Netgear WNR834B Wireless Router Problems

I was helping a neighbor get a home wireless network set up earlier today, and it worked just fine..... for about 15 minutes. Suddenly both laptops lost the wireless signal and can't seem to find any at all now.

I'd used the setup cd that came with it, and had 1 laptop connected to the modem via network cable, and followed the instructions for adding the router to the network. When everything was finished, and it said successful, I managed to acquire a wireless signal with the 2nd laptop, so I thought all was well. I then unhooked the cable from the 1st laptop that I ran the installation disc from, and after about 5 minutes, it also acquired a wireless signal from the router. I brought both laptops out to show them, and to let them surf around and make sure it was fine, and it all worked perfectly. Then without warning, they both lost the signal, it was like the wireless signal just poofed. I unplugged the modem and router, let them reset themselves, and hooked everything back up, and now there's still no signal. I've disabled/re-enabled the wi-fi cards AND the onboard network cards also. Still nothing. I've yet to try and access the router through a physically connected machine, and I also haven't done a hard reset on the router either. I know I should try that before posting this, and I may very well fix my problem by doing those things, but do you have any idea why a router would just stop broadcasting like that?

 

given that it was only active for about 15 minutes, check any firewall or security software (Norton, McAfee) to see if there allowing the laptops to connect to the network.

Thats what my problem turned out to be, Norton blocked my wireless signal until i configured it to trust my router.

Hope this helps