Any wireless wizards out there?
Any wireless wizards out there?
Author
Discussion

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
Got a problem that is driving me nuts!
Got a wireless router that myself, my wife and my daughter all connect wirelessly to - 2 IBM Laptops and a Mac laptop. All fine and dandy up until last week when my laptop would drop the connection; it would come back almost straight away until after a few days I would have to reset the router. Now though my laptop will not connect to it at all, moreover it refuses to even see it when I search.
Both the other laptops connect fine and have good strong signal, mine will connect to wireless networks at work and any BT Openzone network without issue.
I can connect to router via ethernet cable and the config is fine, all 3 machine configured for access with MAC Address filtering. No changes made to any settings prior to failure and running latest firmware. Why should it just stop connecting!!!

munky

5,328 posts

278 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
Anything that could be causing interference nearby? Cordless phones, bluetooth devices, video senders and microwave ovens all cause radio interference on the same frequency (2.4Ghz). You could also try changing the channel number on the router, or positioning it somewhere else, the higher the better. Also try setting it to 802.11b mode... I find WIFI tends to work better at lower speeds if there's interference or range issues

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
Can try those things, have already tried moving the router but to no avail. It won't even pick up the signal with the laptop within feet of it though, and no new interference since the problem started.

fazz81

324 posts

265 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
I had a similar problem, turned out to be power saving built into the Centrino chip interupting the signal.
Try downloading the latest drivers for your wireless chip, or disabling power saving on the chip.

scorp

8,783 posts

259 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
Trying the channel number is a good bet, my wifi went down a while ago because a neighbours router appeared on the same channel (wiping both routers out)..

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
Channel is set to Auto but even changing it didn't make a difference, nor did slowing the router down to a B.

Funnily enough though all of a sudden it appeared it did want to work wirelessly and so here I am cable free again!

Will check powersaving options and te firmware though as I don't expect it to last.

Edited by .Mark on Monday 16th October 17:00

scorp

8,783 posts

259 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
.Mark said:
Channel is set to Auto but even changing it didn't make a difference, nor did slowing the router down to a B.

Funnily enough though all of a sudden it appeared it did want to work wirelessly and so here I am cable free again!

Will check powersaving options and te firmware though as I don't expect it to last.

Edited by .Mark on Monday 16th October 17:00


My second stab-in-the-dark would be the DHCP server... is the router giving out addresses properly? i've had several Wifi routers in past have DHCP servers that break after a few weeks of uptime... That is assuming your wifi'ed devices "obtain address automatically".

munky

5,328 posts

278 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
Could it also be the IP address lease time is set too low? Just a thought.

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Monday 16th October 2006
quotequote all
To be honest guys it could be any of these settings but what really puzzles me is that it has behaved faultlessly for 2 years!
I did think abou the lease times and will check them, and with the IP addresses it always allocates the same one to each machine I think.
Will bear it all in mind but as it's working at the moment I will just ype with crossed fingers!!

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
Well it lasted almost 40 mins before dropping wireless connection again.

I was watching the connection software and the speed dropped and dropped and then it lost contact, then picked it up again before dropping again and loosing contact for good. All this time the Channel ID was changing around, mean anything to you clever guys?

jazzybee

3,056 posts

279 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
Is it a Belkin Router connecting to a cable modem? I have had similar problems, and understand it is fairly common with that combo.

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
It's a 3Com router/modem/access point, also using the built in wireless functionality of my IBM Thinkpad, I begining to suspect my hardware, as wifes IBM Thinkpad and daughters Macbook connect OK.

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
And has suddenly decided to make a connection again!

BliarsGoing

72,863 posts

269 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
.Mark said:
And has suddenly decided to make a connection again!
Try changing the wireless channel on the AP by at least three (A neighbour may have another AP which has been installed recently)

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
BliarsGoing said:
.Mark said:
And has suddenly decided to make a connection again!
Try changing the wireless channel on the AP by at least three (A neighbour may have another AP which has been installed recently)


But if it is set to Auto shouldn't it do it itself?

BliarsGoing

72,863 posts

269 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
*should*

sprintmp

379 posts

314 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
We have T43Ps (amongst others) in the office latest wireless driver (v10) seem to cause problems with the ThinkVantage Access connections software. see this site: htp://forum.thinkpads.com/index.php.

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Tuesday 17th October 2006
quotequote all
sprintmp said:
We have T43Ps (amongst others) in the office latest wireless driver (v10) seem to cause problems with the ThinkVantage Access connections software. see this site: htp://forum.thinkpads.com/index.php.



Cheers, will check it out.

.Mark

Original Poster:

11,104 posts

306 months

Tuesday 31st October 2006
quotequote all
Just an update if anyone cares.
Wireless was working fine for the past week, then wife laptop started dropping offline. Came back from a weeks holiday and mine wouldn't connect, took a look at the router and all the lights were off - dead as a Dodo, guess it was giving me early warning hehe
Anyway, not amused as had 250 odd emails - with all their attachments to down load over dial up! yikes

New router no operational - Phew!