Reconnection & Write Problems with Dell Wireless Adaptor

[cpsj]

I have
- A Dell Latitude D610 with Intel Pro/Wireless Adapter running XP SP2 (fully updated)
- A Maxtor network hard drive on wired network
- A Linksys AirPlus G+ Wireless router on wired network

All the following comments refer to working with files on the Maxtor.

When the Dell is connected to the wired network everything is fine.

The wireless signal is very good, always showing full strength.

When the Dell is connected via wireless things are generally OK but I get intermittent Disconnect/Reconnect messages for the wireless connection. This is usually OK but can affect some software (eg Open Office) resulting in failure to write files. When using Thunderbird email I get frequent 'Delayed Write Failed' messages which, appart from being annoying affect the program performance and could result in loss of data.

I have searched for a fix, the only useful thing I found related to the 'autoconfigure' parameter of the NIC but did not say how to change it.

This problem has also occurred to similar Dell laptops at another site.

Another odd effect is that when both wired and wireless connections are active the Dell does not use the wired connection at full speed, I have to disable the wireless connection to get full perfomance.

[cpsj]

I forgot to add that when I am experiencing poor wireless performance the status of the adapter can show full strength signal with a data rate 1Mb (normally 48Mb)

[johnwill]

First step is to change the wireless channel, this has the earmarks of wireless interference.

[cpsj]

Thanks for the hint. I used NetStumbler and did find another router on the same channel but 30dB below my router. Changing the channel has fixed things so far but its early days yet...

[johnwill]

I think you may be on the road to happiness.