29.01.2008 г.

Wireless problem: Losing connection and poor performance

Exploring the Microsoft support site I found something interesting about the wireless power options. There is a mechanism for saving your notebook battery when using wireless. This works only if the WLAN router is compatible with the 802.11 power save protocol. The idea is that when permanently connected through wireless adapter there is a constant communication between the adapter and the WLAN router which uses some power. The power saver mode offers an interesting algoritm. The adapter periodically sleeps and wakes and before entering in one of these modes it tells the router so. The router knowing that adapter is temporary not responsible starts to cache the packages for it and after adapter wakes up router sends it all the cached packages.

How can you change wireless power mode to make it work as you like?

Enter Power Options. The quickest way to me is through the Vista instant search from the start menu.
After entering Power Options choose the power option you would like to change and click on "Change plan settings". Then choose "Change advanced power settings" and expand the "Wireless Adapter Settings" node. Expand the "Power saving mode" and choose what is suitable for you.



The mode that will end your wireless connectivity and performance problems is "Maximum performance".

Here is some extra information.

Windows Vista wake up problem

According to Microsoft the problem comes from some USB devices. In my case that device was my mouse.
The workaround is:
Start -> Control Panel -> Device Manager.
Then find the suspicious device and right click -> Properties.



And then:

Windows Vista is like an desease :)

It's been a while (6 months) since I bought myself a notebook and I installed Vista Ultimate on it. I remember the first 4-5 days. It was a shock for me.
Vista was much clumsier than XP. The file transfer operations were (and still are) a nightmare as performance. I was frustrated how Vista was sucking out my dual core CPU's power. I hated the "stunning" aero from first view. The worst was that when my notebook was going to sleep or hibernate mode there was no way to wake him up. I tried to get rid of Vista. It was too much for me. But I couldn't, cause the only boot up CD that I had didn't helped me. It said something like "Can't find your hard disk" when i booted from it.Later I learned why :). So I did final attempts to solve the wake up problem and luckily I did. From that moment I started to adjust myself to Vista and now there are only few annoying things left to be fixed.
So in my case Vista was like a desease. I tried to heal myself, but then I got immunity and now I use it and have no big problems with it.

Problem with Microsoft IE7:

From some time I had an itchy problem with IE7. The problem is the same i guess with IE6 and no mather on which OS it runs. Some days ago I had opened a dozen of IE windows. They grouped and when I rightclicked the group I chose the "Show windows stacked" or something like that. I'm running Vista btw, although this is not important in that case. So the windows rearranged to fit in my display space. After that I realised the shit I've made. After that everytime I was opening link in new window it opened in small window. The problem is that IE remembers the size of the last closed window. I guessed that I would find and option that says something like:
"Open new windows :" and a dropdown with some options like - normal, windowed, full screen, but I didn't. Then I explored the registry and I guess I found something here (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Document Windows) but I was frustrated of the idea to do this every time I needed.

Then I found this which worked for me.

The idea is that you should open IE window and maximize it manually (without using the maximize button). Then right click on a link and choose "Open link in new window". Do the same maximizing procedure with the second window. Then close the first one and after that the second one.

This will keep the two sizes as you've made them.

Frankly said I'm a keen Microsoft technologies user and I like MS very much, but this sux. I hope MS will put more options for the next release of IE or some patches.
I hate that even with this workaround I still have to click the maximize button on new windows, cause I like my browser maximized. And when I manually stretch the window it is still not maximized. This is ridiculous.