Intermittent wireless

We have a desktop and laptop connected through a linksys wireless router for cable internet access. Yesterday we started having a problem with just the laptop. It seems like the internet connection is intermittent.

The signal strength remains on "excellent" and says we have both local and internet access, but every 2-3 minutes the connection will just break down. It doesn't say anything is wrong, but we'll get an error in Firefox "the connection has been interrupted". Then sometimes the icon in the taskbar will show that the connection is only local and that it's trying to identify the network. Our network is secured and the desktop isn't having any problems at all. For some reason though, it keeps assigning the laptop an IP address ending in 171.

I don't know what the problem could be. I've tried rebooting the laptop, renewing the IP address, changing the passwords and key for the network, disconnecting the whole setup and reconnecting it, reinstalling the router and resetting the network, but the problem remains.

Any ideas what this could be?? The router is 3 years old so maybe it's just going bad? I'd like to exhaust other possibilities before going out to buy a new router though. Thanks for any help.

 

That actually seems to make the problem worse, it gets stuck on "identifying the network" and won't allow access at all. When I leave it to be automatically obtained, I can at least get access to the internet for a few minutes before it starts cutting in and out.

 

Tried updating firmware on router and wireless drivers on laptop?
Tried booting into Safe Mode with Networking to see if the problem persists?
Checked power settings on wireless adapter - no power saving enabled?
Any external interference possibilities - cordless phones, electronic gear, etc.?

 

The drivers are up to date, I still have a problem when it's in safe mode w/ networking, the wireless adapter is the same as it's been for the 3 years we've had it - not in power saver mode or anything, and we don't have any new wireless devices. We do have a cordless phone but it's been there for years and isn't in the same room as the adapter or the laptop. It does seem that the problem is a little worse when someone is on the internet using the desktop, but it doesn't go away completely when the desktop is not in use, so that may just be a coincidence.

 

That doesn't seem to have made any change. I'm running Vista 64-bit on the laptop, I don't think that matters but I figured it would be good to know.

Is it possible that the problem could be the router? I'm looking at it now and it looks like the WLAN and Internet lights are blinking really fast rather than steadily lit, but honestly I can't remember if it was always like that or not.

Also, the desktop is wired through the router, while the laptop is completely wireless. The desktop hasn't had any problems whatsoever.

 

Frequently, a firmware update often solves this kind of issue with a router. Especially with Linksys. Also, I had issues myself, and with others when the Linksys and the Windows Wireless Zero configuration were both running at the same time.

 

The firmware is up to date. I don't know about Windows Zero Configuration but in googling it to disable it, I was told to go to admin tools - services, and disable Windows Zero Configuration, but there is no Windows Zero Configuration service there on either the desktop or the laptop.

It's a Linksys WRT54G v5 router. Both computers are running Vista Home (the laptop is 64-bit though). When viewing available networks, there is an unnamed security-enabled network with excellent signal available in addition to our own secure network. I don't know where this is coming from or why it's reaching so far. We live in a single-family home and usually any other network that shows up is low signal strength at best. We had new neighbors move in last week so maybe it's theirs? However I don't see how that could cause a problem if their connection is secured and so is ours. I've tried changing our wireless channel from 1 all the way to 11 with no change but I'm not too knowledgeable in how all that works anyway so I don't know if another network could be interfering or not.

 

My recommendation would be that once the router is set up and functional, disable the Linksys software from running at startup. Because you have a wireless G network, a security key is not required, and I would advise for security reasons you set your modem to standby when the network is not in use.

The only place to my knowledge to enable/disable the Wireless Zero configuration is under the Run>msconfig>Services tab.

Using a program such as Hijack This! by TrendMicro would be the best way to permanently disable the Linksys suite, other than uninstalling it.

msconfig is intended as a temporary debugging tool, and if you look under the Services tab, and Wireless Zero is enabled, I recommend using it over the Linksys software.

Due to your Google results, I'll wager you are running Vista. Am I correct?

I hope this helps...

 

In Vista the service is called WLAN Autoconfig.

Possibly try disabling IPv6 in the connection properties. Quote from this article http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/ipv6/ipv6faq.mspx

Unlike Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, IPv6 in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 cannot be uninstalled. However, you can disable IPv6 in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 by doing one of the following:
•

In the Network Connections folder, obtain properties on all of your connections and adapters and clear the check box next to the Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6) component in the list under This connection uses the following items.

This method disables IPv6 on your LAN interfaces and connections, but does not disable IPv6 on tunnel interfaces or the IPv6 loopback interface.

 

Thanks lbmest...

 

Well, looks like I have a similar issue as a recent posting by phoxyphearse title Intermittent wireless . Not sure if I should be posting a reply to the posting or just creating a new thread but I suppose you guys can move this as appropriate.

This has actually been going on for a few years in various network setups of one type or another. And hence, I can't really pinpoint the 'reality' of the issue. I have had the cable company come multiple times to address connection issues, I have contacted Netgear and jumped through their hoops, including firmware upgrades. I have been on the horn with IBM support. I have disabled competing power mgmt and connection utilities between IBM and Windows Vista. Which seemed to help the initial connection aspects, but I still have intermittent connection issues. And of course, I still have a current issue, even if past issues did not all have the same origin.

