Two wireless internet antennas - computer connects to wrong one

MisterW · #1 01-21-2007, 08:10 PM

I live on the top floor of a 3 story apartment building that offers free wireless internet. The main router and a connected booster antenna (about 3 feet away from the main router) are located in the basement, on separate sides of a large concrete beam. There is only one network SSID, but there are two antennas that can be connected to.

The main router has 54 mbps capability whereas the booster antenna has 11 mbps capacity. The problem is that the 54 mbps antenna has a "very low" to "no signal" reading from my computer, but the 11 mbps has a "good" to "very good" connection. My computer is giving preference to the 54 mbps connection even though the signal is too low to work. How can I change the settings or preferences on my computer to neglect the 54 mbps signal and connect only to the 11 mbps signal?

Thanks in advance,

MisterW

BiPolar_Nut · #2 01-21-2007, 09:12 PM

set it to only connect to 802.11b?

MisterW · #3 01-21-2007, 10:13 PM

[ QUOTE ]
set it to only connect to 802.11b?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the goal, yes. My question is, how?

BiPolar_Nut · #4 01-21-2007, 10:17 PM

I guess that'd depend on your wireless adapter. It would be something you set in it's settings.

Worst case scenario you can prolly eBay a 802.11b only USB adapter for like $5

edit: that's (802.11b only) USB adapter, not 802.11b (only USB) adapter in case that wasn't clear.

MisterW · #5 01-21-2007, 10:40 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I guess that'd depend on your wireless adapter. It would be something you set in it's settings.

Worst case scenario you can prolly eBay a 802.11b only USB adapter for like $5

edit: that's (802.11b only) USB adapter, not 802.11b (only USB) adapter in case that wasn't clear.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a good point. I'm sure I've got a few 802.11b cards laying around, I was just hoping for a quicker and easier solution. I've surfed through every setting I could find and haven't found a way to throttle down the connection speed. My computer is currently skipping between the two connections, so when it gets too annoying, I'll probably just swap cards.

jjshabado · #6 01-22-2007, 04:51 AM

I'm pretty sure this is a device-dependent problem. I just checked my laptop and if I go into the Device Manager and look at my wireless card advanced settings there is an option "Preferred Band" that I can set to b or g. Thats for an intel wireless card, but I would suspect most other cards will have a similar option.