Repairing a wireless router?

onejontwo

Is there any way of checking and repairing a wireless router or is it one of those throw away items? The reason I ask is that we are on Virgin broadband with my PC and my daughters laptop, now every thing seems fine with the PC but with the laptop it seems to lose the internet every now and again but within the last few days more often.
The wireless router is a BELKIN G and it's worked fine for the past 18 months so I don't want to buy a new one if it's not the router or if it's a simple reset to fix it. Thanks in anticipation.

poppellerant

Who supplied the router? If Virgin, then get them to send a replacement - and you will more than likely end up with a SuperHub, which aren't too bad now,

If the router is your own, and you have a seperate cable modem, I'd be tempted to tell them the modem won't power on - this should prompt them to send a PSU out, but because you have an obsolete modem they will hopefully send you a SuperHub!

Money saved, rather than splashing out £30 on a router.

onejontwo

poppellerant wrote: »

Who supplied the router? If Virgin, then get them to send a replacement - and you will more than likely end up with a SuperHub, which aren't too bad now,

If the router is your own, and you have a seperate cable modem, I'd be tempted to tell them the modem won't power on - this should prompt them to send a PSU out, but because you have an obsolete modem they will hopefully send you a SuperHub!

Money saved, rather than splashing out £30 on a router.

Thanks for that popellerant, one thing I'm not to clear about is that is the superhub you mentioned a combined modem and wireless router? and what is a PSU? By the way it was my own router as at the time of asking Virgin for one they declined a free one and said they would charge he for one. It was only after I found out that it was possible to get one for free!

debitcardmayhem

Download inssider and check if there are neighbours using the same channel as you

onejontwo

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Download inssider and check if there are neighbours using the same channel as you

Thanks but I wouldn't really know what to do with the info when I received it!

poppellerant

onejontwo wrote: »

Thanks for that popellerant, one thing I'm not to clear about is that is the superhub you mentioned a combined modem and wireless router? and what is a PSU? By the way it was my own router as at the time of asking Virgin for one they declined a free one and said they would charge he for one. It was only after I found out that it was possible to get one for free!

Ah, PSU stands for Power Supply Unit - I should have just said the transformer.

The SuperHub has the modem and router combined. So you might save a fraction on your electricity bill, as you will only need to have one transformer plugged in.

I do know Virgin are converting those with the old cable modems over to SuperHubs - so really, you're just speeding the process up.

GetRealBabe

onejontwo wrote: »

Thanks but I wouldn't really know what to do with the info when I received it!

Hi

Just downloaded.

Noticed myself and neighbours are all on channel 6. Have changed to another channel and will see how I get on.

What channel are you and others near you using?

John_Gray

I hope you chose either channel 1 or channel 11; the use of other channels will overlap to a greater or lesser extent with channel 6.

GetRealBabe

John_Gray wrote: »

I hope you chose either channel 1 or channel 11; the use of other channels will overlap to a greater or lesser extent with channel 6.

Hi

Changed to Channel 1.

debitcardmayhem

onejontwo wrote: »

Thanks but I wouldn't really know what to do with the info when I received it!

GetRealBabe wrote: »

Hi

Just downloaded.

Noticed myself and neighbours are all on channel 6. Have changed to another channel and will see how I get on.

What channel are you and others near you using?

GetRealBabe has sussed hers/his , just run it on the wireless laptop and see what is on the channels in the graph, yours will be one of them and if there are others using the same channel then change your belkin to use a less congested one (preferably 1 or 6 or 11) The graph will show you the relative strengths of the other routers nearby. That may not be your problem but at least it is a place to start.

jakirk

A while back I was having problems with my separate router and modem, I suggested overheating might be the cause what is the cure and posted on the VirginMedia forums all about my problems.

4 days later a new combined modem/router was delivered and I hadn't even posted my name or address.

Spooky!

You could try that route.