Linksys -B and -G

This question is actually from my father who 'doesn't have the time to go looking through websites for answers' and therefore when I told him this he said that I should 'go ask my geek friends' about our problem.

We have a wireless linksys network running through our house, on four computers. All computers are running XP. Two of the computers are older models, a 2001 HP Pentium III (I believe) and a homemade Pentium II. The other two are not even a year old; one is Pentium IV, the other, I'm not sure about actually, it being my sister's laptop, but I believe is a Pentium IV.

Our internet is often kicking off random computers. Such as if we have the the Pentium II's running, the internet works fine, but if we begin to use the internet on the Pentium IV, in addition to these, the internet will turn off on one of the Pentium II's. Sometimes, it will completely knock every computer off of the internet, and we have to go and reset it.

My father is wondering if this happens because of the difference between the computers using the wireless connection. He thinks that the Pentium IV computers use so much of the band width in the connection that it knocks these other computers off, perhaps because they are "higher tech" computers, and therefore require more.

His main question however is, that if he goes out and buys the Linksys-G router, and wireless -G ports for all the computers, that this 'knocking off' problem will cease to happen because the -G routers allow for more bandwidth to be used?

Any thoughts on this, or any solutions?

Thanks so much.

 

Depending on what the one computer is using, this one computer just accessing the Internet would have nothing to do with just "kicking" users off of the Wifi network if just all computers are browsing. Depending on what your applications are, you can get by with a 'B' router, but due to the cost of 'G' routers has decreased, you may be better in upgrading your network.

 

50/50... you really need to determine where, what and why the connection is dropping. When other PCs' successfully able to access the internet, you are generally looking a (individual) PC related problem.. Internet connections can be dropped via an application (e.g., browser, spyware), a network (e.g., ethernet settings, internet setting, 802.11 signal level/quality, etc) level, or even the hardware (PC, NIC, cabling, Router, B/B Modem, etc) level.

In that you say the problem is random, you may even be having RF interference from another wlan router or RF (e.g., cordless phone, microwave, cellular, wireless video/audio, etc) source nearby... It gets deep real fast.

P2E

 

I have Wireless G, and have 5 computers on it, 2 HP ZV5000 laptops, an HP ZE5270 laptop, a Compaq 1250, and an HP a1130n. The 1 ZV laptop has a p4 2.8, the other a celeron 2.6, the ZE has a p4 2.6, the 1250 has, I think, an Athlon 1.6, and the desktop has the AMD 64 3500 at 2.2ghz. Last night I had all, but the p4 ZV (its out for service) and the only one I had a problem with the wireless was the desktop, but thats because its like 50 feet or so away.

My suggestion, if you dont have the money for the upgrade to G (or wanna be cheap) is maybe get a range extender (my friend was having problems similiar to yours, except they were all AMD 64s, and maybe a month or 2 old with the wireless B) as it sometimes could just be range. If your computers are all in the same room as the router, and you still have the problems, then you may be forced to upgrade.

If you have to go to G, make sure you either get the router with Speedbooster, or the SRX. The SRX will give you more range, and the speedbooster. The Speedbooster will just give you a boost of speed, and you could always buy the range extender at a later date (Im gonna probably by the range extender tonight for my desktop) but either way, make sure you dont get the regular G router, but the one with the speedbooster (WRT54GS http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...825841&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper) as you will be very satisfied, and if you buy the range extender (http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...829757&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper) you should be pretty well off.