Brcm_test_ssid???

DaveAshton

Can anyone shed some light on what BRCM_TEST_SSID is? Our router's been having wireless connection problems lately (mostly involving the signal suddenly disappearing), and this morning it was showing as one of the networks my laptop could connect to after one of these errors.

Any help appreciated.

espresso

DaveAshton wrote: »

Can anyone shed some light on what BRCM_TEST_SSID is? Our router's been having wireless connection problems lately (mostly involving the signal suddenly disappearing), and this morning it was showing as one of the networks my laptop could connect to after one of these errors.

Any help appreciated.

I just sounds like another local wireless network. If you use Netstumbler here you should be able to do a site survey and 'see' all local wireless networks and what wireless channel they are using. If another newtork has recently appeared locally, you may now need to change your wireless channel to avoid interference.

DaveAshton

espresso wrote: »

I just sounds like another local wireless network. If you use Netstumbler here you should be able to do a site survey and 'see' all local wireless networks and what wireless channel they are using. If another newtork has recently appeared locally, you may now need to change your wireless channel to avoid interference.

I was thinking that it might be someone else's network, but I don't think it can be. The walls in the house are pretty much solid stone, and next door is both on holiday and doesn't have an internet connection.

Also, it only appears while the usual Thomson connection's not broadcasting, so I'm wondering if it could be some kind of diagnostic tool built into the router that's gone a bit... wrong.

I tried the Netstumbler thingy, but I don't really understand how it works (or, it's not finding anything). It just says No APs Active at the bottom

espresso

DaveAshton wrote: »

Also, it only appears while the usual Thomson connection's not broadcasting, so I'm wondering if it could be some kind of diagnostic tool built into the router that's gone a bit... wrong.

Have you tried powering down the router for a minute?

DaveAshton

espresso wrote: »

Have you tried powering down the router for a minute?

I've tried restarting it a couple of days ago (yep, the old turn it off and on again trick ), didn't make much difference to the connection problems.

I'm going to try it in a different wall socket soon, in case it's cutting out because the electric supply to it keeps stopping for some reason (very old house with old wiring combined with a tendency for damp on the walls...). I'll leave it unplugged for a minute or two then, and see what happens.

aliEnRIK

I must admit that when I tried 'netstumbler', I couldnt get it to work either

kwikbreaks

Netstumbler doesn't work with all WiFi adaptors.

I doubt it would help anyway as hunting around on google shows that this is not a "real" SSID it only crops up when there are problems and it seems nobody can connect to it. Unfortunately it isn't obvious to me whether it is a phantom created by the router (so is a real to some extent) or by the wifi card driver. The only thing I can guess at is that BRCM is a shortened form of Broadcom who make lots of WiFi chipsets so ifthe router is Brodcom based but the adaptor isn't is suggest the problem lies with the router and vice versa. Having another WiFi enabled PC to test with would offer a big advantage in working out which side of the link is having problems.

DaveAshton

The problem's definitely with the router, my faincee's laptop goes offline at the same time.

It does seem to be having power issues, so maybe the Test thingy is to do with it turning on, and broadcasting a frequency to itself to make sure everything's working??? Saying that, it didn't broadcast the Test when I manually rebooted it, it only appeared this morning after turning itself off and on again (according to the router diagnostic page's Time Since Power On statistic)

[Deleted User]

Is it still within warranty? Sounds like it's on it's way out.

I'd recommend getting a Netgear DG834G - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-DG834G-54Mbps-Wireless-Firewall/dp/B0000TZ8Z8

kwikbreaks

Are you running torrents or similar on it? Some routers can't handle the high number of connections p2p programs use and screw up (usually by hanging though).

John_Gray

DaveAshton wrote: »

Can anyone shed some light on what BRCM_TEST_SSID is?

A quick Google shows two hits before the one for this thread!