10dBm signal drop with WL500GP. Used to be a lot better with Avaya USB client. Why??

[xlazyx]

Hello!

I recently bought a WL-500G Premium, and I'm using it in "client mode"/Station mode like this (AP1 is Asus):

http://idi.ntnu.no/~torarnv/alt2.png

The Asus is connected to an external antenna which is palaced outside my window.

The first thing I noticed after hooking up the AP was that my Internet connection was a lot slower. Doing wl scan && wl scanresult confirmed my suspicion. I'm getting the following signal:



Mode: Managed RSSI: -94 dBm noise: -99 dBm Channel: 4
BSSID: 00:0E:84:16:A8:A1 Capability: ESS ShortPre
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2 5.5 6 9 11 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]



This used to be -84, with a 11dB SNR, using my old Avaya Wirelss USB Client card, connected to the same external antenna. I basically lost 10dB by replacing the Avaya card with the Asus router.

Why? Is the WL-500G (Premium) known for having bad signal strength? Is this an issue because I use an external antenna? Does the WL500GP maybe have a second internal antenne which I need to disable to have it only use the external one? Does the firmware have anything to do with this? Is it because I'm using the AP in "client mode"? :confused:

I tried changing the "Wireless Mode" to "802.11B Only", and that improved the speed a bit, but it's still unbearable. I also boosted the antenna power to 84, which didn't do anything to my download speed. I get 48 kbit/s down and 2 073 kbit/s up :eek:

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks!

Tor Arne

[t_j_k]

I have similar problem on WL-500g Premium (using antenna included in router kit). I tried to set it up as a wireless client of Linksys WRT54G or Motorola WR850Gv2 using DD-WRT firmware. In B-mode Asus is loosing connection with the AP and reporting bad signal. In G-mode it doesn't work at all.

~ # wl status
SSID: "SunWiFi"
Mode: Managed RSSI: -94 dBm noise: -97 dBm Channel: 11
BSSID: 00:14:BF:B2:28:02 Capability: ESS WEP
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 11(b) ]

I tried the same with Motorola WR850Gv2 in wireless client mode (DD-WRT) and it works perfectly.

Are there any known bugs that make WL-500g Premium unusable in wireless client mode ?

[Miko]

I tested with WL-500gP for 10 days of and i must say, that range and speed of Broadcom wireless part really sux compared to my old WL-500gx.
And as I see, thats problem for a lot of people, but no response from Asus on their VIP forum. blah!

[kxs]

look at my thread. maybe it`s your problem too
http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=6977

[Miko]

look at my thread. ...

Thanks for tip, but my antenna is OK connected to "Main".
But I found another thing - power output in fw is 0.010-0.017W = max. 12.304dBm + 2dBi Asus antena = 14.304dBm but not only in our country is limit < 20dBm!

With standard Asus antena you need to set Radio power to 63 (0.063W) to reach maximum allowed limit. This is possible in asus beta firmware 1.9.7.1 - after set 63 u receive msg with warning about 10-17, but 63 is still set and after reset is aplicated. (Range, speed, signal strength is much better).

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