Wireless Networks and big stone walls
I work for a number of computers doing various things, one of which is Premier Computers which provides various computing and networking services. Because of this it gets around that I "do computers", which is pretty much true but not my main job. Anyway, a friend of mine asked if I could set up a wireless network so they could share his ADSL connection around their house.
I know he lives in an old stone farm house so i decided to go round and check it out along with the PCs to check if they would take the wireless cards. There didn´t seem to be any problems, all the PCs had a spare PCI slot and were running XP. Plus the computers were on the same floor in adjoining rooms so the walls wouldn´t pose much of a problem.
I got the stuff and went round to set it up. I replaced the USB ADSL modem with a new router and set that up. The first PC was online! Then went and set up the access point, linked it to the router and checked it all with my laptop. So far, so good. All that was left to do was shove a couple of wireless cards in the other two PCs and job done.
Thats when the problems started. Thecard installed without a problem but I couldn´t find the access point. I got my laptop and loaded up NetStumbler to check the signal. I wandered around for a bit and the signal was ok until I went near the PC.
"erm, whats behind there" I asked pointing at a wall in between the PC and the access point.
"oh, a wardrobe with mirrored doors"
"great…"
So time to move the furniture around. Still couldn´t get a signal in the room anywhere. Ok, time to shift it to the main room and see if its actually working at all. And that would be: No.
Right, next PC. It turned out it had 98 on it (I couldn´t be bothered to check). Hmm, this should be interesting. After 20 mins of messing about with it I decided to give up trying to get it to recognise the card and go home to sulk.
Turns out that when I tried the cards in a test machine at work today, the 98 one is actually broke, but the other works fine. Time to try some other cards and see if they work!
