Ask Klaus

Wireless Woe

Klaus, I am baffled by a wireless problem. I have been using Fedora Linux since 2005 and have upgraded all versions from FC 6 through to my current version FC 20.

Yet, I have never got wireless cards to work successfully. My standard 100Mbps Ethernet card works brilliantly, never drops, and has a steady throughput of data when uploading or downloading to a NAS box or transferring data across my home LAN. I bought two USB wireless adapters and tried to use those only because I didn't want a wire trailing across the floor. So far, I have been very disappointed. Both cards do connect to my wireless hub, but the throughput is poor and the stability of the connection is not good even though the system says the strength of signal is good. To eliminate potential issues of weak signal and to ensure the wireless cards are good, I tried an experiment. I powered up my Acer notebook running Windows 7. I placed this beside my Linux desktop.

1. The notebook connected using both the wireless cards and remained steady and gave a good throughput.
2. I dropped all connections on the local hub so that only these wireless connections were present. The Windows box performed well, the Linux desktop was the same poor throughput and patchy connectivity.
3. I swapped the Linux wireless USB to Ethernet and the connection was perfect.
4. I tried the four USB connections on the desktop but saw no difference.

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