I was using WEP on my WAP and notebook pc and always got atleast 4-5 bars no
matter where i went in my house. I recently changed it to WPA pre shared key
and now unless I am within almost arms reach of my WAP i get 2-3 (mostly 2)
bars and sometimes none at all but when i change back to WEP i get the 4-5
bars again. Is this normal? What could be done to rectify this? I have a
Linksys WAP54G with the optional 7dbi high-gain antennas installed
(http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=38&prid=643) and
my notebook is a Sony Vaio PCG-K45
(http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=PCGK45).
Thanks for any info.

the 4-5
(http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=38&prid=643)
and
(http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD
/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=PCGK45).
I assume the bars are your signal strength and  the encryption method
should not
affect signal strength so I wouldnt rely on the bars as a test as it
may just be a
driver/software issue thats causing the bar difference. Have you tried
downloading a file and comparing the times with each encryption
method,
does your wireless utility show a connect speed, besides bars?

Yes, sorry bars = signal and it fluxuates between 1.0 mbps and 36.0 mbps
then 48.0  up to the 54 mark the closer i get to the WAP. when I'm in the
single digit connection speed, it takes approx 2 mins to transfer a 1 meg
file over my lan and web pages load at dialup speeds. Using WEP it takes 2
secs, and I stay at a consistant 54.0mbps connection. I've contacted Sony
about drivers for specific hardware in this system already and they post no
drivers on their site other than the mem stick, mouse drivers.  The wireless
lan in this notebook seems to be pretty speedy when signal is good but it
seems like they may have taken the cheaper route when they chose the
hardware.

Taking a moment's reflection, Another Anonymous mused:
    It probably is a poor implementation of WPA in the drivers for the card.
If you can identify the card and chipset manufacturer, you may be able to
find updated drivers without the assistance of Sony.  I would recomment
downloading Belarc Advisor to see if it can detect the card type:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

news:IOTUd.78657$4q6.759@attbi_s01...
I'm gonna try that later tonight. Windows says its a LAN-Express AS IEEE
802.11g miniPCI Adapter and so far it hasn't been an easy find. I'll be able
to put some more time into looking tonight. thanks for your help. hope it
worx out.

Another Anonymous <n***@this.time> wrote:
What about the latest drivers from Sony?
<http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-download.pl?template=EN&upd_id=1538&os_id=7&mdl=PCGK17>

Have you looked at the mini-PCI card for markings?
On the bottom of the laptop, there should be an FCC ID for the internal
card.  Try looking it up at the FCC site, or post it here.
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm
Sometimes you can Google the FCC ID and figure out what other names the
same card appears under.

A Google for
"Express-LAN" Sony
makes it look like an Intersil card.  The Linux answers don't give you a
driver per se, but they often tell what other driver works for a particular
card under Linux.

<d***@XReXXWPAXv.usenet.us.com> wrote in message
Different PC, but loox like the same net card, tried to update driver and
windows wouldn't let me. said the currently installed driver is a better
match, bla bla... so I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it with this
driver and I got a Code 10, device could not start.

I tried the search and returned nothing. the FCC ID is PPD-AR5BMB5 and in
the search, PPD wasn't in their search criteria. I did, however find a 3rd
party firmware for my WAP which lets me turn up the power output that seems
to be working for now. this is actually kinda neat, it seems to unlock
several features in the WAP that linksys didn't provide. Its the MustDie
firmware v2.07
(http://tinyurl.com/5mfre)
This can work for now, I upped the power output from 22mW to 44mW and I get
4 signal bars all the time again. I checked net stumbler for any close by
WAPs and set the channel, etc. to something not being used in my area so
hopefully I won't interfere with anyone.

Thanks for your help, I will keep digging around until I find something or
I'll light a fire under Sony's ass and maybe they'll post drivers on their
site for this.

Show quoteHide quote

Another Anonymous <n***@this.time> wrote:
I found that on the FCC site.  Atheros AR5BMB5. 
Sony PCG-K45 (US model) Wireless Laptop 802.11b/g Atheros AR5005GS
http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR5005GS.htm

Knowing that it is an Atheros chipset is good and bad.  Bad because there
is a lot of whining that it is the worst driver in the Windos XP arena.
Good because there are other sources for the driver than Sony.
Driver
<http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/support/downloads/atheros_wpa_driver.exe>
Utility
<http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/support/downloads/atheros_wpa_client.exe>

<d***@XReXXWPAXv.usenet.us.com> wrote in message
Show quoteHide quoteHey thanks heaps. I installed both files and it works great. I put my WAP
back down to the default mW and I get 4-5 bars everywhere now. I also
noticed that the driver I had was v 1.0.0.0 and this one is 3.2.x.x. Thanks
again for all your help.

