WLAN problems from media PC

General Computing Hardware & Networking
1

So given my current housing issues I’ve had to bastardise my media PC a little and move it to the room I’m currently staying in. As a result currently all the media is on a USB HDD and the PC had no net access at all.

So…becuase it’s a SFF unit and there’s no way I can run a cable I bought one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ASUS-WIRELESS-WIFI-PCI-G31-PCI-LOW-PROFILE-NETWORK-CARD-/200551943420?pt=UK_Computing_Networking_SM&hash=item2eb1d3ccfc

Not going to be streaming over it. IDea was just to get net access so XBMC can update, get fan art, etc.

So card delivered and installed. Didn’t get detected by Win 7 immediately and there were no prompts. Device manager showed unknown device so popped in the driver CD. Installed fine, connected to Sky WLAN fine. Thought all was good.

Try and browse internet. 17mins to load bbc.co.uk, iTunes times out connecting to store, ping time to router 100ms-300ms and dropping ~25% of packets. Basically unusable.

Laptop sat next to the PC connects and works fine so happy the ADSL is ok. Ping times from lappy are also as expected.

So, what next? rip it out and send back? buy usb dongle and try again? Anything to try with Asus card before assigning it to the bin?

cheers

2

Windows firewall blocking access? Other firewall doing the same, or if both switched on, conflicting. Try temporarily turning them off to see if it makes a difference. What happens when you ping bbc.co.uk?

3

had a similar problem on a loft cruncher - the PC body was shielding the antenna and the only position it worked properly was inconvenient so a cheap stand alone antenna sorted the problem.

4

^^this - I had to get an aerial from Maplin, less than a tenner iirc

5

ta - I’ve ordered one from ebay. 99p - it’s bound to work :wink: