HTTP pages cut short over wireless connection

[hodg]

I have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router serving three wireless clients - two of which run Windows XP and the third of which (my laptop with a Netgear prism54-based Cardbus wireless card) runs Gentoo and I've been experiencing strange HTTP connection problems on the laptop.

It seems that when I visit certain websites (one example is hotmail.com) the HTTP becomes painfully slow - it feels like I'm using a dial-up connection when the router is actually connected to a 1.5Mbps cable connection to the Internet. Sometimes some webpages will actually only get half-way through before Firefox says 'done' - with the second half of the page missing. Other websites (like gentoo.org) load instantly and at the speed I expect.

This doesn't appear to be a problem with my ISP or the router or the wireless transmission because neither of the Windows XP wireless clients suffer from these problems - hotmail.com loads as fast as gentoo.org does - the speeds are consistent.

I don't think there's a wireless hardware compatibility problem because I've used the WRT54G in combination with my Netgear card in the past and I haven't had any problems.

This problem is incredibly consistent - the same websites which load instantly always load instantly - and the same websites which always load very slowly and are sometimes only partially-complete are always very slow to appear. But none of these problems occur on the Windows clients.

What on earth could be causing this problem? I'm supposed to have a 1.5Mbps connection, which is great - but I can only experience it on certain websites if I use my Gentoo laptop!

All tips and suggestions gratefully received.

hodg

[Squeaker]

Hi

whats the reception on the wireless device like?

I had a similar problem with my prism card when i had rubish reception, some repositioning fixed it.

[hodg]

[hodg]

Could anyone suggest a way that I might be able to further analyse this problem?

Is there a way to easily see what's taking place over the HTTP connection for certain websites - perhaps so I can get some sort of idea of where exactly things are going wrong.

This problem is seriously affecting my ability to use a number of websites but I'm not even sure how to investigate it further.

Thanks.

hodg

[hodg]

I've now identified that this problem is not the wireless connection but must be something in my Gentoo set-up, which is strange because I wasn't having any connection problems a week ago when I was browsing the web on my Gentoo laptop.

I tried connecting my laptop to one of the wireless router's wired ports and I'm still experiencing the same old problem: Some websites work perfectly (gentoo.org, slashdot.org) and others only download partially and very slowly (hotmail.com, broadbandbuyer.co.uk).

What on earth could be causing this strange (and very irritating problem)?

hodg