Old Reliable Network gone to Sh*t

Brianb8802

Hi guys,

havent posted in the wireless forum before, so hello there!

I just wanted to get your opinion on a setup i have.

I setup a wireless network between two buildings about 2-3 years ago.
I have an antenna on the roof of my work hitting a router in my house. Internet connection sharing running on a computer at work, therefore free internet for me at home. Easy piseys setup really, youd think. Thats what i thought until a few weeks ago. The connection has just gone to Sh*ite altogether. I have a 2Mb connection at work at that works perfectly, but when its sent to my house the most i can get out of it is about 25-30kb/s.

Before there used to be no problem at all with the setup, i was getting transfers of about 3-4Mb with a file transfer program. But suddenly about 5 weeks ago, it just decides to go at a snails pace.

Before the ping between the houses was a steady 4-5ms even when full out downloadin or transfering files. Now the ping is at 5-20ms when idle and >1000ms when downloading or even just surfing!!

Here are the specifics,
distance between the two houses = 120m
Line of sight is good
No encryption
router is d-link dsl 604+
have tried plugging out the host comp and router for a couple of days to give them a break.
tried to reposition the antenna as it is a direction dependent one, but just got worse
tried to reposition the router and have gotten some better signal but only up to about 100kb/s, and pings were still crap. But the router cannot really be changed to another room, and anyway it shouldnt have to if it was workin so well before

Nothing in the setup has changed, no new computers have been added to the network, and nobody is stealing my internet as i have kept a good eye on my bandwidth usage.

Can anybody give there opinions on this please because it is wreckin my head lately.

Thanks in advance,
brianb8802

liamo

Interference?

Have you tried changing channels?

arseagon

What's the antenna on the roof? is it just an antenna with the radio indoors connected by Coax or is the radio built in?

If it's the first, check that water hasn't gotten into the connection to the antenna. Your signal will be badly affected by this. did you seal it with waterproof tape?

If it's the second type check that water hasn't gotten into the casing. It has been very wet lately and water getting into connections will give you many headaches.

bushy...

Can only be one of a few things really , start at the easy indoor stuff ,

Log into the roof-box and be sure there is no-one else on it.
Try changing channels.( if there is a scan thing on the roof gear , use that and see , be aware that most will not pick up non-wifi stuff on the same freq. ... video senders etc)
Try it without using ICS maybe somethings gone odd with it.
Try a (good) wireless card in a laptop and see ( eliminates router/wiring/ethernet card at the house end )
Not much left at that stage except go have a look at the gear on the roof , water/dampness etc. ( what is it btw ?)
Wireless gear can sometimes die after a few years ( esp when tied to outdoor antennas ) ,can still give signal but not do the biz - much easier to diagnose if you have something to drop in in place of it.
Only good side if the box on the roof is dead , the replacement gear will be easier to get and probably less expensive than what you paid originally.