TomatoUSB

Hi everyone,

First of all, I'd like to thank Toastman for all of his meticulous work on Tomato. It's really an incredibly good product. I'm using the kernel 2.4 version on a Buffalo WHR-G54S with a flat panel directional antenna.

I'm having trouble with a client that has a fairly weak link (between -81 to -76 dBm) It's a Centrino chipset laptop running Linux. I have problems with frequent WiFI disconnects of this laptop on the Tomato network. I used to run DD-WRT on this router, and I *THINK* that this laptop had more stable connections, although there were also occasional disconnects. I played around with signal strength anywhere from 20mW to 150mW, and it doesn't really seem to make any difference. I recently tried enabling the "Interference Mitigation" setting to "WLAN Auto", and it actually seems to have helped quite a bit, albeit not perfect. I'm surprised this made a difference, because there are between 0 to 3 WiFI networks in range, and they are all weak and running on channel 11 (I'm on channel 1), so I don't really think interference was a problem. Another laptop with a Broadcom chipset, also running Linux, sitting next to it has a much more stable connection. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like I'm kind of shooting in the dark. How can I diagnose why the disconnects are happening?

Thanks a lot!

1. Get rid of shit like Linux and PC, and use a proper macbook
2. Think about wired connection

Try lowering the connection speed. A -81 signal would probably not be stable for connection speeds over 12 or 18 Mbps. Under Advanced - Wireless - Transmission Rate, change it from "Auto" to a lower setting. The lower you go the more stable the connection will be and the more distance range it will have. Your bandwidth delivery limit will be about 40% of what the connection rate is.

It would be much easier to buy a new computer and wireless card than to try to figure out why one computer has better range than the other. Only Jesus knows, just like only Jesus knows why dogs have testicles and bitches do not.

Intel Centrino chipsets are known to be troublesome. Before you throw it in the bin, however, look in the Intel wifi setup, and disable anything that looks like power saving, set maximum power, and disable anything else that looks fishy. Some people do manage to get them to work :-)

Thanks to everyone who replied here. I think I managed to almost fix or at least greatly improve the situation. I reduced transmit power to 40 mW and enabled "Auto WLAN" interference mitigation.