Archived from groups: microsoft.public.broadbandnet.hardware (More info?)
Hello -
I've got an all-MS hardware wireless network here at home.
MS-500 base station
MS-510 USB wireless adapter to a Dell desktop
MS-520 wireless adapter in a Toshiba laptop.
For the past 2-3 months, the adapter on the desktop has
started acting more and more strangely. Meaning: some
random amount of time after the computer is started, the
adapter "Wireless" light begins flashing regularly: on
for 1 second, off for 1 second. It is a very different
pattern than the normal, high-speed "flickering" during
normal data transfer.
This adapter worked fine in the exact same setup from
February of this year, but as I mentioned began acting
strangely over the last few months.
The Dell is a bit old, but no new software gets installed
on it. My wife uses it to read email, surf the web, and
that's about it. (It's a 400 Mhz machine, so not beefy
enough for much else.)
It has now degraded to the point where it keeps the
connection open for no longer than a minute or two before
the light begins flashing and the MSBN Util says "No
Signal". The strange thing is, I brought the laptop into
the same room, and set the USB wireless adapter on top of
the laptop - meaning, the two adapters (one plugged into
the laptop, the other tethered by USB to the desktop)
were no more than 2 inches apart, but the laptop told me
it had very good signal, while the desktop said no signal.
I spent about 8 hours on this today (a Saturday), and
have reached the end of my rope. Things I've tried:
- Rebooting the Dell (dozens of times)
- R'd the F-in M.
- Trying to get MSBNDownload.exe onto the Dell (it never
kept the connection open long enough for me to complete
the transfer. Then I tried using Winzip to Split it into
10 1-meg files, but the Dell had an old version of Winzip
that couldn't re-assemble them. So I zipped Winzip
itself, got the new version onto the desktop, but no joy -
it wants the split files on a floppy, and I decided that
path was a waste of energy.)
- Moving the laptop around and hitting "Refresh" on the
Available Networks" screen in the MSBNUtil, to see what
other signals it could pick up in the area of the
desktop. I did notice intermittently that networks
called "linksys" and "NETGEAR" would appear. (Our
network has a unique SSID name - my name and my wife's
name.) So it's possible that I'm picking up the default
names of some neighbors' adaptors, no?
- Checking to see if there was a firmware or software
upgrade. Both the MN-510 (desktop) and MN-520 (laptop)
are running version 2.2.0.731 or MSBNU, and the MN-500
has version 1.11.017 of the firmware, which I noticed is
the latest.
- Pawed through the search function on this board to see
if it had already been answered.
So I guess I have 2 questions:
1) What should I try next?
2) What might be causing this?
My theories on 2) are things like some neighbor finally
got a new network installed and there's some radio
interference. Or maybe a cel tower or radio antenna was
put up in the neighborhood recently or something.
There's been no change in our house that we can think of
at the time the flakiness began.
Thanks a million - I hope someone's able to help!
Aaron
PS - If you could shoot me an email to let me know if you
post a reply, I'd be really grateful. It's already on
the spam lists, so I don't care about that.
Thanks!
Hello -
I've got an all-MS hardware wireless network here at home.
MS-500 base station
MS-510 USB wireless adapter to a Dell desktop
MS-520 wireless adapter in a Toshiba laptop.
For the past 2-3 months, the adapter on the desktop has
started acting more and more strangely. Meaning: some
random amount of time after the computer is started, the
adapter "Wireless" light begins flashing regularly: on
for 1 second, off for 1 second. It is a very different
pattern than the normal, high-speed "flickering" during
normal data transfer.
This adapter worked fine in the exact same setup from
February of this year, but as I mentioned began acting
strangely over the last few months.
The Dell is a bit old, but no new software gets installed
on it. My wife uses it to read email, surf the web, and
that's about it. (It's a 400 Mhz machine, so not beefy
enough for much else.)
It has now degraded to the point where it keeps the
connection open for no longer than a minute or two before
the light begins flashing and the MSBN Util says "No
Signal". The strange thing is, I brought the laptop into
the same room, and set the USB wireless adapter on top of
the laptop - meaning, the two adapters (one plugged into
the laptop, the other tethered by USB to the desktop)
were no more than 2 inches apart, but the laptop told me
it had very good signal, while the desktop said no signal.
I spent about 8 hours on this today (a Saturday), and
have reached the end of my rope. Things I've tried:
- Rebooting the Dell (dozens of times)
- R'd the F-in M.
- Trying to get MSBNDownload.exe onto the Dell (it never
kept the connection open long enough for me to complete
the transfer. Then I tried using Winzip to Split it into
10 1-meg files, but the Dell had an old version of Winzip
that couldn't re-assemble them. So I zipped Winzip
itself, got the new version onto the desktop, but no joy -
it wants the split files on a floppy, and I decided that
path was a waste of energy.)
- Moving the laptop around and hitting "Refresh" on the
Available Networks" screen in the MSBNUtil, to see what
other signals it could pick up in the area of the
desktop. I did notice intermittently that networks
called "linksys" and "NETGEAR" would appear. (Our
network has a unique SSID name - my name and my wife's
name.) So it's possible that I'm picking up the default
names of some neighbors' adaptors, no?
- Checking to see if there was a firmware or software
upgrade. Both the MN-510 (desktop) and MN-520 (laptop)
are running version 2.2.0.731 or MSBNU, and the MN-500
has version 1.11.017 of the firmware, which I noticed is
the latest.
- Pawed through the search function on this board to see
if it had already been answered.
So I guess I have 2 questions:
1) What should I try next?
2) What might be causing this?
My theories on 2) are things like some neighbor finally
got a new network installed and there's some radio
interference. Or maybe a cel tower or radio antenna was
put up in the neighborhood recently or something.
There's been no change in our house that we can think of
at the time the flakiness began.
Thanks a million - I hope someone's able to help!
Aaron
PS - If you could shoot me an email to let me know if you
post a reply, I'd be really grateful. It's already on
the spam lists, so I don't care about that.
Thanks!
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