Intel 5300 AGN wireless drops connection when remote desktop server
 

As title. Have played with the power settings to no avail.

When it is wired, it connects, but when wireless the wireless card appears to take the initation of RDP as a trigger to disconnect!

Previous wireless g card didn't do this.

I'm no expert, but remote desktop has some major issues with graphics drivers, so it could be related to that, not the cause obviously...

HTH

dunx

There is an option in the tools menu of the Intel wireless Proset network tools to let Windows manage your network connections. Select that option and Remote Desktop should work.

try that and also disable fast switching

I've done both Windows and Intel management, both are flaky. I think the card might be a fake from reading. The latest driver is worse than the one Windows 7 installs automatically. It doesn't wake up after sleep if you have the roaming aggressiveness set higher than 3, but it won't roam or roams to the wrong access port otherwise. A bit of a PITA, might revert to the supplied g card, unless there is another recommended 802.11n mini PCIe half height card.

disable power management on the driver (advanced options on the NIC)

Disable any power save settings on the driver

try removing IPv6 (just untick it) in the network settings

What router are you connecting to and have you tried the wireless card in just G mode

Also do you know if N is 2.4 or 5 ghz ?

What laptop is it in too ?

First two are already done. Will try removing IPv6.

2.4GHz. Dell Studio 1557.

Had some fun getting wake on LAN working on the wired desktops.

N isn't the best on 2.4ghz much much better on 5ghz and then you have MIMO to contend with

A poor wireless router or poor wireless card is generally 10 times better running it on G and forgetting N altogether

IPv6 doesnt generally cause too many problems with Windows 7 and wireless thesedays but it used to be a royal pain on Vista

Incidently what channel are you using? try a channel scan (if using 6) and find a quieter channel (1 or 11)

I'm in the sticks, have checked the channels but the issue still occurs even if I use channels that are well separated, and have stone buildings that 5GHz wouldn't likely work well with. The problem is specific to this card on this computer, other devices work great.

Just posting this the stupid card has decided it prefers another wireless network from the other side of the house that has hardly any signal even though I am sitting 1m from the router. Same SSID, same security, different channels. No other device has this problem. Now at the end of typing it has reverted back to the strong network.

That is a problem in itself John, the same SSID on different Access Points

A wireless device will stay connected to the AP it is connected to until it finally goes out of range, even if you stand under a different AP it will never 'roam' as such

Even expensive managed wireless systems have this problem unless a 'blanket' wireless

The main difference between 5ghz and 2.4ghz is that 5ghz is about 30% less range, athough it largely depends on the wireless manufacturer as some throttle back 2.4ghz so both frequencies give the same range

I would setup 2 seperate SSID's one for each Access Point, it will roam much better then

I wondered about different SSIDs, I'd have to put the passwords into all the devices, but for reliability that is a small price to pay. The frustrating thing is that with 3 access points (will soon need 4 with the extension, so 5GHz might need more), every other device (8 others tested) works well and roams brilliantly and for a few years in the previous house I was using two with the same SSID with no issues. You don't even notice a disruption on streaming. So it is a great method except for this one wireless card.

Im surprised you didn't get a disruption in streaming unless it stayed on the previous access point

Incidently what access points are they?

BT Home Hub 2, BT Home Hub 3, GWART54215 replaced with WR1043ND.

I'm mainly interested in wired performance, and the BT Home Hubs are now only used for internet connection, DHCP and wireless, but the desktop PCs are linked with CAT 6e and gigabit switches.

I still don't get interruptions except for with this Intel 5300 (possibly fake).

Did the laptop come with this wireless card or have you added it separately ?

Have you tried forcing the 5300 to G only ?

The routers you have arent capable of running at 5ghz either which is a shame

Have you tried a different channels ?

A good way of working out if you have the best channels is to use a utility called iperf if you are familiar with dos based commands

In the hundreds of large managed wireless installs you can have seemingly clear air on 1 channel but performance be dire, 1mb, 2mb throughput, change channels and throughput (on G) jumps up to anywhere from 18-22mbps

Some cards are just no good working with some routers too

If you can I would try a different wireless card if none of the above make any difference

Also if you are using WPA-TKIP encryption you will not get better than 54mb connection

Added separately, defeats the object going down to g as I had that before and may just plug the old card back in. Have used Inssider, different channels with nothing else on them. Throughput is good, just the 5300 card is a PITA with it not roaming when it should and roaming when it shouldn't, and won't allow a remote desktop into it, but all these are quite important features. Even if I changed all my routers to 5GHz it is just an experiment that still might not make the 5300 card work, where everything else does on our uncongested 2.4GHz. I'm using WPA2-AES, that was part of getting rid of the old GWART router which was on TKIP.

When I run the Intel utility it will see all three networks and show they are all access points of the same network, on widespread channels and it will roam between them. But still the power to the card is killed when you remote desktop in and on sleeping the laptop the driver won't enable the wireless network again on resume from sleep unless you uninstall the driver.

This 5300=PITA is my conclusion, any sensible half height PCIe alternatives?

4965 ABGN if they do them in half height ?

the newer broadcom ones aren't too bad and normally ship with Dell's

Some Atheros ones are pretty decent too

What about the Dell 1510 (broadcom I think) card it is abgn and those that specify abgn are usually better and are part of the studio line up of approved wireless cards

We always tell our customers to make sure the laptops have the best wireless cards they can get ie usually abgn and 3 x antennas, if possible 3 x 3 mimo too

Ordered a Dell 1520.

How are things now John ? have you tried the new card

Not tried remote desktop into it yet, but otherwise the 1520 is far better behaved. Roaming works like the old g card did, wireless is very quickly available from sleep.