Hi - we've got a weird problem with our wireless network, which wouldn't normally worry me but it's messing up a new piece of software we've got. I'm an IT tech for a school, which has a wireless network covering a large part of it. It's got a combination of Cisco and Colubris APs, and the teachers use HP or Fujitsu Siemens laptops. What happens: the laptop will report a full strength connection, but the speed will vary from 54Mbps down to 36 or 24. The issue that annoys most is that our new inofrmation management system bombs out if the speed drops. Anyone have any ideas why it should vary speed? The coverage is pretty good - all the APs were set up before I arrived, but they're positioned well and there are quite a lot for the area as some of the buildings are stone. I've tried setting the APs to 54Mbps only, but this kills the range. I also tried altering the RTS threshold. Help!!

Thats the problem with wireless, it shares the same 2.4 Ghz frequency band with DEC cordless phones plus a whole lot of other devices. If someone uses a cordless phone near on of the WAPs then bang goes your speed. A possible way round it is to change the channels the WAPs work on till you find one that is free from interference. Stuart

wireless phones are not the only devices using the 2.4ghz range. I installed a home theater system and the rear speakers are wireless at 2.4ghz I mention this because there maybe other wireless equipment on location to be aware of. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

if the issue is stability, then set it to 24 or 36mbps. You need an absolutely perfect connection to maintain a 54mbps.

People have a very wrong picture about wireless . Unless you sit right underneath a WAP you aren't going to get anywhere near 54 meg , the further you move away from the wap the slower your connection will be . On a cisco wap if you have a -77 db signal you might get 50 meg , if it drops to like -90 your connection is going to be less than 10 meg . Also what most people fail to realize is that wireless is a shared service just like using a hub . The more people you have connecting to wap the slower it will be , you are all sharing the same bandwidth . Being a shared medium you get much over 30% utilization of that bandwidth it is going to get real slow . Have a person do a big file download and it will be worse . There is no way to keep the levels from varying , it is the nature of the beast . If you do a good site survey when installing you can minimize weak spots or dropouts .

Fair enough. There's no (local at least) equipment causing interference. I guessed that the speed fluctuations were mainly caused by the equipment itself. I've just got to hope that the programmers for the information management software (which was supposed to be up and running two weeks ago) can fix the "no login below 54Mbps" issue in the next month, ie before the next period all the teachers have to do reports...