Do I have bad pixies?

eamon

Hello Folks

In my house I have 1 x laptop & 1 desktop, 1 x cable modem & 1 x router (wired & wireless ability)

Using wired connections for laptop & PC I never have problems connected to the internet (excluding any VM issues). Router is N rated, Laptop G rated

I can go for weeks, nay months and have a stable wireless connection yet on the very odd day the wireless connection to the laptop can be very unstable i.e. limited or no connectivity. Upto now my means for solving this has been to reboot everything. Using the diagnostic tools in Vista is pointless 100% of the time. I've watched the router & modem on occasions and have witnessed flickering lights and have been putting this down to VM issues. The rest of the time all looks fine. The laptop is normally used in my kitchen (its were I smoke, drink beer and listen to music/radio) and signal strength is 3/4 bars and is good. The house is a 1920/30's design & build and I'm not up for structural changes. I've already played with resiting the router (no difference).

What else can I do or am I stuck with bad pixies?

Eamon

chalkie99

Do I have bad pixies?

Is this an elf and safety question?

macman

Homeplugs would be the most reliable method of resolving the problem.
The problem with wireless is that it can be flakey and variable from one day to the next for no obvious reason.
First thing I would do is change the wireless channel- download and use InSSIDer to find one that's not crowded.
This may not work, but if it does it's a free and easy fix.

debitcardmayhem

If the desktop is fabled then change the router to g mode only

fenlander_uk

It's not particularly unusual to have to reboot a router at odd intervals. Some makes/models are notorious - my old Belkin 54G sometimes went happily for three weeks and sometimes needed rebooting 3 times in a day. I then had an Edimax, which never needed rebooting in all the time I had it, and currently a Virgin 'Superhub' which has been totally solid despite its reputation.

It's really down to how much you're bothered by the occasional reboot. If you want to be able to leave your system running unattended for long periods, you need reliabilty. Even so, a new router would probably be cheaper than Homeplugs (nasty things - wires all over the place!:)). Or you could upgrade your VM service and let them give you one - a router, that is (at your own risk!!)