Wireless Signal Keeps dropping with WPA

We have 3 laptops, and 3 mobile phones in the house. Wireless works fine for everything EXCEPT my wife's laptop. She has had it for about a year.

About two months ago it started dropping off the network (internet) 4-5 times a day. In order to reconnect, she has to disable/re-enable her wireless card. Sometimes this takes 2-3 tries.

We have a Cisco (Linksys) E4200 Router,(firmware 1.0.05) which sits 15 feet from us. She will lose her connection, and I'll be sitting beside her with no problems at all.

Her laptop is a Toshiba Satellite P845t Windows 8.1, 64-bit, Avast Antivirus.

If I disable security on the router (WPA, WPA2, or Mixed) and switch to MAC filtering only, everything works fine.

SO, given that the problem surfaced about two months ago, is only on her Toshiba, and goes away when encryption is turned off, I'm assuming that a software update (Windows?) or software she added (no clue) is causing the problem. Or maybe I'm totally missing something!

Would appreciate any suggestions to help isolate/correct the problem.

Thanks!
John

 

Does it happen if you (your computer) are not in the same room? Any other EMI/RFI producing devices in the same room (MW oven or big screen TV)?

I would suspect Avast before a Windows update. If a Windows update did this, there would likely be millions of users screaming at Microsoft about it.

I hope you have now re-enabled security on your router. Do not compromise your network for security for a computer that is not working correctly.

If me, I would uninstall Avast (at least for now while testing), reboot and enable Windows Defender (included in W8). Windows Defender in W8 is an enhanced version of Microsoft Security Essentials used in previous versions of Windows. It is not the best anti-malware solution out there, but a good "basic" solution that enough for most users. I use it all my systems. Periodic supplemental scanning with Malwarebytes's Anti-Malware (MBAM) has never found anything Windows Defender/MSE (or me) let by.

Then see if she still has connection problems. Since only 15', you might also try an Ethernet (wired) connection to one of the Ethernet ports on the back of the router.

I would also check Device Manager to ensure no errors are shown for the network device. Check Toshiba for updates drivers. If no help, you can disable the integrated wireless adapter, buy a USB adapter and use that.

 

Like Digerati, I wouldn't blame microsoft for this, but I could blame the manufacturer (of the laptop) depending on the circumstances.

Was the laptop designed to run windows 8? Was it bought with windows 8? or was it upgraded to windows 8?
If it was upgraded to windows 8, does the OEM have windows 8 drivers for your laptop?

I'm asking these questions, because natively, windows 8 will support most hardware and even look online for better drivers or drivers for devices it doesn't support; however, if these drivers don't exist; as in the OEM didn't provide them, then the hardware may not work as intended on the native windows 8 drivers. This could cause the wireless card network dropout you described... amongst other things.

And you could try an ethernet cable as Digerati suggested.