download that wifi inspector. 

also post your wireless settings (the ones on the advanced page too).

Then post the results you get from wifi inspector.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 09, 2009, 06:06:15 PM
MY WIRELESS SETTINGS

Connection Type : DHCP Client
QoS Engine : Inactive
Cable Status : Connected
Network Status : Established
Advanced DNS : Disabled

Wireless Radio : Enabled
802.11 Mode : 802.11n only
Channel Width : 40MHz
Channel : 9
Secondary Channel : 5
WISH : Active
Wi-Fi Protected Setup : Enabled/Configured

Auto channel scan
Transmission rate: Best (automatic)
Channel width: Auto (20/40 mhz)
Security: WPA Personal

Transmit Power: High
Beacon Period: 100
RTS Threshold: 2346
Fragmentation Threshold: 2346
DTIM Interval: 1
WLAN Partition: Unchecked
WMM Enable: Checked
Short GI: Unchecked
Extra Wireless Protection: Checked

WAN Port Speeds: Auto 10/100/1000Mbps


In Network and Sharing Center, my connection speed is listed as 1Mbps.
In D-Link wireless utility, my connection speed listed between 1 and 70 mbps (usually below 10 though), signal % between 5 and 20.

I did a speed test with Wi-Fi Inspector and it came back with a download speed of 327 kbps. It also indicated that no wireless network in range was using channel 9 or 5, though there were a lot of other networks (only 1 other draft n).

No idea what to do about it. Do I need to get one of the D-Link N Extreme adapters for my laptop to boost performance????
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 09, 2009, 06:20:59 PM
ALSO -The Xirrus utility indicated that my transmit and receive rates were both 300 mbps. I'm getting very conflicting information based on what Vista is telling me and what the utility is telling me. But I know the connection is moving SLOW.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: mackworth on July 09, 2009, 06:40:11 PM
ALSO -The Xirrus utility indicated that my transmit and receive rates were both 300 mbps. I'm getting very conflicting information based on what Vista is telling me and what the utility is telling me. But I know the connection is moving SLOW.

Wireless signals overlap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2.4_GHz_Wi-Fi_channels_%28802.11b,g_WLAN%29.png

So just because nothing is on 5/9 doesn't mean its the best channel.  Post the output of the scan.
Have you tried turning off "Extra Wireless Protection"? 

Maybe someone else has some better ideas.

Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 09, 2009, 08:13:50 PM
What scan do you want me to post the results of?

I just counted 20 wireless networks (not including mine) that the Xirrus utility is picking up, 7 of which have fairly strong signals....bummer.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: mackworth on July 10, 2009, 06:07:09 AM
What scan do you want me to post the results of?

I just counted 20 wireless networks (not including mine) that the Xirrus utility is picking up, 7 of which have fairly strong signals....bummer.

Well, You said you were using the auto channel feature, and I can't comment on anyone elses luck with it, but I always had issues with it.

I was asking for you to post what other channels were being used.  If there are a lot of channels being used, it might be worth turning "Auto" to "20hz" in the channel width setting.  Then we can find you a decent channel to sit on.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 11, 2009, 03:49:35 AM
I left it on auto channel scan and changed 20/40 best to just 20hz. Still no dice....

The other channels being used are: 14 networks using channel 6, 8 networks using channel 11, 2 7s, 1 network using 10, 1 using 3, 1 using 2.

My router switched to channel 4 this morning and still really slow (1 Mbps).
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: Demonized on July 11, 2009, 04:52:22 AM
Go for channel 1. that will give you the least overlap and 'competition'.

The report '300 mbps' is not the actual transmitting speed. Most of the small utilities will give that false overview. You Vista network connection 'status' will give you the real connection speed.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 11, 2009, 05:29:29 AM
I relocated the router into my living room and sat 10 feet away from it and still am only getting 1 Mbps.

I changed to channel 1, disconnected, and reconnected, and the Vista connection speed briefly read 130 Mbps but then immediately dropped to 1 Mbps.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: poopdawg27 on July 11, 2009, 11:32:31 AM
hey what's your MTU at? 1500? try bumping it down to like 1470 this may help alleviate the issue.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: Demonized on July 11, 2009, 11:43:06 AM
Either the router is broke or you client PC is not configured right. Try connecting without any security features enabled.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: Clancy on July 11, 2009, 05:11:30 PM
MY WIRELESS SETTINGS

Connection Type : DHCP Client
QoS Engine : Inactive
Cable Status : Connected
Network Status : Established
Advanced DNS : Disabled

Wireless Radio : Enabled
802.11 Mode : 802.11n only
Channel Width : 40MHz
Channel : 9
Secondary Channel : 5
WISH : Active
Wi-Fi Protected Setup : Enabled/Configured

Auto channel scan
Transmission rate: Best (automatic)
Channel width: Auto (20/40 mhz)
Security: WPA Personal

Transmit Power: High
Beacon Period: 100
RTS Threshold: 2346
Fragmentation Threshold: 2346
DTIM Interval: 1
WLAN Partition: Unchecked
WMM Enable: Checked
Short GI: Unchecked
Extra Wireless Protection: Checked

WAN Port Speeds: Auto 10/100/1000Mbps


In Network and Sharing Center, my connection speed is listed as 1Mbps.
In D-Link wireless utility, my connection speed listed between 1 and 70 mbps (usually below 10 though), signal % between 5 and 20.

I did a speed test with Wi-Fi Inspector and it came back with a download speed of 327 kbps. It also indicated that no wireless network in range was using channel 9 or 5, though there were a lot of other networks (only 1 other draft n).

No idea what to do about it. Do I need to get one of the D-Link N Extreme adapters for my laptop to boost performance????

This jumped out at me right away. Do you even have a wireless N adapter in your PC? As for your other settings, they are almost exactly like mine and I have zero problems. Since you are running wireless N only, you might consider turning extra wireless protection off. Read the DIR-655 help file on that setting.
The only difference I can see between your setup and mine is that I have a D-Link DWA-652 XtremeN Notebook Adapter. I disabled the onboard wireless adapter, stopped using Windows wireless zero and anything Intel related.
Edit: My experience with auto channel scan has been outstanding. Without fail, anytime I have to reboot the router, it always picks a channel NOT used by the rest of the neighborhood. I also have short GI checked and WISH turned off but I seriously doubt if either of these settings would cause your problem.
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: uconnray on July 11, 2009, 06:37:26 PM
I definitely think the router just died. I went out and bought the dual-band Linksys WRT610N and both the 2.4ghz and 5 ghz networks are pumping out over 130mbps at 30 feet.

The 655 was good while it lasted...thanks for your help everyone. This was my first forum experience and I must say it was WAY more helpful and informative then calling customer service for other tech companies.

See you around....
Title: Re: Rate/Signal problems
Post by: Clancy on July 11, 2009, 07:13:53 PM
But WAIT! I still had more helpful tips!   :'(