Wireless Problems

espresso

You need to find out if others are using wireless channels close to your channel. Use Netstumbler to find out what channels are in use locally. Interference could also be caused by wireless equipment in your property i.e. cordless phones, video senders etc. If you have these switch them off.

gt568

Ok I've downloaded and run, and it says I'm on channel 10* and lists 2 other networks on channel 1, and I haven't got any other wireless items..

espresso

So it doesn't appear to be caused by local interference. Are you using windows to manage the connection on the laptop or the manufacturers software? Try using the windows software if you are not already. Is it definitely the wireless that keeps dropping i.e. can you ping the IP address of the router when this happens.

gt568

espresso wrote:

So it doesn't appear to be caused by local interference. Are you using windows to manage the connection on the laptop or the manufacturers software? Try using the windows software if you are not already. Is it definitely the wireless that keeps dropping i.e. can you ping the IP address of the router when this happens.

I haven't installed any router software, I just went through its setup, went to it's ip address, then ran network wizard on windows. What do you mean ping the address of the router, do you mean typeing the address into the bar? What tends to happen is I'll click on a link, and the page unavailable screen comes up, then the wireless seems to reconnect, I'll hit refresh and then the page comes up. Hope this makes sense.

espresso

By running the network wizard on Windows you are using windows to manage the connection on the laptop. To ping the router do, Start, Run, Cmd,
then ping 192.168.1.1 where 192.168.1.1 is the IP address of your router i.e. the address that you type into your browser to configure it. Do you only have these problems when using wireless? Have you tried connecting the laptop via an Ethernet cable to see if you still have problems?

gt568

espresso wrote:

By running the network wizard on Windows you are using windows to manage the connection on the laptop. To ping the router do, Start, Run, Cmd,
then ping 192.168.1.1 where 192.168.1.1 is the IP address of your router i.e. the address that you type into your browser to configure it. Do you only have these problems when using wireless? Have you tried connecting the laptop via an Ethernet cable to see if you still have problems?

Ok, so I should try pinging the router when the connection drops off, am I right, I've just pinged it now and it replied, though the connection is up at the minute.

Unfortunately the disconnecting/reconnecting only occurs when wireless, through the ethernet cable it runs fine.

gt568

OK it just dropped off, so I pinged it and it came back destination host unreachable, so I assume it's the wireless dropping off. It pings back fine when its connected.

espresso

gt568 wrote:

Ok, so I should try pinging the router when the connection drops off, am I right, I've just pinged it now and it replied, though the connection is up at the minute.

Unfortunately the disconnecting/reconnecting only occurs when wireless, through the ethernet cable it runs fine.

Yes thats correct. By pinging the router, you are proving the wireless link in the chain which is where your problems seems to be, as it works fine when wired.

gt568

OK as per post 19 above, we've determined it's the wireless link, can you suggest anything I could try now?

espresso

How far away is the laptop from the router? Is there any pattern to these dropouts? i.e. a regular time. It could still be something local causing interference, even if it is not displayed by Netstumbler as that only looks for the 13 channels, can you think of anything else i.e. a neighbour etc?