[MLB-WIRELESS] DLink 900+ speed problems in bridge mode (and link up!)

[David Ng]

Me, my twin brother nuge (allan) and a mate (pascal/bugger) finally got our
wireless network going!

The link is across 2.5Km of air between me+nuges (we're twins remember!)
house and pascals house.
Its only in testing mode at the moment, we got some stuff we need to iron
out.

Cost of parts required:
DLink DWL-900AP+ 802.11b Wireless Access Point $265 (CPL)
18.8dBi Hills 2.4GHz Parabolic Grid Antenna $110 (thanks simon @
melbwireless)
5m LMR-400 cable $free (from my mate marty, thanks man!)
N-connector $4.50 (dick smith)
RP-SMA to N pigtail $37 (kudos vak @ melbwireless)

So thats a total of $416.50 each side.
The 2 APs are running in bridge mode, with 64-bit WEP enabled.

small page here (with pictures):
wifi.nudgeee.net

The problem is, we initially tested the DLink DWL-900AP+ AP's (fw v2.5) with
them sitting about 5 meters apart (with thier inbuilt antennas), and the max
they could talk to each other was at 5.5mbit. We tried changing modes (AP,
client, bridge), disabling WEP, changing channels, etc, but they don't seem
to connect at 22, let alone 11mbit. We connected them to our antennas
anyway, but they still only connect at 5.5mbits. We have clear LoS and a
pretty good fresnel zone. Its at 5.5mbits rock solid, but as soon as we
switch up to 22, theres alot of packet loss and dropouts (seems like theyre
having troubles negotiating at 11 and 22 and are dropping back to 5.5).

We put the link up regardless becuse we wanted to get it up and running, and
we've dragged it out pretty long already (and besides, uni's started!).

I've posted this issue on a forum, and it was mentioned that someone on
melbourne wireless had come across the 5.5mbit/s problem before.  Can anyone
explain?

Thanks,
David Ng (nudge).
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