[PB] Wireless Interference

Kevin Stevens groups at pursued-with.net
Mon Mar 6 11:20:26 PST 2006


> Our base station is running b/g, with 128-bit WEP.  No radius or
> anything to restrict computers.  If my Powerbook is sleeping, she has
> no problem accessing the network.  But if my computer is connected to
> the internets via the base station and her computer is next to mine,
> even within a few feet of the base station, she cannot surf.  At
> these times, she might have a couple of bars of signal strength, but
> websites do not resolve.  When I shut off, she moves to 4 bars of
> strength and everything is hunky-dory for her, implying that she is
> configured correctly.

Two things:

- Check to see that her machine is in fact associating to the access point
rather than creating a computer-to-computer (adhoc) association to YOUR
computer.  If her machine has a preferred network association to your
computer, it could fall back to the access point when yours was off, and
work fine, but when yours comes on, hers will re-associate to yours. 
Unless you have internet sharing set up on your computer, she won't be
able to reach the internet that way.

- If both computers are associated to the access point, check to be sure
that both don't have the same IP address assigned.  That could also cause
the symptoms you report.

The whole WPA/WEP issue shouldn't be the problem if the machine actually
shows as being associated and connected to a wireless network.  If you're
getting that far, the encryption and password are set up and working.

KeS



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