wireless signal always shows 100%

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byron · #1 Post by **byron** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 7:44 pm

i have the 11a/b/g internal card and when looking at the connection status (the AC version... not the windows one) it ALWAYS shows my signal strength as 100%.... i don't recall seeing this prior to v4.xx of access connections.... is there any way to resolve this so i can see an accurate representation of my signal strength?

jongordo8 · #2 Post by **jongordo8** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:17 pm

I have the same card and same issue. I thought I remember reading on here that it may be an issue with the newest access connections.

Does everyone else's access connections function in the same way?

wantathinkpad · #3 Post by **wantathinkpad** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:25 am

yes same here with acces connections 4.01. makes me want to go back to 3.8

noetus · #4 Post by **noetus** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:40 pm

wantathinkpad wrote:yes same here with acces connections 4.01. makes me want to go back to 3.8

Me too, also 100% showing all the time, Access Connections 4.00. I guess we have to wait for a fix from Lenovo?

noetus · #5 Post by **noetus** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:50 pm

Upgraded to Access Connections 4.11a, problem remains!

byron · #6 Post by **byron** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:05 pm

yup. same here.

what wNIC does everyone have? I have the IBM a/b/g.

#7 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:58 pm

I am using 4.11 with the Intel 2200BG adapter (9.0.2.31), and my signal strength indicator varies (EDIT: at my stationary location at home) from 80% to 100% - although I often see it at 100%. No problem here.

noetus · #8 Post by **noetus** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:52 pm

I have IBM a/b/g as well, so maybe the problem's only with that wireless card? Signal will show on the 'finder' info as less than 100% and I assume correctly, but once connected, it sticks at 100%

jmt · #9 Post by **jmt** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:32 pm

GomJabbar wrote:I am using 4.11 with the Intel 2200BG adapter (9.0.2.31), and my signal strength indicator varies (EDIT: at my stationary location at home) from 80% to 100% - although I often see it at 100%. No problem here.

I am using AC 4.11a with Intel 2200BG and 9.0.2.31 driver. Signal strength indicator varies as it should. All works very well no issues.

byron · #10 Post by **byron** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:11 pm

ya.... maybe it is just with the dual band card.

<scratches head>

christopher_wolf · #11 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 5:56 pm

I have the 2915A/B/G and it varies normally; interesting...

Using AC 4.11a

byron · #12 Post by **byron** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:00 pm

christopher_wolf wrote:I have the 2915A/B/G and it varies normally; intersting...

Using AC 4.11a

so yours is the intel dual band.. not the atheros IBM dual band... definitely intereting.

vpn-user · #13 Post by **vpn-user** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:45 am

Still no solution for this? That icon is just useless for now

Seems only the Atheros-based cards are affected. When I click the windows wlan icon, the status indicator fluctuates like it should.

ryan42 · #14 Post by **ryan42** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:26 pm

My meter reads 100%, but if i put my hand over the antenna at the top of the display (Where there is a plastic piece with lines like /////////) it goes down to about 70% and goes back up when I take my hand away. Interesting.

vpn-user · #15 Post by **vpn-user** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:45 pm

Please also post your hardware when you post a statement like this.

ryan42 · #16 Post by **ryan42** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 9:35 pm

That's a 2915A/B/G, sorry.

i think the 100% is unrealistic. I'm getting it maybe 40 ft away. My router is a WRT54G

vpn-user · #17 Post by **vpn-user** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:40 am

I don't think you get 54mbit/s at 100% signal strength so far away from the AP. I am sure it goes down to 11mbit/s or so.

But you' re out of here, I' m (we in this topic) are talking about the Atheros based wifi cards, not the Intel ones!

Tsuioku · #18 Post by **Tsuioku** » Mon May 29, 2006 1:53 pm

11b/g on AC 4.12... still having the same prob... ><

Just feel like using the default windows status window...

vpn-user · #19 Post by **vpn-user** » Mon May 29, 2006 2:22 pm

I called them, I emailed them, I... IBM/Lenovo just does not want any bugreports nor do they care about them. At least not when coming from an enduser

christopher_wolf · #20 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon May 29, 2006 3:49 pm

I haven't encountered this problem (thankfully); I would go so far as to say that IBM/Lenovo might be working on a solution to it and has clocked that at a slow pace as not too many systems are affected by it.

Using the latest version of Access Connections.

turbolium · #21 Post by **turbolium** » Mon May 29, 2006 8:23 pm

AC 4.12 with Intel 2200BG 100% as well just noticed that (((

Tsuioku · #22 Post by **Tsuioku** » Tue May 30, 2006 2:17 am

Just found how you can see the actual(?) reception strength...

When you setup/reconfigure a profile, under Wireless Settings, you can see a button called "Find Network"

By click on that button and checking off the "Show details" box in the window that pops up, you can see your signal strength...

However... i still find the indicated value bloated... but still better than "100%"

Kinda weird how this section can detect the strength yet the icon cannot...

#23 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:22 am

My T42 (Intel 2200 BG card) with the latest IBM INTEL 2200BG driver and Access Connections 4.12 shows varying levels of signal strength. It is not at 100% all the time.

