Linksys SRX400 advanced wireless settings

[drick]

i bit the bullet and completely upgraded my soho wireless network last week. i went with the wrt54gx4 and wpc54gx4 cards for laptops..

well, i'd forgotten how "pleasant" it is dealing with Linksys support, sigh.. After sitting on hold for 30 minutes, i got the token L1 tech who barely speaks english, and doesn't even understand my question, let alone be able to answer it. she then proceeds to tell me that she can't send me to L2, and that there are no supervisors avalible. GRRRRR... so 60 minutes of my life is now gone, and my blood pressure is up about 30 points, but i digress..

On to my real questions. I am having some serious connection problems (dropped signal, BSOD, average 11% connection strength, etc.), and need some help with the advanced settings on the router and card.

I am running:
- router firmware 1.00.10
- card driver version 1.00.09-2.0.1.19
- wireless g only
- auto channel & auto adaptive channel expansion
- wpa2 personal with AES

I am in a SOHO environment, surrounded by other AP's, cordless phones, and other interference. Per T1 Linksys support, I have modified Beacon Interval to 50, and RTS to 2304. This has not improved the problem at all.

Here are my questions:

1. Basic Rate Set - what is it, and for a wireless G only network, is there a better setting than basic rate #2? I'd like to know what the differences are between Basic Rate Set 1 & 2.

2. Beacon Interval - when making changes to this setting, what increments should I use, and what behavior will it change (i.e. better performance, better range, less drops?)?

3. Network Density - I understand what this is supposed to do, but the setting are useless. When changing it from anything but low, all wireless access is dropped until I change it back.

4. Preamble type - what setting on the router matches the card?

I also have a similar set of questions for my WPC54GX4 cards.

1. 802.11d support - what is this, and is supported by the router?

2. 802.11e support - what is this, and is supported by the router? What is the eDCA setting, this appears in several tabs?

3. Background scan period - what is this, and what does it do?

4. Long retry limit - what is this, and what does it do? It appears to be a numeric setting?

5. Short retry limit - what is this, and what does it do? It appears to be a numeric setting?

6. WMM support - what is this, and what does it do? What is the eDCA setting, this appears in several tabs?

Any / all feedback is appreciated, and thanks for listening to me vent.

 

[drick]

update, after getting a call back from T2 today, he was equally as clueless as T1. He then referred me to T3, who called me back, and also had no idea what the settings are or do. He has now referred me to the Cisco product group for the SRX line.

stay tuned..

 

[scottws]

Hmm... I'm not sure on the specific settings, but instead of auto channel, try channel 1, 6, and 11 explicitly. I also personally had luck with channel 7 as well.

 

[drick]

Originally posted by: scottws
Hmm... I'm not sure on the specific settings, but instead of auto channel, try channel 1, 6, and 11 explicitly. I also personally had luck with channel 7 as well.

hey scott, interestingly enough, the srx technology really seems to channel hop in adaptive mode. i did actually try hard coding the router to channel 7 & 11 already, but my issue is that there are 4 other AP's in range, and 2 of them are on channels 6 & 11.

thanks for the suggestions