Hello guys

I installed a Mt server with an atheros 5211 chipset wireless card. Celeron 2.4Ghz, 2.56mb ram, 40gb HD, it has a 15dbi omni antenna, and I have about 35 clients connect to this AP, this clients have different wireless cards and other has linksys wap54g in client mode, they are working in different modes (802.11 b and 802.11g), the signal strength goes from -60 to -80 dbm for this different clients and it stays stable all the time (+ - 4dbm). I can use the ping speed tool with most of the clients and I can get speeds that goes from 5mbps to 24mbps. In good conditions the total internet traffic is about 1 mbps in tx and 200 kbps in rx (local interface) and about 120 pps in tx and rx with 180ms time in ping tests.

The problem that I have is that at some time of the day (different hours), mostly at nights the speed drops down, and using the ping speed tool I can get only about 200kbps from the server to the clients and the internet traffic drops to about 300kbps. The pps are normal to the speed delivered and the cpu usage is about 4-6%. Some times the connected clients is less that at other time that the system is working better and delivering higher speeds. The ping times goes to 500-800 ms.

I tried different channels to avoid any interference and moved the antenna to a different location (about 450 feets) without success.

Does anybody has idea about what is going on?

I am thinking that the wireless card could be the problem, it is an unknown brand but it has the atheros 5211 chipset, I bought this card new for about $35 USD in Mexico so I think it is a very cheap card. Do you think that if I change to a good card the problem could be solve? (senao, ubiquity, mikrotik). Which do you suggest me?

Does anybody know where can I buy in Mexico a good wireless card?


Thanks