I have a customer with a pipe-yard that uses Wi-Fi barcode readers. The readers we tested were B/G readers and they worked great, very good for that matter with loud signal strengths well past the yard.
Customer liked the coverage so much they dusted off the old B-only barcode readers. Those devices cant hear any SSID from the 8602s running in b/g mode. When changing several new (current) laptops to B-only, they too could not hear any SSID, or for that matter connect to any AP.
Solution was to put the 8602s into B-only mode. All devices hear the APs now, including old barcode readers and laptops in B-only. The WDS link is B-only now of course.
BTW, the network is a 2-AP (RB112/8602) network using the same SSID, with WEP, to interconnect the APs with WDS. This is due to the size of the yard and warehouse, and the requirement for seamless connectivity across the entire property. Again, coverage in ‘default’ 2.4-B/G mode worked very well with B/G equipment.
Perhaps there is an issue with the ‘yard’ AP which connects as a client to the ‘warehouse’ AP using G in b/g mode.
I would blame the old readers, but the laptop behavior disproves that.
What am I missing? Tried for quite a while to disprove the customer’s contention, but any known good B-only device doesnt hear the APs. NetStumbler shows ‘excellent’ signals in any mode. I should have known that the customer is always right! This setup was sweet until it became a victim of its own success.
Any insight would be appreciated…