I've seen the same exact think on my first 3 KN-50 installs. I replaced
the Dell cards all three times with older silvers and the links went from
marginally working to working perfectly.
Karlnet....you got your ears on?
-bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Timothy J. Steele" <tsteele@e-isco.com>
To: <karlnet@wispnotes.com>
Cc: <support@karlnet.com>
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 2:10 PM
Subject: [Karlnet] KN50 Problem with 8.x firmware
> Last month there was a post to a thread from Mark McKibbin (see
> http://lists.wispnotes.com/pipermail/karlnet/2003-October/003153.html
> <http://lists.wispnotes.com/pipermail/karlnet/2003-October/003146.html>
> ) in regards to the KN50 "Blackbird" units. His questions were in
> regards to the poor link quality of the Orinoco Gold cards and other
> cards that have been included with the units. We have been experiencing
> similar problems (our units were purchased with Dell TrueMobile Radios
> (Agere chipset Firmware rev. 8.10.1)). I have been running tests on a
> number of different cards with the KN50. The following are the results:
>
> NOTE: These tests were conducted on live point-to-multipoint
> connections. We used all the same hardware for our testing; the only
> change was the radio card for each test. The KN50 board was classified
> as a SOHO CPE with product v1.00-00-073017. Our average connection
> speed with a 1024k key is around 700-900k. The Base units we used for
> testing are using software versions 4.43 and 4.44. They have a varied
> number of subscribers, from 4 (a new site) up to 50+ (our oldest site).
> On all these tests, the SNR was between 12dB and 18dB upstream to Base
> and 21dB to 30dB downstream from Base.
>
> Dell Radio:
> Chipset: Agere
> Firmware ver.: 8.10.1
> PING test (a standard IP tools PING test from a PC through the Base to
> the CPE (100 packets)): 73% of the packets lost
> Throughput test (5 bandwidth tests from 2wire.com and dslreports.com):
> 278, 112, 245, 237, 298 (speed measured in kilobits)
> NOTE: The packets lost in the PING test are RARELY noted on the client
> side (i.e. surfing the Internet, Web Page comes up unavailable). They
> just notice a significant slowdown.
>
> Orinoco Gold:
> Chipset: Agere
> FW ver: 8.72.1
> PING test: 64% lost
> Throughput: 451, 368, 519, 259, 311
>
> Orinoco Silver:
> Chipset: Agere
> FW ver: 6.6.1
> PING test: 0% lost
> Throughput: 676, 574, 481, 625, 616
>
> Avaya Radio:
> Chipset: Agere
> FW ver: 6.8.1
> PING test: 0% lost
> Throughput: 550, 447, 380, 571, 561
>
> Wave Wireless Radio:
> Chipset: Agere
> FW ver: 6.8.1
> PING test: 1% lost
> Throughput: 515, 660, 674, 553, 622
>
> Demarctech Prism Radio:
> Chipset: Intersil (800C)
> FW ver: 1.3.6
> PING test: 3%
> Throughput 591, 745, 652, 733, 725
>
> At the location where we were doing the final throughput tests, an NDIS
> install in a local server has the following results:
> PING test: 1% lost
> Throughput: 725, 989, 867, 967, 802
>
> I realize that the PING test is hardly conclusive, but it definitely
> coincides with the lower bandwidth connections. Does anyone else have
> similar findings? One other point of note is that the PING test on a
> unit connected to a highly utilized Base has significantly more dropped
> packets on the Dell and Orinoco Gold cards (i.e. The cards are noted
> with a 73% and 64% loss on a Base with 40+ subscribers, these numbers
> drop to 35% and 23% on a Base with 20 or less clients). This would
> indicate Base unit over saturation, but we can connect a standard NDIS
> (radio) client or a KN100 board and the PING tests and throughput tests
> are excellent (0% loss, avg. 880k throughput).
>
> It appears that cards running older versions of firmware (6.x.x) do not
> have the problems that newer firmware (8.x.x) have; at least in regards
> to the KN50. I have upgraded the Orinoco Silver card to v8.7.5 firmware
> and it exhibits the same problems. I downgraded the firmware and the
> problem goes away. Our only option, at this point, is to downgrade the
> firmware on the newer cards or try to find older silver cards with the
> external antenna attachment (seeing as how the new silvers do not have
> them anymore).
>
> I tested the Orinoco Gold and the Dell Radio in a KN100 board with the
> following results:
>
> OG:
> PING test: 0% lost
> Throughput: 714, 784, 987, 966, 908
>
> Dell:
> PING Test: 1% lost
> Throughput: 837, 664, 843, 767, 813
>
> This looks like a problem with the KN50's and newer Agere firmware.
> Anytime you install 8.x firmware on any radio in the KN50, performance
> is significantly reduced and there is a high amount of IP packet
> failure. Our research team would like to know if anyone else concurs
> with these findings and is there a solution in the works. If not, is
> there anymore testing you would like from our end to get this issue
> resolved?
>
>
> Tim Steele & Marcus Rudd
> Wireless Networking Engineers
> e-ISCO Internet
> www.e-isco.com <http://www.e-isco.com/>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Karlnet mailing list
> Karlnet@WISPNotes.com
> http://lists.wispnotes.com/mailman/listinfo/karlnet
>
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