Wireless working fine one day, then not.

choccyface2006

Hi,

Last week I set up a wireless network for my parents and all seemed well.

They have an XP pc and a Vista laptop. I made a wired connection with the pc and the router and got the laptop working wirelessly on the same network.

At first it was fine then my dad said neither computer would connect to the internet. I went round, turned the router off at the wall for a few mins and restored the computer back to when it was working fine. This worked and it was ok for a couple of days.

Now it is doing it again, when I try to go online I get a message to say that it will see the best way of connecting to the internet and gives options, dial up or broadband, but it still won't work. The wireless network dissapears from available networks list on the laptop.

I can probably restore it again and get it going but I need to know why it keeps failing after working just great. My dad is totally fed up with it and so am I!

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks!!

Sarah

superscaper

Try changing the channel on the router. This weekend our wireless stopped working for everyone so there must have been interference from other wifi networks and was solved by changing the channel.

Wombat

Is this a BT Home Hub?

If so, you can get this for a few days while it "finds the best route to connect to the Internet". That's what BT say, anyway.

You can only turn the router off and then on again until the PC reconnects or BT's equipment decides it's found the "best route".

choccyface2006

Thanks, its not a BT router but a Netgear. Do I change the channel in the router config (192.168.0.1)?

Thanks!

MercilessKiller

192.168.0.1 is the ip address of the router

The channel would be something like 2.4ghz and can be changed in the router config yes

superscaper

Actually it's all 2.4 GHz. The channel will be a drop down list from something like 1 to 13 in the wireless settings.

Wombat

If you go to https://www.routerlogin.net on your main PC and log in with your username and password (admin and password are the defaults if you haven't reset them), click on Wireless Settings in the left menu, then you can change the channel on that screen and click Apply.

choccyface2006

Thank you both, I will try this later and keep my fingers crossed. Thinking about it, when I set up my friends router I did change the channel and she has not had any problems, I didn't change it this time as it worked straight away. I will do so now though!

Can I just ask though, why would it work for a couple of days then not work? I know there were other wireless networks in the vicinity so maybe there were conflicts?

Sarah

Sarah

Wombat

Just one idea, but maybe your neighbour with the conflicting wireless system only connects every couple of days.

choccyface2006

Yes I hope so and this will solve the problem.

espresso

Did you set up WPA-PSK encryption to secure the wireless network? Did you ensure that "connect when this network is in range" is checked on the PC's?