Mailing List os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com Archived Message #4299

From:	Lewis G Rosenthal <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>	Full Headers Undecoded message
Sender:	os2-wireless_users-owner <os2-wireless_users-owner@2rosenthals.com>
Subject:	[OS2Wireless] NetGear MA311
Date:	Sat, 30 Aug 2003 14:36:33 -0400
To:	os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com

Hi, Ray. Congrats on your new Wi-Fi hardware! Ray Hyder wrote: I realize the IBM driver was designed to run on a ThinkPad but it does recognize the MA311 and works okay as far as I can see. It's all a matter of chipsets... Performance... When transferring a 10 meg file between the systems I'm getting a 450 KByte rate with WEP disabled. 350 KByte with 128 bit WEP enabled. Does the 128 bit WEP really have a 25% overhead? It varies between manufacturers, but there is a definite, measurable hit by turning on WEP. 25% doesn't seem unreasonable. Are these transfer rates normal for WiFi at 70 feet? There's no universal yardstick. You could try using a parabolic reflector to increase gain at either (or both) end(s) of the connection. I have a 5db gain omni-directional antenna on order for the MA311. Will that help? Probably. Also try adjusting the placement of the antenna/AP. It's amazing how even a few inches can improve transmission. Also, try adjusting the relative positions of the antennae at the AP (like TV rabbit ears). The driver... It looks like the driver boots up with the radio off or something. This indeed sounds like an option in the NIF which may not be well documented. Jens can probably speak to this. Stability... With all of the above considered, the MA311 somehow decides, after about an hour, that it is time to quit work and it goes "unavailable". Nothing will bring it back short of a reboot. Please! What am I missing here? Hehehe... Welcome to the brave new world of Wi-Fi power management (or mismanagement, as the case may be). It sounds like the card's power management functions are being enabled, and unfortunately, Wi-Fi cards of today's vintage(!) are notorious for being unpredictable when power management is enabled. As there are no standards for power management written into the 802.11 specs, each manufacturer sort of does its own thing, often with very strange results. Again, usually disabling power controls in PROTOCOL.INI usually does the trick, but it's possible that the driver wasn't specifically designed for NetGear's implementation, that the IBM driver won't be able to effectively change it. Again, Jens can probably provide more substantive information. Any help with the above will be appreciated! - ray No problem! That's why we're all here! (Of course, you could try calling Netgear..."OS/2? Is that something like OS X?..." -- Lewis --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA Rosenthal & Rosenthal : Accountants / Network Consultants New York / Northern Virginia : www.2rosenthals.com Novell Users International : www.whytheylie.com OS/2's new face is eComStation : www.ecomstation.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- This OS/2 system (Apollo) uptime is 0 days 13:46 hours and 37 seconds =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to steward@2rosenthals.com with the command "unsubscribe os2-wireless_users" in the body (omit the quotes). For help with other commands, send a message to steward@2rosenthals.com with the command "help" in the body (omit the quotes). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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