cylent Posted February 27, 2006 CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 Ok so i am currently in iraq and i get my internet wirelessly using a 24dbi parabolic grid antenna from a provider who says at first limited me to 64down/64up kilobits/sec (ya. bits NOT bytes) so i called and bitched and she said she increased it to 256kb/128kb. although i am seeing some improvements i am still having download problems. its quite a mess really. in iraq the internet is provided wirelessly because saddams underground fiberoptics isnt being used and with all the bombings who would fix it if it breaks and all. so we're stuck with a diagram like this: i get internet wirelessly from internet cafe 1 who in turn gets internet from a big provider in baghdad who in turn gets internet from a company in the UK or Germany or Australia or wherever. (((god i miss being in san diego on my cable modem. i am starting to get teary eyes :( ))) now, my question here is why is it when i download i am not touching more than 7.30KB or 8KB .. when i use the Bit calculator on this website: http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/ it says 256kilobits translates into about 32KiloBytes. i am not hitting those numbers. to give you an idea of how i have things setup: I am on my laptop thats getting its signal from an access point in the house. this access point is connected to a Smoothwall Gateway box. The gateway is connected to an access point on the roof thats connected to a 24dbi parabolic grid antenna. The access point on the roof next to the antenna reports the signal with the provider to be between 80% and 95%. i am trying hard to make it stronger. it jumps up and down. i dont believe access points were designed to be wireless clients. correct me if i am wrong. my ping times fluctuate. i see the following -- this is during daytime: C:Documents and SettingsPaul>ping 192.168.1.1 Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=63 Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=63 Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=63 Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=63 Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 29ms, Average = 10ms at times during the day i see lots "Request timed out". i am confident something is the problem. heres a diagram of my setup: any help is greatly appreciated! antenna question: i have this kinda antenna: http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2424g.php on the website at the bottom theres a picture showing Vertical and Horizontal standing. It appears to me that while its Vertical the red area is larger. my question is: should i change it to Vertical? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 27, 2006 CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 first welcome to the site! What i am seeing is a lot of lag on the LAN side of things.. the tracert to 192.168.1.1, if that is internal like the AP that has the antenna, should be below 1ms just about always. Are they using dlink products for this system? if that is the case then you are going to want to make sure that you are not running on the same channel! 24dbi is a lot of power in one direction. I would also try downloading without the smoothwall machine there.. There have been other members here that the smoothwall has affected the performance of their connections. As far as APs working as clients.. it is more frequent than you would think.. With open source firmware and linksys hardware this can easily be done for CHEAP! You mentioned that the fiber network is pretty much non existant.. My guess would be that your backbone to the ISP is going to satelite which of course introduces tons of lag.. And with dust, the military, and everything else going on there.. the disk could be a little messed up.. Try a download test from on of the mirrors in Europe.. you might have better sauces.. https://testmy.net/mirrors.php Good luck and stay safe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted February 27, 2006 Author CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 What i am seeing is a lot of lag on the LAN side of things.. the tracert to 192.168.1.1, if that is internal like the AP that has the antenna, should be below 1ms just about always. 192.168.1.1 is the internet provider. my internal lan is 192.168.0.70 for the gateway and the laptops are .200 and .172. i am using smoothwall for these reasons: 1) its caching proxy helps in regards to speed a bit. 2) provides dhcp for the laptops and 3rd reason is "some protection". do you recommend any other router/gateway packages? i tried Clarkconnect the other day and i find smoothwall to be a bit easier to manage although I think clarkconnect maybe faster in providing speeds. what do you think about the antenna question? whether vertical or horizontal orientation is best? and when you say 24dbi is alot in one direction do you mean i should opt for a smaller antenna? i was considering the flat panel kind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 27, 2006 CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 ok if that is the ISP then that is really good for a distance wifi connection. I would not worry about the equipment you have. As far as the gateway, if it is helping with the speed via caching the leave it. Unfortunately you are in country that just has a crap load of bombs dropped on it and their infrastructure is a little mess up. I would leave the antenna as it is.. you are getting 80% signal which is really good! As far as the antenna.. 24dbi is pretty "strong" most of the flat panel models are not going to be able to get that great of a connection over a long distance. So stick with what you have. You might want to try and power cycle the APs.. that might help with the speed just a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted February 27, 2006 Author CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 the reason i am hammering the antenna issue is because a friend of mine also has an antenna however its a Yagi antenna. his is about 5 meters away from mine (On the same roof) and we b.oth get internet from the same provider. he has no APs. straight from the antenna to the pc's wireless dlink card. his signal strength is 97% most of the time. i did a search on the web and i believe this is the one he has. so perhaps flipping mine vertically can do better or if not get one such as his. