Wireless/Ethernet multi-connect SLOWDOWN!

[Lacyt]

I have “true” wireless broadband – no modem whatsoever. There’s a tall pole mounted on my 25-foot tall roof with a receiver on top of the pole that feeds down to a radio inside my house, which connects via Ethernet to my router. There are 4 computers that utilize this connection. – 2 ethernet wired desktops (Win2K Pro) and 2 wireless laptops (1 Win2K Pro, 1 XP Pro). One of the laptops goes through a Belkin wireless router that has been “converted” to a WAP only.

If just one computer is surfing at a time, that connection is consistently up to the speed I’m paying for. Today, I’m getting 1.44Mbps download and 281Kbps upload with 84% QoS while being the only booted computer in the house. Woohoo!

BUT! No matter which connection is on first, the instant a second computer comes on, MY connection – laptop or desktop - grinds to a halt and the second connection slows to a crawl

This was happening before my son added the WAP. In fact, this has been happening for MONTHS with different routers and hours on the phone with ISP tech support, to no avail. When it chokes like that, I can still ping my ISP with good return as well as other sites, such as google and yahoo. I can ping the other house connection just fine. We just can’t GO or can barely go to any sites through the browser!

No software firewalls are installed or enabled; antivirus checked out as not blocking or hindering either. All machines use Firefox 2.0. No P2P downloading goes on either so there’s no reason my ISP would choose to limit my connection speeds. And my ISP instructed me to choose Dynamic IP addressing in my router setup.

The desktops are custom made – Asus mobo in one with onboard NIC; Soyo mobo in the other with onboard NIC. Both are 2 GHz with 1 gig of RAM and only a couple years old. One Dell Latitude C600 laptop (P3 750) and one Thinkpad T22 laptop (P3 900), both using PCMCIA wireless cards, both with 512 ram.

My only other internet option is $expensive$ satellite. Can’t justify that.

Would someone please link me to some threads that might help me figure this out?

[YeOldeStonecat]

Is there any router/NAT of any sort? Why is the Belkin flipped to AP mode instead of default router mode? I take it your ISP gives you multiple IPs? Why type of wireless setup is this?

[Lacyt]

Thanks for your response.

The first router in this setup (that the radio connects to) is a Linksys BESFR41 v. 4 router/switch without wireless. I bought it only a couple months ago because we suspected my previous router (a Belkin) was going bad, causing the slowdown.

The second router is a Dlink DL-524 with wireless. My son, the tech student, is "guilty" of implementing the WAP. He's going for 2 degrees - Computer Networking and Systems Administration and Network Security Technology and wanted to apply some of his newfound knowledge. When I purchased the Linksys, he bought the DLink.

My desktop - the machine that suffers the most slowdown when multiple users are on - is ethernet wired to router 1 - the Linksys. It doesn't go through router 2 - the DLink.

My ISP (Internet America) had me set the Linksys to Dynamic IP so that when they do updates, they don't have to contact all their users to make manual changes, such as MAC addresses. We tried static IP, too, but that didn't make any difference.

The WAP is also set to obtain an IP automatically.

Don't know what you mean by "type" of wireless setup. It's not DSL/Cable/Satellite or that Motorola device. I have a receiver on my roof that sends the feed to a radio (a Tranzeo TR-SUR-001) in the house that connects to my Linksys router via ethernet.

We were experiencing this slowdown problem before we implemented the WAP.

[Lacyt]

Okay, here's a new twist we just discovered.

Both laptops are accessing the Net right now via wireless; neither wired desktop is booted up.

We are both averaging 1.3MBps download, 800KBps upload, and 80% QoS!

I just booted up my desktop to test the connection. It won't go anywhere on the Net and the laptops slow way down.

Cable problem?

[hatebreed]

Im kinda having this problem right now.. I bought a new wireless router(Sitecom WL-153) with built in 4 port switch.. And before that i had only a Normal 4 port router. Everytime i run bittorrent I am the only one experiencing slow internet browsing and the other computers were unaffected.They can download at a decent speed too.my normal dl speed is 900KBps And now everytime i use bittorrent all computers connected thru that router are having slow connections/downloads too. I have 2 desktops and 2 wireless laptops connectin to that router...is there anyway i can get around this...

[Lacyt]

UPDATE:

First to clarify my internet setup. The box on top of the pole on my house is called a backhaul. The white box in the house the backhaul feeds into is not a radio; it's just a specialized surge protector.

As to my multi-connection speed problem, I government-wiped my hard drive of Win2K Pro and did a clean install of XP Pro. Problems solved. Internet connection on a wired desktop surfing at the same time as a wireless laptop serves both with 1.5MBps up and download speeds. Go figure. :irate: