Internet connection trouble

ryandj

Hi, I wonder if any of the nice people here can help? I have two laptops in my house which connects to the internet wirelessly. One of them works fine without any trouble. The other, this one, keeps losing the internet connection but I cannot figure out why or how.

I am on Windows Vista, Toshiba Equium laptop. When the connection goes, the icon in the system tray shows that the computer is connected to the modem and to TalkTalk (my ISP). But I cannot connect to any web pages either via firefox or IE.

THis is the message that FF gives me...

Failed to Connect
The connection was refused when attempting to contact mail.lycos.com.

Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection.

* Could the site be temporarily unavailable? Try again later.
* Are you unable to browse other sites? Check the computer's network connection.
* Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing

I tried to switch off the firewall (zonealarm) but that made no difference.

IE says:

"mail.lycos.com" is not set up to establish a connection on port "World Wide Web Service (HTTP)" with this computer

It happens with any website (not just lycos mail) and seems to occur around an hour or so into a session. This is pretty frustrating at the moment, and the only way to solve it is to reboot the laptop and start again! Then the problem comes back an hour or so later. I am working from home this week and accessing my work email via webmail so it is really inconvenient!

Any advice/ help would be really appreciated!

Jaffa.

What sort of security do you have set up on your routers wireless? e.g. wep/wpa/wpa2

aliEnRIK

I had the exact same problem using zonealarm. Id suggest uninstalling it

ryandj

I have just gone into my "Wireless network connection" properties and it shows this on the security tab:

Security type: No authentication (open)
Encryption type: WEP
Key index: 1

On the connection tab it says:

Connect automatically when this network is in range
connect to a more preferred network if available
connect even if the network is not broadcasting

all 3 are ticked

ryandj

aliEnRIK wrote: »

I had the exact same problem using zonealarm. Id suggest uninstalling it

Did removing ZA fix your problem?

What firewall do you use now?

Jaffa.

ryandj wrote: »

I have just gone into my "Wireless network connection" properties and it shows this on the security tab:

Security type: No authentication (open)
Encryption type: WEP
Key index: 1

On the connection tab it says:

Connect automatically when this network is in range
connect to a more preferred network if available
connect even if the network is not broadcasting

all 3 are ticked

Okay. you need security on your wireless otherwise your leaving yourself open to all sorts of security threats by giving anyone who connects to your network access to your computer. (I highly recommend setting it to wpa) This can also make the signal to the computer more stable and possible fixing the problem.

You will have to re configure all computers to connect to your network using the password you set for the wireless by searching for wireless networks and then entering the password.

Tell us how it goes

ryandj

Thanks Jaffa, that is very usfeul. Just to check that I know what I am doing...

I have a choice of security of WPA or WPA-2 either personal or enterprise... or 802.1x. There is also a password (or some blanked out characters) shown in the box here.

So, I guess I set it to WPA(-2) Personal and then choose a password and enter it in the box there? Do I have to change the password on my wireless router as well (that will involve a trip to the loft to get the instructions book, handily filed away).

ryandj

Also once I choose WPA, I get a choice of encryption types.. AES or TKIP - is there any preference between these? Sorry for so many questions, and thanks for your help!

Jaffa.

You want WPA-PSK and yes, enter your desired password into the box below (normally it would say something like "Pre-Shared Key" next to the box) I say use WPA and not WPA2 because it's just more compatible (so i've found with vista anyway) and use TKIP, again it's more compatiable.

The WPA-Enterprise option requires an external RADIUS server... you dont want that :P

Jaffa.

You can change the password on the router it's self if you want, you don't have to though, it's totally up to you (it only puts a password on the settings of the router so you have to be on the network all ready to access thoes)

ryandj

Jaffa. wrote: »

You want WPA-PSK and yes, enter your desired password into the box below (normally it would say something like "Pre-Shared Key" next to the box) I say use WPA and not WPA2 because it's just more compatible (so i've found with vista anyway) and use TKIP, again it's more compatiable.

The WPA-Enterprise option requires an external RADIUS server... you dont want that :P

Thanks for your help!
I changed to WPA personal, with TKIP.

Now when I try and connect to the network, I get a message saying something like "The settings on your computer do not match the settings of the wireless network" so I have changed back to WEP for the moment - not sure what I did wrong there? Are you sure there are no settings I need to change on the router?