Wireless connection problems

**unctarheels18** · December 6th, 2004, 05:25 PM

I recently purchaced a linksys 802.11g Wireless Router, and I hooked it up to my main computer. I installed a wireless card in my sons computer which is not that far away from the main computer, and he gets good signal strength and a good speed, but every 10 mins or so he gets disconnected from the internet. The icon still says that he is connected, but the internet load, then in a couple mins it will come back on on its own. Anyone have any ideas of what could be causing this?

**shamus** · December 6th, 2004, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by unctarheels18

I recently purchaced a linksys 802.11g Wireless Router, and I hooked it up to my main computer. I installed a wireless card in my sons computer which is not that far away from the main computer, and he gets good signal strength and a good speed, but every 10 mins or so he gets disconnected from the internet. The icon still says that he is connected, but the internet load, then in a couple mins it will come back on on its own. Anyone have any ideas of what could be causing this?

My first thought is what anti-virus are you running? There's a few Trojans\Worms that will kick you off after a period of time.

**unctarheels18** · December 7th, 2004, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by shamus

My first thought is what anti-virus are you running? There's a few Trojans\Worms that will kick you off after a period of time.

I'm running Mcafee 2005 and am fairly sure that that is not the problem, as it is a brand new computer.

**shamus** · December 7th, 2004, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by unctarheels18

I'm running Mcafee 2005 and am fairly sure that that is not the problem, as it is a brand new computer.

If it's running XP you can get infected the first time you hook up an internet connection. Make sure McAfee has the latest DAT files and run a full system scan. Tell us if it finds or doesn't find anything.

**edball** · December 7th, 2004, 11:59 AM

My wireless card used to do that all the time. Try putting in a static IP address instead of using DHCP. That helped me a lot.

**unctarheels18** · December 7th, 2004, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by edball

My wireless card used to do that all the time. Try putting in a static IP address instead of using DHCP. That helped me a lot.

how would I go about doing that. Sorry I'm good with computers but networking is not my forte!

**unctarheels18** · December 7th, 2004, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by unctarheels18

how would I go about doing that. Sorry I'm good with computers but networking is not my forte!

I followed the instructions on the linksys page, and I ended up not being able to load any webpages, anything I may be doing wrong?

**unctarheels18** · December 7th, 2004, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by unctarheels18

I followed the instructions on the linksys page, and I ended up not being able to load any webpages, anything I may be doing wrong?

I just got connected via static ip and am loading webpages fine, waiting to see whether the problem reoccurs. What exactly is static ip by the way?

**unctarheels18** · December 7th, 2004, 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by unctarheels18

I just got connected via static ip and am loading webpages fine, waiting to see whether the problem reoccurs. What exactly is static ip by the way?

another update. It was going fine until I started downloading a file, and then it crashed again. Set it back to normal, and getting really frustrated please help.

**shamus** · December 7th, 2004, 07:13 PM

Once again...Have you run a complete virus scan?
Tell you what, just run one so I can leave you alone!

**unctarheels18** · December 7th, 2004, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by shamus

Once again...Have you run a complete virus scan?
Tell you what, just run one so I can leave you alone!

lol. I just ran one and nothing was detected.

**charlescpc** · December 8th, 2004, 04:22 AM

I don't know if this will help. But I have a netgear router that was doing about the same thing. It was disconnecting about every hour or so.

I contacted netgear support and they told me to upgrade the firmware. After upgrading the firmware I have had no problems with it whatsoever. It is now rock solid.

I would suggest you contact linksys to see if they can offer any advice.

You might try a different wireless card to see if that's the problem. Maybe, you know someone that has a wireless laptop with a different wireless card to see if it connects ok and stays connected.

**JonNoH** · December 8th, 2004, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by unctarheels18

I recently purchaced a linksys 802.11g Wireless Router, and I hooked it up to my main computer. I installed a wireless card in my sons computer which is not that far away from the main computer, and he gets good signal strength and a good speed, but every 10 mins or so he gets disconnected from the internet. The icon still says that he is connected, but the internet load, then in a couple mins it will come back on on its own. Anyone have any ideas of what could be causing this?

I had a similar problem (on a shorter cycle) with a D-Link Wireless AP & Network Apapter.... I discovered that XP and the D-Link provided driver for the adapter were fighting over who was controlling the connection. Once I told XP to NOT manage the connection, things have calmed down!

I would also agree with the advice to check about Firmware Updates...

Good Luck!

**BOB IROC** · December 8th, 2004, 03:16 PM

Do you have any 2.4Ghz Cordless phones in the area. Wireless b/g networks operate in that 2.4Ghz frequency range. Sometimes if they are on the same channel, they could interfere. My phone caused conflicts with my wireless network, so I changed the channel on the phone. Just a thought.

**merlinsghost** · December 8th, 2004, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by unctarheels18

What exactly is static ip by the way?

I'll see if I can keep this as simple as possible.

A DHCP server is set up to automatically assign IP, Gateway, and DNS information automatically. It does this by having an IP address range defined in its tables (say, you can set it to give out IP addresses ranging from 192.168.1.1 ~ 192.168.1.100). So when a computer connects, it queries the DHCP server for IP information and the DHCP server reads from its table and sends the information to the computer requesting it.

Most of the time on small networks, the same IP is assigned to the computer each time one is requested. However, if it's a busy network, and the computer is off, another computer can be assigned that IP address, so it'd get a new/different one the next time it's booted and requests one.

For a static IP address, you manually assign the IP information to the computer, and it does not receive any information from the DHCP server. Every time the computer is booted, it will use that IP information no matter what. If the static IP happens to be within a DHCP server's assignable IP range, then you can run into IP conflicts on your network.

One way to ensure than a DHCP enabled computer on your network gets the same IP address every time is to reserve what IP address you want for that computer by assigning a specific IP address to that computer's MAC address. There's a nice run-on sentence for you.

Hope that explained things okay...

First, try the firmware upgrade.

You might try changing the orientation of your son's computer too. Radio frequencies can be odd things. And I'd also recommend maybe running some spyware/adware software, and check your add/remove programs list for programs that you don't recognize.

If these options don't work, try the wireless card in another computer (try a different wireless card). You could also try connecting your son's computer via CAT5 to the router to see if it loses connection still. If it does, you likely have a virus. If not, it's likely something with the wireless card/drivers, or even the AP manager.

Good luck.