Laptop keeps disconnecting - Mobile seems fine!

cormie

I'm using a wifi connection at the moment and keep having to ask the guy to reset it as my laptop has disconnected now about 3 times over the course of 2 hours. My phone however has remained connected even when I can't connect back with the laptop.

I'm using a Dell XPS L502X and have what appears to be both the windows wifi manager and the Intel one in my taskbar, I think I'm using the windows one, but I've tried switch to the Intel one managing it for me and it still won't connect when it drops.

Once the router is reset, it connects up again. I don't know what the issue could be since my phone is connecting fine, also another guys phone is keeping the connection no problem and I think a few other people's devices too

Any feedback would be appreciated!

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

I'm using a wifi connection at the moment and keep having to ask the guy to reset it as my laptop has disconnected now about 3 times over the course of 2 hours. My phone however has remained connected even when I can't connect back with the laptop.

I'm using a Dell XPS L502X and have what appears to be both the windows wifi manager and the Intel one in my taskbar, I think I'm using the windows one, but I've tried switch to the Intel one managing it for me and it still won't connect when it drops.

Once the router is reset, it connects up again. I don't know what the issue could be since my phone is connecting fine, also another guys phone is keeping the connection no problem and I think a few other people's devices too

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Try updating to the latest driver, you can download it here. Another option which may help is to setup a static IP, see here. Not great if you'll be connecting to other networks but will solve DHCP issues.

Nick

cormie

Thanks yoyo, yeah I'm always connecting to various hotspots around the place so I'm not sure the static approach would be good then? I'll try update the driver, but unfortunately I won't be able to test the same connection again, at least not for a long time!

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

Thanks yoyo, yeah I'm always connecting to various hotspots around the place so I'm not sure the static approach would be good then? I'll try update the driver, but unfortunately I won't be able to test the same connection again, at least not for a long time!

Nope don't set a static IP if you'll be connecting to other networks, would just be a headache having to reverse the settings all the time . A driver update may sort it though, particularly if it worked before you got it reset

Nick

cormie

Thanks a lot! I updated the driver so will just have to wait and see. It didn't improve a problem of when coming out of sleep, it has always taken about 1-2 minutes to connect back to the internet, which is weird because when you start the computer up, it's connected immediately, and seems like it takes less time to boot up and open a browser window than it does to come out of sleep and wait for the connection to go live but maybe that's normal coming out of sleep.

yoyo

cormie wrote: »

Thanks a lot! I updated the driver so will just have to wait and see. It didn't improve a problem of when coming out of sleep, it has always taken about 1-2 minutes to connect back to the internet, which is weird because when you start the computer up, it's connected immediately, and seems like it takes less time to boot up and open a browser window than it does to come out of sleep and wait for the connection to go live but maybe that's normal coming out of sleep.

Also make sure "Power Saving Mode" is not enabled for the wifi adaptor, see here for info

Nick

cormie

Thanks Nick, I already had that unchecked, but still have the issue, I didn't check the shortcut option as I'm not sure if this is just the same end result but going about it a different way? It's not such a huge issue and I've put up with it for about 2 years now anyway :pac:

cormie

Oh I wonder by the way, if I'm using windows to manage my connection, does it negate any changes made with the new drivers or it coming out of sleep I wonder, or is the windows manager still using the updated driver etc?

ressem

Some wifi solutions just disagree with some wifi points, and the best that can be managed is to muck around under wifi adapter advanced settings
Under Control Panel's Network Adapter \ Wifi adapter \ properties
Under the Networking tab Click Configure,

then the Advanced tab.
(just make sure to write down the original value)

Options to look at are
disabling 802.11n in favour of b/g
Enabling fat channel intolerence.

or under Networking tab \Configure\Power Management tab uncheck the ability to "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."

but there are more options here that can cause your connection to fail, but these three did seem to resolve similar issues with Dells I've been asked about in the past.

Or keep a cheap USB wifi adapter as backup.

Other options when connection is lost, disabling and re-enabling the adapter under Computer managenent \ device manager

Oh, and try disabling ipv6 for the wifi card.

cormie

Thanks a lot for that Nice to have as a reference to look back on if I'm having trouble again.

Another thing I was trying to do also, was to use my phone as a wifi hotspot, since my phone was staying connected to the wifi in the place no problem, I was hoping it would be possible to then just connect to my phone, but when I turned my phone into a hotspot, it connected via 3g, not the actual wifi.