Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG - High Latency & Packet Loss

chrisbyrd

OSNN Junior Addict
Joined
18 Nov 2004
Messages
27
Hi All

Hopefully somebody will be able to help me out here...

I've recently got a new Toshiba Tecra laptop - works fine, appart from the wireless connectivity. We've got 2 of these laptops and they're both doing the same thing

It comes with an integrated 'Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG' adapter and I'm having a heck of a lot of grief with packet loss and high latency but I cant work out whats going on.

I'm about 5 meters away from the wireless access point and have a very strong signal. The problem is the same with access points and routers from Netgear, Dlink and even Geffy's Apple air-port thing.

When its working reasonably OK, i'm still getting >25ms pings to the router whereas with all the other wireless equipment its nearer 5ms max

Every 5 or 10 minutes, the connectivity will stop. There's still full signal strength etc, but nothing will respond to pings - a 'repair this connection' in XP sorts it out for another few minutes, then the cycle starts again

I've checked that the link isnt being saturated or anything like that, but i still get >3000ms pings quite frequently

This is proving particularly annoying as its virtually impossible to get any proper work done as SSH sessions etc time out



ping.GIF



net.GIF



anybody got any ideas before i chuck it in the river?

few more points:

- i'm fairly sure drivers are up to date
- wired network interface works flawlessly
- i called Toshiba, who as i suspected, were as much use as a chocolate tea-pot
- 2 identical laptops experiencing the same issue
- tried all sorts of different wireless security configurations. currently running with just mac filtering and no encryption
 
I have that exact wireless card and it has alot of issues with connections. Such as the speed dropping from 54MBps to 11 to as slow as 1 or 2.

If you google the card there are alot of topics about this card. I have even written a blog entry, calling it the wireless from hell.

http://blog.michaelsoft.gotdns.com/?p=8

The only way I could get it to work well was to force it to connect in 802.11b mode only which sucks since I bought it to use the G mode (bought it off ebay).

The reason I haven;t put mu old card back in it because I actually prefer the Intep PROSet software to the windows wireless manager.

Also, I heard that Broadcom was the best for internal wifi. My friend has that card and has no problems whatsoever.
 
I got the 2200BG for my Inspiron back in May 2004 from Dell, and had lots of problems with it during the first week. The signal was weak even when I was standing next to the access point, and the connection was dropping quite frequently. I was almost prepared to return it and pick up a Dell TrueMobile card with the Broadcom chipset.

I decided to do some diagnosis first and eventually figured out that it was an issue with the drivers and the Intel PRO/Set application. So I downloaded the drivers from IBM's site, since Dell's installed PRO/Set by default, and the card's been working flawlessly ever since. I connect to a 802.11g network in my room, and the 802.11b network on campus, and the connection is very steady. In fact, I now keep a backup of those IBM drivers in three different places so that I don't ever lose them. I don't want to risk getting the latest drivers that could possibly cause the same issues again.

I don't have them handy at the moment, but I'll try to post them later today or tomorrow morning. They're most probably older than the ones you have installed, and you'll be using XP's built-in wireless tools (which I prefer anyway) instead of the Intel PRO/Set app, but it just might solve your problems.
 
NetRyder said:
I don't have them handy at the moment, but I'll try to post them later today or tomorrow morning.

that'd be great, thanks :D

i'll try forcing it to 802.11b mode and see if that helps. That wouldnt really bother me much tbh, as long as it works :p
 
i do believe that may have sorted it :D

my router ping is back down to 1 or 2ms and i'm getting 0% packet loss

i'll monitor it for the next few hours, but its looking good :D

thanks guys
 
Interesting that you would use IBM drivers, what about the actual Intel drivers as I have been using?

Also does this use the PROSet application and support WPA? Im wondering is this could be the cause to my WPA woes.
 
Do those newer drivers from IBM have the new interface that Intel started using? I like the older interface (see attachment)
 

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wireless has been working a treat since switching to those drivers - i'm so chuffed :D

i've just used the actual driver - not the application. i'm using windows' built in wireless config - as i had been all along

definately seems to have sorted it for me :D

Ping statistics for 10.10.10.1:
Packets: Sent = 8104, Received = 8104, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 99ms, Average = 1ms
 
I'm gonna give this a shot. Hoping A) Its the old interface and B) It fixes my WPA problem.
 
chrisbyrd said:
wireless has been working a treat since switching to those drivers - i'm so chuffed :D

i've just used the actual driver - not the application. i'm using windows' built in wireless config - as i had been all along

definately seems to have sorted it for me :D

Ping statistics for 10.10.10.1:
Packets: Sent = 8104, Received = 8104, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 99ms, Average = 1ms
Yeah, I've been using just the driver too. I was hesitant to install the Intel PRO/Set app after the endless pain that it caused me for that first week. :D
I'm sure it's improved quite a bit during the last two years, but I'm not too keen on breaking something that's already working well. Besides, it also means I can have one less third-party app constantly running in memory.
 
Hey Net,
does your version have the Intel software cuz this one doesn't seem to work right. While the option is in the installation it doesn't load, errors with a plugin missing message. I've reinstalled it 3 times.
 
Thanks, I'll give it a shot later.

I like the PROSet app. Just likes to run a few extra processes. like 4 :S
 
Ok, I tried WPA and it worked for a while, THEN I started to transfer a large file to another computer and BSOD!

I reinstalled the drivers to no avail. WEP seems to work fine and I don't want to upgrade the drivers due to some interface changes that are stupid.

Seems like everytime I try to goto WPA something always has to stop me.
 
Damn, I thought I was the only person with this problem, and I never bothered to do some research! :p

My problems improved significantly after my dad bought a new router, yet I do get similar issues, but only when I start up utorrent!

Slightly similar problem. You guys have any idea? Should I give the IBM drivers a go?
 
the IBM drivers don't have the PROSet app so if you prefer that (like me) then just use the Intel ones.

I use an older Intel driver version since the new interface sucks. Well it's not so much the interface as its the baloon tips. It's a somewhat huge window now as opposed to the XP style balloon popup.
 
You wouldn't stomache a poorer management interface for better drivers which would hopefully mean you wouldnt have to dig out the management interface as much?

just an idea...
 

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