Intermittent loss of wifi

John_Stone

I would appreciate any suggestions to solve the following problem.

I have a couple of computers connecting through wifi to a netgear router. This has worked almost perfectly well for two years.

However recently people in the local area have set up wifis and one of the computers looses its connection on a regular basis.

What happens is that the computer, running MS 2000 prof. with a netgear pc card, looses its connection. When I look at the wifi status it is showing that it is "connected" to some other wifi host. After a rescan I can get it reconnected to the proper wifi host but than it will go again.

My thoughts are that it is radio interference so I changed the channels a couple of times (choosing channels as far away from the neighbouring channels in use) but this does not provide a solution. Regularly it will still try and 'connect' to the wrong wifi host. (All the wifi signals are in the 45-70% range depending on time of day what's been had for breakfast etc.)

Any suggestions? Is there a way of getting the computer to not touch the incorrect wifi with a barge-pole and only try and connect with the wifi with is 'true'?

village_life

there are only a few non-overlapping wireless channels - which one are you using? - i'd recommend 1, 6 or 11

if your neighbours are using wifi, find out what channel they are on and go for a different one - you can use a product such as net-stumbler to do a site survey to find out whats in there.

remember also that microwaves, cordless phones etc will have an impact.

regarding your computers connection, you can configure the network properties "not to connect to non-preferred networks" - open your network properties, right click properties on your wireless connection, select the "wireless networks" tab - remove all the networks other than your own - then click advanced and make sure its not selected to connect to non preferred networks.................

Zahc

Try this;

If you are connecting to a wireless access point you should ensure that your wireless adapter is configured correctly. You can do this by completing the following steps:

Click Start | Control Panel | Network Connections

Right-click your wireless adapter and select Properties.

Click the Wireless Networks tab and then click the Advanced button.

Within the advanced dialog under Networks to access ensure that you have selected the Access point (infrastructure) networks only radio button. Also ensure that the Automatically connect to non-preferred networks checkbox is unticked.

Source; http://www.ryanyounger.plus.com/wireless/article3.htm

Hope it helps

Zahc

village_life wrote:

there are only a few non-overlapping wireless channels - which one are you using? - i'd recommend 1, 6 or 11

if your neighbours are using wifi, find out what channel they are on and go for a different one - you can use a product such as net-stumbler to do a site survey to find out whats in there.

remember also that microwaves, cordless phones etc will have an impact.

regarding your computers connection, you can configure the network properties "not to connect to non-preferred networks" - open your network properties, right click properties on your wireless connection, select the "wireless networks" tab - remove all the networks other than your own - then click advanced and make sure its not selected to connect to non preferred networks.................

Got there before me, two for the price of one!:T

John_Stone

Thanks but I have already changed it to channel 1 the others, 4 of them are using 6 and 11.


As for "configure the network properties "not to connect to non-preferred networks"

I think that this is possible for win xp but doesn't apply to win 2000, where I cannot find any such options.

espresso

John_Stone wrote:

Thanks but I have already changed it to channel 1 the others, 4 of them are using 6 and 11.


As for "configure the network properties "not to connect to non-preferred networks"

I think that this is possible for win xp but doesn't apply to win 2000, where I cannot find any such options.

I doubt if you will unfortunately. The enhanced wireless features can only be added to XP with SP1 as far as I know.

:eek:

albertross_2

Have you patched 2k with https://www.windowsupdate.com, has it got SP4 installed.

Which model of network card are you using, are you using the software that came with it to connect?

Is the router patched with the latest firmware from Netgear?

Are you using encryption?