Wireless AP placement?

I've been having problems with my laptop loosing connection with my AP. The distance between the two is less than 20' with a clear line of sight. The thing is, it and the cable modem are setting on the floor near the wall. Its a concrete floor.

Is this a less than optimum placment, setting on the floor?

For what its worth it's a linksys wrt54gs running Satori 4.0 firmware. The laptop has an intel pro/wireless 2200bg setup.

If they're really 20 feet apart, I'd suspect interference before I suspected antena placement problems. Are you using a 2.4ghz cordless phone? The microwave? Are your neighbors? Changing the channel might help, and switching to 802.11a will really help.

Matthew

Try moving the AP 3" closer or further away from the wall, just in case it's a victim of Raleigh fading from wall reflections.

Cheers

I haven't been able to find a phone in use coincedent with the laptop's fuzzing out. There is a neighbour with a Belkin54g that I sometimes see listed, but it's a really low signal. I've switched channels away from him. I'm now on 11. Could it be that his ap is bouncing around the spectrum and only sometimes causing interference?

I suspect the Belkin is running out of the box settings, without any security. Mine's about as tightly locked down as I know to make it. (wep and mac filtering both on)

In addition to Mark's advice, try lowering the output power. It can help at close range.

Well It's off the floor now, about 4ft up and a foot from the wall. Things seem to be better. It's definatly related to the times I see the Belkin appear in the wireless networks paine.

O.T. comment. I realize saying strange and Windows in the same sentence is redundant, but I find it strange that Windows announces when it reaquires a wireless connection but not when it looses one.