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 27, 2006 CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 That is about $85 US.. It is the telex 2415 13dbi yagi directional antenna. It should be good for about 2 miles minimum.. where the current one you have is 7+ miles. I would see if you could borrow his antenna for a bit.. or have him come over and hook up to yours and see what type of speeds he gets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted February 27, 2006 Author CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 well no he doesnt exactly have the telex one. i was just showing you the "kind" he has. and i dont mean to sound like a kid dwelling over the antenna kind and position. I just heard that the higher the signal is the better the quality and the better the ping with fewer dropped packets and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 27, 2006 CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 that might be true.. but your ping to the ISP is fast! so the antenna isnt going to make a difference, so that would leave me to believe that it is the ISP's problems not yours or your equipements... If he is getting better speeds then I would worry.. try this.. tracert 192.168.1.1 post the results... that should give you any signs of packet loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted February 27, 2006 Author CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 on a side note, i noticed my speed started to decrease so i logged into the access point on the roof and i restarted it. the speed picked up again. its been about 15 minutes since i restarted it and i am concerned about the "Statistics" page. theres lots of failure counts. and its only been 15 minutes. WLAN 802.11G Traffic Statistics ThroughPut Transmit Success Rate 37 % Transmit Retry Rate 0 % Receive Success Rate 13 % Receive Duplicate Rate 44 % RTS Success Count 0 RTS Failure Count 10424 Transmitted Frame Count Transmitted Frame Count 897 Multicast Transmitted Frame Count 12 Transmitted Error Count 1565 Transmitted Total Retry Count 0 Transmitted Multiple Retry Count 0 Received Frame Count Received Frame Count 1490 Multicast Received Frame Count 0 Received Frame FCS Error Count 10425 Received Frame Duplicate Count 1175 Ack Rcv failure Count 4270 Wep Frame Error Count WEP Excluded Frame Count 0 WEP ICV Error Count 0 in regards to the tracert, here are the results: C:Documents and SettingsPaul>tracert 192.168.1.1 Tracing route to 192.168.1.1 over a maximum of 30 hops 1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms smoothwall [192.168.0.70] 2 36 ms 9 ms 55 ms 192.168.1.1 Trace complete. C:Documents and SettingsPaul>tracert 192.168.1.1 Tracing route to 192.168.1.1 over a maximum of 30 hops 1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms smoothwall [192.168.0.70] 2 6 ms 8 ms 26 ms 192.168.1.1 Trace complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 27, 2006 CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 What type of aps do you have? i am going to need to do some research.. that log looks a little wack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted February 27, 2006 Author CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 the one on the roof receiving the signal from the isp is a d-link DWL-2100AP. it was bought in iraq so the firmware version says 2.00EU. the other one i have in the house is also a D-Link. its a DWL-900AP+. same thing. bought in iraq. i flashed it with a us firmware so it just says 3.09 which is fine. the reports i showed you above are from the 2100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted February 27, 2006 CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 Alright i would try and see if you can re-aim your antenna.. you should have a higher Transmit Success Rate and Recieve Success Rate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted February 27, 2006 Author CID Share Posted February 27, 2006 so you think the problem is the antenna? well i guess if i do reposition it i am going to do it vertically this time. i should mention that the sma cable i have in the picture has been kinda acting a bit loose. also.the small little tip that connects to the access point screw. i kinda have to push it while screwing it in. i am going to try to buy another but i'll deal with one for now. also, i had an incident with the antenna where the little tip off of the feedhorn broke off. so i kinda taped it back on. i asked lots of people that supposdely know and they said its no big deal. in the attached picture. see the black plastic area labeled "Feedhorn"?? that area kinda broke in half and now a metal piece is sticking out. (basically the plastic got shattered)) i'll try to take a picture. the part labeled "Feed Refelector" is ok and well so i kinda taped it and tried to screw it back on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted February 28, 2006 Author CID Share Posted February 28, 2006 this is after about 8+ hours: ThroughPut Transmit Success Rate 71 % <--looks low? Transmit Retry Rate 0 % Receive Success Rate 22 % Receive Duplicate Rate 27 % <---hmmm RTS Success Count 0 RTS Failure Count 984674 <-- Ouch? Transmitted Frame Count Transmitted Frame Count 181353 Multicast Transmitted Frame Count 0 Transmitted Error Count 76824 <--i am in pain! Transmitted Total Retry Count 0 Transmitted Multiple Retry Count 0 Received Frame Count Received Frame Count 263376 Multicast Received Frame Count 0 Received Frame FCS Error Count 984675 Received Frame Duplicate Count 99694 Ack Rcv failure Count 419049 <---wow! Wep Frame Error Count WEP Excluded Frame Count 0 WEP ICV Error Count 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cylent Posted March 21, 2006 Author CID Share Posted March 21, 2006 UPDATE: i gave up on using the dwl-2100ap. well it sorta broke. the lan light would stay on even though theres no cable connected. when i do connect a cable then it starts blinking like hell. i tried resetting it in every way possible but it wont work no more. i can get to it wirelessly but thats it. the only use i have for it is if i set it to wireless repeater and i am not sure thats a good thing. in any case. i decided to use an RG cable from the antenna which rolls down to the apartment and then connects to the access point. this time i am using the dwl900ap which seems to be functioning OK but my ping times are horrible compared to what i had showed you before. i think this has to do with the ap losing the signal because of the black RG cable. i am considering putting the dwl900 next to the antenna then run an rj45 cable like i had done with the dwl2100. heres an example of the pings: C:Documents and SettingsPaul>ping 192.168.1.1 Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=63 Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=63 Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=113ms TTL=63 Request timed out. Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 113ms, Average = 67ms i cant for the life of me figure out why i am getting time outs. in regards to the antenna i had showed you before with the broken feed horn? well i replaced it. i now have a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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