Mike.

Another Anonymous <n***@this.time> wrote:
I generally don't like that... installing "toshiba" drivers on a "sony"
wifi card... but if the old one doesn't work, and the new one does...
This seems to happen often with WiFi, where the vendors don't seem to do
anything with the product or the software at all.

I am getting more and more dismayed with Sony.  I have a NetMD mini disc
player.  They have altogether abandoned it.  software doesn't work, they
don't upgrade it.  My device isn't even on the web site anymore.  No
support.  No upgrades.  It's as if they dropped it on the market and moved
on to something else.

I know what you mean. I do some Desktop PC work on the side for people.
Lotsa gateway, dell, HP and a few custom builds come across my desk I've had
to use a 3rd party driver on occasion that may work, but its still not
necessarily right. I must say out of all of them I don't like HP (Never
worked on a Sony before until this one). HP posts no drivers (or didn't used
to, haven't worked on any for a while) which is what I found with this one.
I got a good deal on it cause a store was going out of business and it was a
display model. Seems that someone trashed windows on it so I thot I could
fix it. Needless to say the wireless, video and modem drivers were nowhere
to be found on sony's site and I spent a full week of poking and prodding
the net looking for them. I finally called Sony and with no questions asked,
they sent me a restore dvd. I was suprised and grateful in a sense. This is
why I put my desktop pc together from the ground up. I know everything thats
in it, where to get drivers and not have to worry about that if something
fails.


<d***@XReXXWPAXv.usenet.us.com> wrote in message
Show quoteHide quote

the 4-5
(http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=38&prid=643)
and
(http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD
/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=PCGK45).
Just curious, are you using TKIP or AES.  Does it make a difference if
the pc has just been turned on
(cool) and progressivley get worse?

I'm using TKIP, haven't tried AES and its the same from the time i turn on
the pc till i turn it off. I'm gonna dig around the net a bit and see if i
cant find some newer drivers for the wireless. Windows reports it as a
LAN-Express AS IEEE 802.11g miniPCI Adapter but so far it hasnt been an easy
find.

Another Anonymous wrote:

WAP with TKIP gives the most thoughput loss. try WAP with AES for almost no
thruput loss.

in order of thruput loss from highest to lowest: WAP w/TKIP , WEP , WAP
w/AES.


---redpill

On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 19:45:08 -0600, RedpIll <Redp***@takeIT.org>
wrote:

Show quoteHide quoteAre you sure about that?  WAP-PSK (TKIP) and WEP encryption methods
use exactly the same RC4 encryption mechanism for the payload and
differ only in how they exchange the encryption key.  They send almost
identical amounts of management and payload frames.  WPA2 or WPA-AES
uses a much more complex algorithm that usually requires hardware
support, but is often done on the attached computah (to save money)
with a supplicant.  However, again, the number of frames sent are
identical with WPA and WEP.  I would think that AES would have the
most computing overhead but unless the processor is terminally
overloaded, that should create any packet loss.  I don't have a box
that does WPA2 with AES but when I tested the other flavors of
encryption, the thruput was almost identical with about a 10% worst
case loss in thruput as compared to no encryption.  Got any numbers
for "thruput loss" with various encryption and cipher methods?

http://www.drizzle.com/~aboba/IEEE/
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/wifisecurity/all

Thanks for all your help. So far driver searches are coming up empty but
I'll keep lookin, eventually somethings bound to turn up.
I did, however find a 3rd party firmware for my WAP which lets me turn up
the power output that seems to be working for now. this is actually kinda
neat, it seems to unlock several features in the WAP that linksys didn't
provide. Its the MustDie firmware v2.07
(http://tinyurl.com/5mfre)
This can work for now, I upped the power output from 22mW to 44mW and I get
4 signal bars all the time again. I checked net stumbler for any close by
WAPs and set the channel, etc. to something not being used in my area so
hopefully I won't interfere with anyone. Thanks again.

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