Wireless Connection Problem

There are now 4 laptops in the house, two with Vista and 2 with XP. All were working fine connecting to the internet via a Netgear router. Three are still ok but my daughter has come back from Uni and hers (an Acer Travelmate 2420 with XP) is now playing up.

I have reset everything (assuming the settings were changed on the university network) so it is the same as the other XP machine (a Dell D600) and on booting up it connects to the router and is fine, but it drops the connection after 5 minutes or so and then won't reconnect. Sometimes the beacon light on the toolbar shows it is connected (but isn't) and sometimes there is a cross through it but either way it isn't working.

I was thinking of restoring to factory defaults - does anyone think this might solve the problem? If so what is the best way to do it?

 

Hi AOK and welcome to MGs.
The factory restore would be an overkill for your situation.
I'm assuming a wireless connection.
You can check under the properties to see if the home network is at the top of the list to connect to, if not move it up as the uni connection is not being used primarily now.(Right click the connection in Network Connections and select properties.)
Also check the power settings on the network adapter to see if it is in a power save mode. Change it to full power if so. (Hit configure button under wireless connections to access properties of adapter or right click adapter in Device Manager, select properties and go to advanced tab.)

 

Many thanks for the reply and the advice. I went into the Network Connections Properties and deleted all the wireless names except ours and at the moment it is working. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Thanks again.

 

Good deal and hopefully you'll have no more problems.
On returning to uni, the connection will have to be set up again.
Might try just moving home connection to top of list as default if it plays up again in the same situation.

 

She has been using a wired connection there for sometime anyway so hopefully the problem won't arise. The main thing has been to get her connected at home once again and avoid her having to borrow her sister's laptop!

Thanks again for the help.