Signal varies with Netgear MA521 but not with built-in card

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

Hi!

I have a laptop (Compaq Presario 2100) with an built-in LAN Express
wireless network adapter. This gives a very faint signal, but it works
because it does not vary when the computer sits on my desk.

I tried to make the signal stronger by buying a Netgear MA521 cardbus
card. It made the signal a lot stronger, but the signal varies from
full signal to no signal without doing anything! It makes my
connection go away every now and then, very annoying.

This is a Network Stumbler analysis from the LAN Exress adapter:

http://w1.541.telia.com/~u54104547 [...] nbuilt.GIF

.... and this is from the Netgear card in the same position a few
minutes later:

http://w1.541.telia.com/~u54104547 [...] etgear.GIF

As you can se, the Netgear card signal varies some 35dB, whereas the
LAN Express varies only some 5dB (even less, the -80dB hump was me
moving away from the computer) and never goes away.

What gives? Is the Netgear card faulty?

Per.