Strange dsl problems

[Dazed_75]

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 6:44 PM, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 2008-03-04 at 19:27 -0600, Josef Lowder wrote:
>  > .
>  > Recently, I have been experiencing strange dsl problems,
>  > which I have been unable to either solve or even pin down.
>  >
>  > My main Linux box which is ethernet wire connected to my 2-wire
>  > modem/router has had a few dropped signals, but that is minor.
>  >
>  > My backup Linux box which is also ethernet wire connected through
>  > a hub to the same router has lost the connection entirely.
>  >
>  > My IBM Thinkpad in another room has generally remained connected
>  > via a 3-com wireless PCI card, though it sometimes drops the
>  > signal; but when that happens I can always quickly reconnect.
>  >
>  > On my HP zv6000 laptop I have a dual-boot Linux partition and a
>  > win-xp partition.  I have never been able to get the internal
>  > broadband 802.11 wireless card to work with the Linux partition,
>  > but until recently, I have never had any problem maintaining a
>  > steady 54Mbps wireless connection.  But now that has gone flakey.
>  > However, I can connect to my neighbor's linksys unsecured wireless
>  > router at 11Mbps.
>  >
>  > On my wife's computer in another room dual booting Linux and win-xp
>  > I initially had a wireless connection on the Linux partition, but
>  > it failed shortly after I set it up, so she has been using the xp
>  > partition and has maintained a steady 54Mbps connection ... until
>  > recently, but that connection has become unreliable.  Sometimes
>  > it works and sometimes it doesn't.
>  >
>  > Today, I called both 2-wire and qwest, but neither were able to
>  > help me solve the problem.
>  >
>  > I've tried ipconfig on the xps and /sbin/ifconfig on the linux
>  > boxes and get a mixed bag of IP addresses.
>  >
>  > So I'm stuck.  How can I solve this?
>  ----
>  there really shouldn't be any dropped signals. I would be concerned with
>  that.
>
>  The next question is where are the breaks in the signals?
>
>  for example,
>
>  this is pinging cox dns server...
>  # ping -c 4 68.2.16.30
>  PING 68.2.16.30 (68.2.16.30) 56(84) bytes of data.
>  64 bytes from 68.2.16.30: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=12.5 ms
>  64 bytes from 68.2.16.30: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=11.3 ms
>  64 bytes from 68.2.16.30: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=19.7 ms
>  64 bytes from 68.2.16.30: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=15.2 ms
>
>  --- 68.2.16.30 ping statistics ---
>  4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3000ms
>
>  Note, no packet loss...no drops
>
>  if there were drops...I would first ping my router, then ping the
>  gateway address of the router and so on.
>
>  You can figure things out by doing a traceroute, like this...
>
>  # traceroute -n 68.2.16.30
>  traceroute to 68.2.16.30 (68.2.16.30), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
>   1  192.168.2.254  4.638 ms  4.924 ms  5.360 ms   <- my router
>   2  68.230.64.1  26.181 ms  26.367 ms  26.531 ms  <- the router gateway
>  addr
>   3  68.2.6.177  22.060 ms  22.437 ms  22.609 ms   <- cox routing table
>   4  68.2.12.90  60.387 ms  60.762 ms  60.932 ms   <- cox routing table
>   5  68.2.12.9  28.370 ms  29.649 ms  29.821 ms    <- cox routing table
>   6  68.2.12.5  33.068 ms  28.813 ms  28.433 ms    <- cox routing table
>   7  68.2.12.1  28.647 ms  16.119 ms  16.132 ms    <- cox routing table
>   8  68.2.14.1  16.225 ms  17.195 ms 68.2.14.13  24.698 ms
>   9  68.2.16.30  16.425 ms  19.136 ms  17.356 ms
>
>  this type of action helps your figure out where the problem is
>
>  Craig
>
>
>
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You mentioned having problems with both wired and wireless connections
but seem most focussed on wireless.  Some typical problems relate to
radio interference from new equipment, moved equipment, new wireless
APs/networks, wireless phones, even moved furniture, etc.  When I
first set up here, I had intermittent issues until I moved the
AP/router about 4 feet west and 2 ft higher away from other computers
and giving it a better line of sight to my tivo.

I recently worked to help someone with their wireless and among other
problems she had the worst problem when a neighbor had their unsecured
linksys router turned on.  When the neighbors router was off and later
after they secured it, many of the problems went away.  You could also
try changing channels on the AP if it is neighborly interference.
Check signal strengths at the clients.  Perhaps your SS is lower at
the wifes machine than some other network(s) leading to more packet
losses.

Also, try cleaning the router/AP in case it is overheating due to
blocked airflow.  Such a thing can affect both wired and wireless.
-- 
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only
animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and
what they ought to be.
  - William Hazlitt