17 mile 11b link with atheros/lucent

[dkii]

I have a 17 mile link I just switched one end from a lucent card to an atheros card. Signal dropped about 4db, which was odd, because I just did the same thing to another 11b link, and the atheros reported about the same signal as the lucent did. It may be a pigtail or connector problem, I haven't done any investigation yet.

Anyways, signal is between -84 and -86, quality between 8 and 10. Ping times are good, no dropped packets. Rx speed is great(450KB/s+), but tx speed is low, only about 40KB/s. If the rate is set to auto, it will drop to 1, I can force it to 11, with no effect on either speed. I've tried changing the ack values from 500 to 9000, still doesn't seem to affect the speed. Cards are netgear WG311(ar5212)

Could it be just the low signal? Or maybe an atheros/lucent compatibility problem?

[lonnie]

We have always seen an increase when we change a link from Lucent to Atheros. Check your pigtail.

[dkii]

Okie, I'll check the pigtail tomorrow, I just put 3 of these in a 2.4ghz MB for testing, so I'll just switch to one of the others and see how that does.

[dkii]

changed cards & pigtails, same signal. Another thought here, I thought I saw somewhere someone said you can't use 11b amps with the atheros cards, even if they are in 11b mode. This is running through a YDI indoor amp. Could that be what's killing my TX speed? BTW My 2 mile 11g link is now running about 3800KB/s, one end is a celeron 400, the other a celeron 2.4gig.

[lonnie]

I would expect the Atheros to have more tx and better rx than the Lucent. We have converted some shots and have seen 10 to 15 dB improvement - of course not at 17 miles - only 5 miles but the key is that it improved things.

[WISP]

What kind of atheros card seem to be the best?

I am looking for a high quality card. DLink and other consumer quality devices I am not impressed with as high quality.

Are there any "short" antennealess versions available?

Wayne

[georgew]

We are only using the mini-pci atheros, so no shortcard or longcard support at all.

As for quality, this is all consumer-grade. I think that in general the cards you see used in the group are better than the low-end stuff, none of it is industrial or mil-spec.