[Meredia]

Okay, where to start... To be honest, I don't know much of anything about what I'm doing with this, so if you need more information, feel free to let me know and I'll provide it.

Operating system is Windows XP. The computer in question is a Gateway GM5084. It runs with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 4200+, 2 GB RAM. Blah.

The issue here though is between two pieces of hardware. The D-Link Router and the Linksys wireless card seem to be having some conflict, or more likely the router is too far away from the wireless card. Randomly the link quality and strength will drop, with my speed along to it, down to almost nothing with dropped connectivity. It will pop back to full 54.0 mbps, then drop again, then go up again, then drop again... So on. It's very annoying.

So here's the stats on the stuff -
D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router (Revision A)

Linksys Wireless-G PCI Adapter (Version 4.1)

All drivers/firmware are current. The router is one floor down from the desktop, but the strength of the SSID is around 79-85% pretty much constantly. I use channel 11, and followed the advice of the forum question on the wireless card's support page and set the TX to 54 instead of automatic, but I haven't seen a change.

When the signal works, it works pretty well. Right now I'm reading -54 dBm signal strength and a noise level of -79 dBm, Windows is calling the strength "excellent," and the router is at full power.

Is this a problem with the signal, router, card..? I don't have any idea. That's all the information I have.

Thanks in advance for any help. Feel free to mock me, too. This problem is driving me crazy!

Edit: I did the math and a little research to get a better idea of the actual "signal strength" based on the numbers.
Signal - Noise = SNR (-54) - (-79) = 25
Signal/Noise * SNR = Signal Quality (-54)/(-79) * 25 = 17 (ish). Is a 17 good? I'm reading 14 is acceptable... But I have no idea.

[SmallNetBuilder]

No need for mocking!

Could be an interference problem. But first set the wireless card back to its defaults (don't force a connect rate).
Can you see any other networks from the wireless client?
Are you using a 2.4 GHz cordless phone or microwave oven?

[JohnWill]

Sounds like interference to me, try changing the channel to a different channel.

[Meredia]

Yeah, I tried restoration to all default settings over both pieces of hardware to no avail. The computer and the wireless router in question are not in the proximity of any other 2.4 GHz devices. We use 5.8 GHz cordless phones to prevent interference. I have also changed the channels before, trying the general ones and some specific ones just as a nutty impulse. I stuck with 11, though 6 was the default.

As for other networks, no, not really. 98% of the time, it's just me within range. The other 2% of the time are from some manner of random person driving by (I believe), which my computer doesn't even bother trying to connect to and mostly laughs at. It has no correlation I can see with the drops.

There are 4 computers connected to the router, 3 wired, 1 wireless. They don't ever dent the bandwith allocations we have for the ISP. Even sharing/using/moving big files over the local network seems to have no bearing on this.

As an update, I've bought an antenna as per the suggestion of the page I looked up all those fancy equations on. I just looked in on it, and it was having the same fluctuations. The receive rate sits at 54, the transmit rate goofs. I looked it up while I was typing this out and tried the solution here as well.

So far, the transmit rate is still twitchy - it drops to 36, then back to 48, holds at 54, then occasionally repeats. I'm not seeing the same drastic drops, though.

[SmallNetBuilder]

Could be the 5.8GHz phone. Some models use both 5.8 and 2.4GHz bands. The only "safe" (in terms of not interfering with Wi-Fi Networks) are old 900 MHz models and the newest DECT 6.0 phones.

The other possibility is that the Linksys card, which uses a Broadcom chipset, doesn't like the router trying to use Super-G throughput expansion. Go to the router's wireless settings and set it to use plain 802.11g or b/g, i.e. no Super G. Also go to the Advanced Wireless settings and disable any throughput enhancing options you see there.

[Meredia]

Your second solution there sounds viable! The phones are most likely not the cause, since this occurred before we got the 5.8 GHz and had, in fact, the 900 MHz models.

I can't find a way to just turn "off" the Super-G. I see a mode setting which will let me use G only or mixed mode. I provided a screen shot, which incidentally lists all the other specifics of my router's performance settings.

Let me know if this helps.

[SmallNetBuilder]

Try the G mode and change the Tx rate back to Auto. What are the mode options in the Basic Wireless settings?

[Meredia]

Set to G mode, and TX is back at auto. So far the connection's sat at 48/54 Mbps, but the problem tends to pop up randomly. In the meantime, here are the basic wireless settings.

[SmallNetBuilder]

Thanks for the basic settings. As you said, there is nothing there to adjust that will help.

I think that's about all that can be done.