Lenovo wireless and packet loss issue

Wondering if someone might be able to help me out here on a business wireless issue

I work for an IT services company and one of our clients is having an issue at one of their sites. The users do photography at hospitals and then connect wirelessly to the Internet to send the pictures for processing and orders. At one hospital, we shipped out a Lenovo 3000 about two months ago. Although we could get "good" to "excellent" signal strength on the hospitals Nortel network, the computer had very flaky connections. Yahoo messenger would work fine, but sending the photographs off would be painful. In addition, the computer would lose connection and not pick it up again without a manual repair of the network.

We thought it might have been the one computer so we just sent down another Lenovo 3000.

We had problem getting the computer to connect. We finally narrowed the issue down to Windows and Lenovo’s wireless controllers fighting over the wireless connection. As of now, we turned off the Lenovo / Broadcom controller and are letting Windows manage it. So, we do have connection finally. This is a guest network with no security other than a basic NAT firewall so there is no issue with logging on to the wireless network. The hospital has this for patients and visitors can access the internet, but has no connection to the hospitals own secure network.

However, they are losing about 75% packets when they go out on the Internet. Even with Broadcom running things, there was still a similar packet loss issue. The hospital network guru said he had brought in his own HP from home earlier when we were having problems with the first Lenovo. However, he had no problems with packet loss on his HP and he could walk around and the HP would seamlessly hop from access point to access point.

Any ideas or need for more information?

Brian Fink

 

The Broadcom card is the issue. All manufactures who have used that card have had issues. There should have been a BIOS update to address some of the issues, but not all. Call Lenovo and have them transfer you to TVT and ask them if there is a resolution, ie swapping out the card with a different manufacture card.

 

Dear Optomos,

Thanks for the suggestion! I forgot to mention that on the first computer, we actually put in a Linksys PC card, but from the information I have, there were still problems with the wireless system.

Addition: I ran all of the Lenovo updates before shipping it out.

Brian

 

Ive got Lenovo sending out Intel wireless cards. However, my concern is that even with an external PC card, the laptop still has issues. I hate to spend much more time on this if its more than just the Broadcom. I saw that this model has a LOT of complaints about this issue but so far I havent seen anything were swapping out the Broadcom card for an Intel one fixes the problem.

 

Packet loss may not be an issue. I may just be a non response to a beacon broadcast. This is a tecnique used by hackers to get the router to broadcast. Other wise I would look at outside interference, cel phones, .... Do a scan using netstumbler for 10 min at his loaction, and see what show up.

 

Respond back with the results of the Intel card. Use Windows and not Access Connections and update the BIOS. Keep in mind that the intel card works on the 20MHz channel width.