Wiz · #24 Post by **Wiz** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:44 am

This is a issue with some wlan cards and access connections. When using the IBM a/b/g (actually Atheros and not IBM) it will show 100% even if the signal strength is actually lower, but when using the Intel 2200bg the signal strength will vary. The signal strength is shown correctly using other Intel cards as well as far as i'm aware of. This problem been there for a long time and is not related to the latest versions of access connection. When using Intel wlan cards it works fine using access connections 3.x and 4.x. But this is probably the only thing that works better with the Intel wlan cards though. So i would rather live with this issue then all the other problems using the Intel wlan cards.

#25 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:53 am

Wiz wrote:So i would rather live with this issue then all the other problems using the Intel wlan cards.

I have no issues with my Intel 2200BG card. Works fine for me.

Tsuioku · #26 Post by **Tsuioku** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:43 pm

Wiz wrote:...This problem been there for a long time and is not related to the latest versions of access connection. When using Intel wlan cards it works fine using access connections 3.x and 4.x. But this is probably the only thing that works better with the Intel wlan cards though. So i would rather live with this issue then all the other problems using the Intel wlan cards.

I'm pretty sure it's the AC software that's the problem. As I mentioned in my last posting (4 postings up) it is possible to find the actual signal strength (albeit overstated IMO).

When I was running AC 3.30 and Driver v4.1.102.147, everything was still ok

Wiz · #27 Post by **Wiz** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:54 pm

GomJabbar wrote:I have no issues with my Intel 2200BG card. Works fine for me.

Not sure what version of the driver you use, but version 9.0.4.8 and older got at least one known disconnect bug that took a long time for Intel to solve. Now i use 9.0.4.13 with more success, but still very unstable compared to the IBM a/b/g card. I also got a Cisco access point using 802.1x/EAPFAST/WPA2/AES, but have the same problem using other types of 802.1x. I still got some disconnects and the problem usually occur when i transfer a lot of data like copy big files over the wireless network. I don't know if i have this problem using just a static WEP since i don't connect to any wireless networks using just a static wep key. I'm also a consultant working with mostly Cisco products and the company i work for installed a lot of wireless networks for customers. For some reason the clients with most problems use a Intel wlan card in most cases.

So i got pretty bad experience with Intel wlan cards. I guess there are people that is happy with the Intel wlan card as well and maybe it works better with wireless networks using a more simple type of security then 802.1x/EAP.

Wiz · #28 Post by **Wiz** » Tue May 30, 2006 8:10 pm

Tsuioku wrote: I'm pretty sure it's the AC software that's the problem. As I mentioned in my last posting (4 postings up) it is possible to find the actual signal strength (albeit overstated IMO).
When I was running AC 3.30 and Driver v4.1.102.147, everything was still ok

Well maybe you are right that the signal strength been working with earlier versions of AC and the driver. Cannot say for sure that it's been like this forever since i have not used all versions of ac, but the problem been there for pretty long now and i know i had this problem with a 3.x version of AC as well. When doing a search for wireless networks using the "Find Network" button i never had any problems to see the correct signal strength and when i was talking about this being a known problem i was actually referring to the icon in systray and under "View status" and not the signal strength under "find network". I never said that it wasn't possible to see the signal strength......just that it's not shown correctly everywhere when using the IBM wlan card.

Tsuioku · #29 Post by **Tsuioku** » Tue May 30, 2006 8:37 pm

Wiz wrote:Well maybe you are right that the signal strength been working with earlier versions of AC and the driver. Cannot say for sure that it's been like this forever since i have not used all versions of ac, but the problem been there for pretty long now and i know i had this problem with a 3.x version of AC as well. When doing a search for wireless networks using the "Find Network" button i never had any problems to see the correct signal strength and when i was talking about this being a known problem i was actually referring to the icon in systray and under "View status" and not the signal strength under "find network". I never said that it wasn't possible to see the signal strength......just that it's not shown correctly everywhere when using the IBM wlan card.

Misinterpretation of your the phrase "This problem been there for a long time and is not related to the latest versions of access connection."
To me, I thought you said that the problem is not due to AC... I'm guessing you meant the problem is not only present in the latest versions of AC.. but some earlier ones too..

I just don't get why they can't get the system tray to display correctly if the proper signal strength can be found in another part of the same program.

#30 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue May 30, 2006 8:46 pm

Wiz wrote:When doing a search for wireless networks using the "Find Network" button i never had any problems to see the correct signal strength and when i was talking about this being a known problem i was actually referring to the icon in systray and under "View status" and not the signal strength under "find network". I never said that it wasn't possible to see the signal strength......just that it's not shown correctly everywhere when using the IBM wlan card.

FTR I am using the Intel 2200BG card with driver 9.0.4.8, and Access Connections 4.12.

I am a little confused by your post above. The Access Connections icon in the notification area looks somewhat like a TV or display sitting on top of an inverted T. To see the signal strength I double-click on the icon and Access Connections opens. The signal strength is displayed right there. I don't see any "View status" or "find network" text displayed. Perhaps you have Windows or Intel PROSet controlling your connection? Maybe this is why some of us are reporting that signal strength is not constantly 100%.

wireless signal always shows 100%

wireless signal always shows 100%

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