Wireless Strength: Windows vs Linux

[jkinz at kinz.org (Jeff Kinz)]

On Sun, Jan 22, 2006 at 06:34:22PM -0500, Don Levey wrote:
> I'm noticing something odd on my wife'a laptop.  I put a DLink wireless card
> in it so we can move it around the house; in Windows XP the reported signal
> strength (per the OS itself) is always very strong.  However, in Linux
> (Fedora 4), the reported strength is mediocre at best.  The antenna is
> perhaps as much as 20-30 feet from the laptop, and even moving the thing
> into the same root 3' away brings me only to about 50% signal strength when
> in Linux.  Is this just a function of the reporting tools I'm using
> (wlassistant, KDE panel applet), or is there truly some sort of signal
> enhancement going on in Windows?
> 
>  -Don

Don, this is total guessing FWIW:

Does the card have a native Linux driver?  If not perhaps the probably
native Win driver may be configuring internal registers in the card
differently causing the card to react differently in the two OS's.

Come to think of it, thats true even if it has a native Linux driver.
Oh well. Never mind.


-- 
Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
speech recognition software may have been used to create this e-mail

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