2. Test Setup

I started out with a simple test two-WLAN setup, figuring that I could always make it more complicated if I needed to (Figure 3). I used two Linksys WRT54G routers configured as access points (see this link for a quick how-to). Using them as access points ensured that I wouldn't encounter any of the routing problems that the v5 router has. Plus, the lack of NAT firewalls made it easy for the IxChariot console to control everything.

Figure 3: Test setup configuration

I mixed things up a bit on the client side because I didn't have two WPC54G notebook cards. So the "Neighbor" client used the Gigabyte GN-WPEAG mini-PCI card that I had added to my Fujitsu S2020 Lifebook awhile back. The Gigabyte card uses an Atheros Super-G chipset, which had no problem working with the Broadcom-based radios in the Linksys routers. The "Home" client is my trusty Dell 4100 Inspiron with 1 GHz Celeron and 576 MB of RAM, running Windows XP Home SP2.

To simulate the worst case of two WLANs on the same channel, both routers were set to Channel 6. I left all the other settings at their defaults (Figure 4) and no encryption was used.

Figure 4: Wireless settings for Linksys WRT54G's

To put a little distance between me and my potentially interfering WLAN, I set up the "Neighbor" WLAN as shown in Figure 5. The walls are 2x4 sheetrock with no ducting or metallized insulation in them. This setup attenuated the "Neighbor" WLAN's signal somewhat, but the "Home" client still reported an "excellent" signal when I temporarily connected it to the "Neighbor" WLAN AP.

Figure 5: Test area floor plan