Wireless acting up

cormie

All of a sudden, my wireless connection has started to lose the sinal every so often or it would have a very low signal. If I press the wireless button on and off on my laptop, this would usually help it. I tried point the antenna in a different direction, it's downstairs (only 1 flight of stairs). Would this matter? I've never had this problem before, I haven't changed anything. Could it be the wireless card in my laptop? It says the signal is very good at the moment, I don't know if it's going to go any minute or not though. How can I diagnose what the problem is

Any feedback appreciated:)

mr_disc

Distance wouldnt be the issue, try upgrading wireless NIC drivers and also firmware of the router...........

8T8

Tricky one to sort out just for instance a neighbour of yours could have purchased a device that works on the same spectrum as your wireless network which is now interfering with your network (like a wireless TV sender).

A few random suggestions;
You could try changing the channel the network operates on.
Set the speed to auto so it's not forced to run at the maximum e.g 802.11g all the time.
Try setting fixed IP's for all your computers
Update the drivers of your wireless network cards
Update firmware or reset wireless router
Purchase a better aerial for your wireless router.

You could try using NetStumbler and see if there are any other wireless networks in your vicinity or issues with your own network.

cormie

Hmmm... I just checked my connection manager and see a Linksys connection which is on 1 bar, and the netgear is on 4.

I know the router I have downstairs is Negear and I don't remember seeing a linksys connection before. Both are unsecured it says but I'm pretty sure I've set the netgear up so you need a password to connect to it In the connection thingy is says "Disconnected" at the netgear one and "Automatic" on the linksys. When I highlight netgear, there is a button saying "disconnect" and when I highlight linksys, a button saying "connect".

Does this mean a neighbour may have a linksys router and I'm picking up their signal? Are they picking up mine and possible connecting to it, perhaps without even knowing they are?

I've attached an image of the program. When I highlight linksys, it says the same thing but the disconnect at the bottom is connect.

Can I rule out firmware and software upgrades since I hadn't got this problem before? Nothing would have changed, right? It's still the same hardware to hardware with software config, it should work the same without needing an upgrade?
Thanks for the help so far:)

irlrobins

Firmware/drivers are prob not the cause of the problem, but certainly updating them might improve performance to some extent. But that's a task for another day.

You own network (Netgear) is obviously unprotected and anyone can connect to it. So switch on WPA, change the SSID, enable mac filtering etc.

With regards loss of signal, the Linksys is probably as you've guessed a neighbours wireless network. The two networks might be operating on the same channel by default. So change yours to a different one. 1,7 or 11 are the usual standard channels to use. See if that helps.

And FYI, wireless forum is here

mr_disc

There ya go.... u can connect to the Linksys WLAN and dont have to worry about going over your caps if u have got them