Belkin wireless router driving me potty!

angelavdavis

I have a Belkin router which has been working no problem.

Connected to this, we have two laptops (+ one work laptop which I use occasionally), two desktops and a wii.

We are using WEP security settings and use windows firewall and have avast antivirus installed on each PC.

The router is located on the second floor of the house and usually the signal on the ground floor is excellent and rarely drops.

This week it has been giving me a lot of issues.

I am finding it is dropping out all the time, or displaying a poor signal. Suddenly it will lose the connection and start searching, but the connection isn't found and usually I try to refresh the networks and can see the whole streets network but not mine! Then out of the blue, it will suddenly connect and allocate a network address - with an excellent signal again!

I cannot see what is the problem. At various times this week I have rebooted the server and even unplugged it and plugged it in again a couple of times but it doesn't make any difference.

I haven't updated any firmware on the router, or any settings. I'm stumped what could be causing this.

Any ideas anyone on what I could look for? Thanks

espresso

Perhaps a neighbour has now got a wireless router and is using the same channel? There are 13 channels to choose from, so try changing the channel to one that is not in use.

Alternatively it may just be that your Bekin is faulty, as they don't have a very good record for reliability!

angelavdavis

Thanks, Have just changed channel - will see how it behaves now!

Simon_M_2

espresso wrote: »

Perhaps a neighbour has now got a wireless router and is using the same channel? There are 13 channels to choose from, so try changing the channel to one that is not in use.

Alternatively it may just be that your Bekin is faulty, as they don't have a very good record for reliability!

Not strictly true, some wireless adaptors don't recognise channel 12 and 13, so your best bet is to select a lower channel. I had service fault today where the wireless was hunting and the signal was poor. Changed it to channel 5, no problems.;)

Leopard

Espresso pointed out a very likely potential cause of the problem and, depending upon your precise piece of Belkin kit, you should indeed have 13 channels from which to choose. Espresso is saying that you need to experiment to discover which one of these (now) works best for you.

Simon_M's own advice is "not strictly true" itself, because some adaptors won't work on Channel 11 either.

I have two Buffalo 802.11b/g adaptors that cannot connect to my 2.4 GHz wireless router at all unless they are set to Channel 10 or below.

Experiment has shown that they work best on Channel 10 itself because lower channels are being hogged by my other devices (including DECT 'phones, weather station sensors, wireless mice, and such like).

Simon_M_2

Leopard, my post is accurate, I was merely pointing out the channels 12 and 13 are rarely recognised, so had the OP tried these channels he may have been unable to connect to his router, which in turn causes more problems

The vast majority of wireless adaptors don't support channels 12 and 13, this is because the US market only supports channels 1-11.

The default channel for the vast majority of routers is 6, with the exception of the BT home hubs which default to channel 1 and then will change to channel 11 if needed.

the following channels do not overlap

1-6-11, 2-7, 3-8, 4-9, 5-10

Basically as long as you have 5 channels between yours and a neighbours device you will have no interference.

Your point about other wireless devices i.e. mice is also incorrect, if your wireless mouse is on the same channel as your router it is the mouse that will malfunction, simple reason is the routers output power is far greater than that of the mouse, most routers have an indoor range of around 30 meters, try using your mouse 30 meters away from your PC


To the OP; if you are still having problems google Netstumbler, install this and it will tell you what wireless networks are in range and what channel they are using, set your router channel 5 channels away from your neighbours router, so if you detect two routers one using channel 1 the other channel 11 set your router to channel 6.

Cheers Simon

signman_2

This also happened to my Belkin. I had to update my firmware, no problems since..

Try http://web.belkin.com/support/

Leopard

Simon_M wrote: »

Leopard, my post is accurate, I was merely pointing out the channels 12 and 13 are rarely recognised, so had the OP tried these channels he may have been unable to connect to his router, which in turn causes more problems

The vast majority of wireless adaptors don't support channels 12 and 13, this is because the US market only supports channels 1-11.

The default channel for the vast majority of routers is 6, with the exception of the BT home hubs which default to channel 1 and then will change to channel 11 if needed.

the following channels do not overlap

1-6-11, 2-7, 3-8, 4-9, 5-10

Basically as long as you have 5 channels between yours and a neighbours device you will have no interference.

