Hi all - one again a long time since I posted on here.
I'm attempting to improve the wireless performance of my Maplin Value Wireless 54g ADSL2+ Modem Router (http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=222204). At the moment, while using the two laptops that we have in our house (both Toshiba Equium a100s), I have noticed that the wireless connection drops intermittently for no more than a couple of seconds. This is shown by Vista's networking icon briefly displaying a red cross, and streaming video, such as iPlayer or 4OD, pausing and sometimes displaying a message that says it has lost internet connectivity briefly. The can happen fairly regularly – the most I've noticed it happen was three times while watching a 40 minute programme on iPlayer.
There are a number of things I can think of that may help:
• Changing wireless channel as quite a few of our neighbour's wireless connection show up. (The laptops have some Toshiba software, called 'Radar', that displays what channels all wireless connections in the vicinity are using.)
• Installing the latest firmware on the router
• Factory resetting the router to ensure that there is no error on it
Is there anything else that I can try to reduce loss of wireless connection?
All advice appreciated. :)
Thanks,
Dan
Dan, if you use a wired connection, does the router still drop the connection? Just trying to see if it is just the wireless side of the router having the problem.
No, the router doesn't drop the connection when using a wired connection.
Anyone locally with a 2.4GHz video sender, or a microwave oven?
You could use a Network sniffer to check which channel is most used. Like InSSIDer.
Then change to a free channel. Could it be the box overheating?
Thanks for all the suggestions. :)
Quote from: nowster on Dec 22, 2010, 08:33:41
Anyone locally with a 2.4GHz video sender, or a microwave oven?
I've checked our microwave and it does indeed have a frequency of 2.4GHz, we have no wireless video sender. I'm not sure about the neighbours though.
Quote from: Technical Ben on Dec 22, 2010, 08:53:10
You could use a Network sniffer to check which channel is most used. Like InSSIDer.
Then change to a free channel. Could it be the box overheating?
I'll give InSSIDer a go. Well it doesn't feel particularly hot, not sure if there's a more technical way checking that? :blush:
None. Just some of the older Wifi routers get very hot. Then die. At least our old 3com one did. >:(
I phoned up Maplin technical support today and the guy decided it was a faulty router within a few minutes. I returned it to the store I bought it from and they swapped it straight away, they even let me chose a different router - and I bought the original router in August! Very good service from Maplin. :D
Anyway, I've got my new Netgear Wireless N150 Modem Router (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=391312) up and running. Fingers crossed all is well. :fingers:
:fingers:
I've got a similar problem. Can get a full speed sync on the other side of the house at 7mb. You would not even know it was not wired in. Trying to use it in the same room? 2-3mb or less. I've tried moving the sofa and router to all sorts of places, and nothing helps. :dunno:
Switch to cable, Ben?
Have done again. :/ Dropped to 1mb with tweaking. :slap:
I've decided it's a duff card. Some versions were recalled, and they never released 64bit drivers (and mine is :( ). I had no way of knowing, as there were no card offering 64bit compatibility when I looked. :dunno:
I'll probably give it to the family for one of their xp machines. Have to get a usb one for myself.
Sounds a it that way, Ben. :(
Sometimes you can get odd standing waves in a room. Place your laptop on the convenient table, and you get very odd latencies and the throughput is less than a megabit per second. Take it with you to the sofa, and your pings are single digit milliseconds and the link is 54Mbps. Video senders and microwave ovens can be a nuisance in this respect, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_wave
My pcs have been having this problem for a while.the drop-out happens about twice an hour 24/7.I have been trying to download updates for my lads ps3 for about 4 weeks.this isn't happening because of this.I can't download anything without getting cut off.Rather irritating.As I am not very technical there is not much I can do about this.Ihave been asked to put my router into my main socket,Unfortunately when it comes to this kind of thing I'm very lost.Unless someone has a really simple solution I will just have to suffer this irritating problem.Bah humbug.
Are you losing connection with the internet or with the router?