There are a couple of adapters available and one is set to "3" for power and every available link in a local Ham Radio/Internet mesh plus other connections show in the available connections list.
The other shows connections within a shorter distance, assuming less reach.
Both operate at 54MB/second (are capable of)
Would reducing the power level in the software controlling the "3" powered adapter reduce the range or would it diminish the download speed?
Lastly where's the power file for this, I find it and then forget where it is?
Last edited by Grumpus on April 2nd, 2019, 5:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
Hi Grumps,
Any specs available for the adapter?
Bit hard to visualize it otherwise....Possibly an image?
Maybe the link to the home page where it resides?
Plus...What exactly do you want to accomplish?
In establishing the wireless link for the laptop and using one of the miniature usb adapters (about the size of the wireless mouse gizmo, someone told me the name and I forgot what it was) the number of connections which show in the wifi networks list was two or three. On the other hand the larger unit Netgear N900 USB adapter, connected to the desktop, shows a dozen+ wifi connections including a ham radio mesh, another mesh used by the local power company and some other mesh. I noticed slow downs when using the larger N900 and am wondering if I can reduce the range which allows the adapter to "see" these other connections. I'm connecting through a MiFi device which is no more than a foot away from either adapter so I don't really need a whole lot of range. A duplicate of the smaller adapter may be still available, rare in this area, but it seemed kind of dopey to dump a perfectly functional unit.
Idea is reduce power, reduce range of the adapter. I did some looking and found a wlan power file [connection] wifi.powersave = 3 when on. Wondering if I make it 1 or 2 it will reduce the range.
This seems somewhat important with a number of people in the area being ham radio/internet connected and some of the advances in the whole house devices.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
Hi Grumps,
Speaking from an electrical point of view...
Reducing the input "power, errr voltage" to any device that has a recommended voltage rating is not the best way.
All you may do is to overheat the internal components, as they do not run at their recommended values.
(I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but I would not recommend doing so.)
Sounds more like you need to attenuate the RF output.
Pity that you don't remember the name of the unit.
Is there anyone in your area that deals with RF stuff?
Might be able to measure the output & reduce it.....somehow.
(T'is a black art & even the "experts" don't understand how it functions, sometimes.)
wifi.powersave controls if the wifi can be shut off when not in use and how quickly it will shut off. It does not reduce operating voltage or range. The device wanting to be controlled is Netgear N900 USB adapter. In Windows, some Netgear usb wireless adapters do have a transmit power setting. https://kb.netgear.com/24903/NETGEAR-US ... d-or-range
Look for tx power or transmit power in your settings, not wifi.powersave. Despite the name tx power it changes both send and receive power.
Some of these other networks may be on a band you are not using, for example 5GHz. If your cellular internet device uses 2.4GHz only, you may be able to set your wireless adapter for 2.4GHz only and all networks that are 5GHz will no longer show.
If none of this is effective, buying another of the very small wireless adapters may be the easiest.
@Limpet235 - What I'm thinking is the routers at the other shown connections are blown out to the max, not including the ham operators connecting to the Internet.
My thoughts are to leave it alone for now.
@kerft - I've gone back to the Netgear site a number of times, the WNDA4100(Netgear N900) is no longer supported. Tried to buy one but no joy.
There's a couple of used ones online for twice as much money as when new and one new one for $169 - new it was around $30. anno 2012.
The unit itself is less than 12 inches from the wireless MiFi unit which receives the wifi signal, like an antennae, from the provider.
Connection shows as solid and full when tested. I'll look for the transmit power setting, which I believe was my goal to begin with, close down the reach of the unit.
It only has to go less than 12 inches.
Here's some realtime specs: Transmission power: 27dBm (501mW); Current Link quality 70; signal noise -25/20020816
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
Did a time consuming deep level search and came up with nothing which would reduce the transmission power.
Usually there would be some form of script or configuration file but it appears to not exist.
Therefore the solution is the smaller usb adapter as kerft suggested .
PS: signal noise changes constantly so that value was more of a snap shot.
Thanks to all.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
A Linux command to change power level is:
iwconfig wlan0 txpower 15
You have to replace wlan0 with the number of your actual wireless. Default power is usually 20, this will reduce your power to 50%. txpower 10 would be 10% of original.
Many wireless adapters will reject this and give an error. It works on some. If it does does help, you can add that command to one of your startup scripts.
Other iwconfig commands can view the current settings and power. https://wiki.debian.org/iwconfig
But since the N900 is not handling the situation well, this is not a guaranteed fix and replacing is probably easiest.
@kerft - Thanks for that. I've done some changes with iwconfig before in order to make things work.
Thanks for the link, it's also on the system as info.
Right now trying to figure out why I'm getting "prisoner dot iana dot org" on the system as it's bogging down the connections.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
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