Your point about other wireless devices i.e. mice is also incorrect, if your wireless mouse is on the same channel as your router it is the mouse that will malfunction, simple reason is the routers output power is far greater than that of the mouse, most routers have an indoor range of around 30 meters, try using your mouse 30 meters away from your PC


To the OP; if you are still having problems google Netstumbler, install this and it will tell you what wireless networks are in range and what channel they are using, set your router channel 5 channels away from your neighbours router, so if you detect two routers one using channel 1 the other channel 11 set your router to channel 6.

Cheers Simon

Forgive me. Your very sensitive tail was being playfully tweaked.

I'm not incorrect at all about the fact that the two Belkin (Cardbus) adaptors that I have won't work on Channel 11.

So you can forget the subliminal "also" tactic.

And, since the OP writes that she "can see the whole streets network" (sic) - by which one is tempted to infer that she actually means a number of other wireless networks operating in neighbouring properties rather than a single network supplying the rest of the street but from which she is excluded - it may not be possible for her to find a channel that is removed by five from one that is already (now) being used by somebody else within range of her. Particularly if it's being boosted by somebody who discovered that her network was interfering with his.

Hence the advice to experiment and find which particular channel now works best for her in changed circumstances. That is unless, as espresso :A observed, the real problem is that her Belkin device has developed a fault.

You're big on "the vast majority" attitude generally but what you neglect to point out is that if three of her neighbours are already and individually using Channels 1, 6 and 11 she may need, herself, to use a Channel that is a compromise somewhere between them. Hence the need to experiment and find what actually, and however unconventionally, works best for her and her kit.

It's also pertinent to point out that routers do not, as you write loosely, have or use "channels" of wireless.

Nor am I wrong about mice and other devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band muddying the signal on certain channels. And if, moreover, a laptop (of which the OP says she has two) is being used at the limit of a wireless router's range and a wireless mouse is being used right next to the laptop, the ratio of signal strength between that of the wireless router and that of the mouse is greatly different to what it is when the laptop is parked right next to the wireless router.

At the risk of labouring a point made in other threads - and I raise this purely because it is relevant to problems such as these - the advantage of using, say, an Apple computer with an Apple wireless router and an Apple wireless mouse is that they have all been designed to co-exist and work without interfering with each other. It's when you start mixing kit from different manufacturers that problems can arise from this factor alone. (A case in point being that of replacing an Apple Airport 802.11b card, which works on Channel 11, with a Buffalo 802.11b/g CardBus adaptor which doesn't - it took me a while to diagnose that one, a few years ago.)

Generous and caring though it be of you to suggest that I try using my mouse 30 meters away from my PC, I'm not sure where all my neighbours' gas and electricity meters are located. But my router has no wireless channels at all to be interfered with and its indoor (and indeed outdoor) range is dictated by the length of the Cat5e cables connected to it. I can assure you, furthermore, that, at home, where I keep my router, all my Bluetooth mice are indeed located a great deal further than 30 metres away from anything as unwelcome as a PC.

All of which demonstrates the type of problems you get into when you ally "vast majorities" to imprecision of description and bad use of English. It's a combination that causes a lot of problems on here. (Even to those capable of working out for themselves how many combinations of numbers, five apart can be found with the range of 1 to 11 - or 13 - without resorting to a calculator or their fingers and toes.)

The problem that is faced by the OP, however, is with her Belkin device and that is why I pointed out that Channel 11 might not necessarily work for her, either, and that she would thus be wise to experiment with all the 13 channels that espresso :A pointed out are available to her to try.



PS. You may rest assured that I shall not be sending you a PM about this, even if you finally summon the courtesy to reply to the single (conciliatory, extremely polite and genuinely friendly) one that I sent to you a couple of days ago but to which you inexplicably and deviously reacted by performing ablutions in your trousers and opening (of all things!) an entire new thread to imply to others that it was not.

Cheers, Simon! :beer:

langsmith

Mine is on its way back for a replacement. Kept dropping the signal; orange lights of death, some many disconnects during Live chat, they had no option really.
RMA in hand, just need to post.

free4440273

langsmith wrote: »

Mine is on its way back for a replacement. Kept dropping the signal; orange lights of death, some many disconnects during Live chat, they had no option really.
RMA in hand, just need to post.

Life-time warranty with Belkin I believe

espresso

free4440273 wrote: »

Life-time warranty with Belkin I believe

:rotfl:

They need one!