The current issue being I lose connection pretty much every few minutes for a few seconds or more. I can see the Lenovo laptop’s panel embedded ‘wireless connection’ LED light start to flash in general when I start to have connection issues. I tend to think there are varying degrees of connection loss and depending on what I am doing, it either impacts my app or doesn’t. For example, as I write this in MS Word (to copy and paste in the forum posting later) I am not really using any network functionality so don’t really know if the network is going down and coming back up quickly. However, when I am playing poker and I time out during my play because I have lost connection, that I can readily see the immediate impact of the connection loss. Sometimes the connection comes back quickly enough that I save my hand, and other times, I suspect I have lost connection but it comes back so quickly that it is not even noticed by me and then other times it doesn’t come back in a timely fashion at all (and I have to manually reconnect) and I lose the a poker hand from timing constraints of the hand play ..and hence this issue has a direct $$ impact to me. Nothing like losing a big hand when you know you have the winner due to some frickin connection problem. But I have sat in front of both the modem and the router and see no indications there..everything is happy...if you believe it. And I have done this in a wired configuration also…and still have the same connection issues.

As of today, I am currently running two computers, wirelessly using a Netgrear WPM824v2 rangemax wireless G router behind a scientific atlanta modem. One computer is a Lenovo X200 with Vista Ultimate and the other is an older Dell Optiplex with XP Pro. Though actually, I don’t think the intermittency is tied to the wireless aspect.

I normally dont have both computers on, but for this posting, Im putting both computers on just to be able to solidify some facts. But there is no doubt I have the problem when just the laptop is on.

But one thing that I think would be helpful is if you folks there at MajorGeeks central have a recommended procedure for debugging the source of these issues both in terms of isolating it to a device as well as capturing the intermittent nature of things. I been trying to find some type of diagnostics which will accommodate intermittent issues, but have not had any luck. I vaguely recall running some routine multiple times automatically on either the router or the computer, but don’t recall the specifics offhand.
But a procedure to address these types of issues would be most helpful. I am going to stop the text here and see what you guys think. I will append this once I do some structures splits here to determine the extent of wired vs wireless, 1 vs 2 computers, interference issues etc.

 

Tried disabling IPv6, no change. I tried disabling WLAN Autoconfig, no change. Also tried disabling Linksys upon startup, and again, no change.

I went out and bought a brand new Linksys router and hooked it up, but still have the same problem. The desktop is wired to the router, and the laptop is completely wireless. Since a new router didn't solve the problem, it must be either interference of the wireless signal to the laptop or something wrong with the laptop itself, right? No settings were changed on the laptop, desktop, or router when the problem began.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but the laptop doesn't seem to recognize that it's lost the internet connection. The symbol in the taskbar shows both local and internet connections are working and that the signal is "excellent". The only way I know the problem exists is that I can't load anything in any browser, and get an error page that "the connection has been interrupted".

If I disconnect from the network and reconnect again, it takes a considerable amount of time (about 3 minutes) for the laptop to identify the connection. It allows the local connection but has a symbol with a timer that says "identifying" and has the network named as "unidentified network HOME" (HOME being the name we assigned the wireless network). After I do this disconnect/reconnect process, I can usually access the internet for about 1-2 minutes. Then the problem resurfaces.

I have tried updating firmware and drivers, unsecuring the network, changing wireless channels, resetting the network and router completely, disabling my firewall, setting static IP addresses, switching out ethernet cables, using a brand new router, and even doing a system restore in case a recent update caused some kind of problem. Nothing has worked. I don't even know what my next move should be to diagnose where the problem lies - some sort of problem on the laptop, the wireless card in it, signal interference, or a complication between the desktop and laptop's connection. I've looked all over the place for a step-by-step guide of how to diagnose the problem with no solution.

I don't even know what kind of professionals I should contact - my ISP, a tech service like Geek Squad, someone at Linksys, someone at HP (my laptop brand)? I just don't know.

 

Any internal conflicts? I know on my machine, i had two packages controlling power management and networking, one from IBM and then the one from Microsoft (via windows). It helped when I uninstalled the IBM versions and let windows manage it in terms of some aspects related to connections, but I still have alot of intermittent response..

 

ive also done some recent test with my cell phone...doesnt seem to do impact anything.... how about your modem? can take router out of it and check that also

 

There are no internal conflicts that I know of.

I deleted all the saved networks on both computers and ran the setup for the new router again, then rebooted both computers.

The desktop shows it is connected to "Network" with access to Local and Internet.

The laptop shows it is connected to "Network (Home1)" with access to Local and Internet.

"Home1" is the SSID for the wireless. "Network" is simply the name for the network connection on the desktop. Before, the laptop would always connect to "Home1" rather than "Network (Home1)". I don't know what difference this makes.

It's been about 10 minutes since I rebooted, and both computers appear to have working internet connections. The problem is that after resetting everything, the connection usually works for 5-15 minutes before randomly going out again, so I can't tell if the problem is fixed or if I just started it all over again.

The only other point of interest I can see is that the laptop is assigned an IPv4 address of 192.168.1.100, and the desktop is 192.168.1.102. I don't know what happened to 101 and don't know whether this means anything at all that it skipped it.

So far so good though, I guess I'll give it another 10 or 20 minutes and see if I lose the connection.

 

I was just curious if you are still having problem because this is a similar issue for me and was wondering whether your last posting solved things..

 

No, I am no longer having problems. Honestly I don't know what the issue was or how it was resolved. I had tried resetting everything in my setup about 7 times, and for some reason the 8th time was the charm.

I went onto the wireless settings page and deleted all the clients' IPs from the client table, then deleted the saved networks on both computers. I reset the router by pushing in the reset pin, then disconnected it completely, as well as rebooting the desktop, laptop, and modem. When I turned everything back on and went step-by-step through the router setup with the install cd, it all worked fine, and has been working without fail since then.