Wierd WiFi problem.

[Guest Animis]

I'm having an interesting problem. My wireless internet broadcasting from my router is just randomly going out. I'm not sure why. Here is what it looks like.

You see I have full green bars, either 5/5 or 4/5 and it just won't connect... Sometimes it does though, like right now I'm using it to post this. Any ideas?

[Steve Krause]

Hey there Animis,

 

I have to admit, I'm not going to be an Incredible help here but I can give you my 2 cents...

 

I've never been a fan of the FREE Wifi Routers most ISP's will give you for free with your service. I've had everything from Linksys and Netgear to the Westell Verizon gave me when i signed up with FIOS.

 

No matter the Wireless Router / WIFI Access Point the connection works 90% of the time but during those odd 10% periods things just don't work.

 

Normally what I do to fix it is disable my network card in windows and re-enable it. Or I'll walk over to the WIFI unit and turn it off/on.

 

Not very "GEEKY" of me I know but that's what I've done for the last 3 years.

 

Things that it could be:

 

Failing WIFI Unit

Failing Wireless card

Interference from another WIFI unit

To large a distance between your WIFI Card and the WIFI Access Point

Physical barrier between your WIFI Card and the WIFI Access Point (Rebar in walls does not help a WIFI signal)

 

You might try changing the channel on the WIFI Access Point or Raise it up higher so that it provides better coverage in your home.

 

Hope some of that helps ya.

[goLfie]

Gotta agree with Mrgroove on this one, cheap wireless routers never work well. So hopefully you didn't just go out and buy one during all of the sales from the last holiday season only to find it works haphazardly.

 

On the occasion that you purchased a higher end wifi router and it is having problems I would try testing out a few other WiFi devices on it to make sure it isn't just your PC's WiFi card. You could also go down to a Best Buy or Fry's if you have one in the area and pick up a new router, see if you encounter the same problem, and just return it after you are done testing. (that's kind of a last resort though)

 

Also make sure that your router and any home phones you have are on different frequencies, most WiFi broadcasts at 2.4 GHz. So if you have a cordless home phone or even a microwave that broadcasts at the same range you could encounter some interference that way. I know a lot of home phone manufacturers started producing 5 GHz phones just because of this reason.

 

If you're connecting through a wall, like MrGroove said rebar causes problems, but there are a host of other building materials that can interfere with low frequencies like WiFi broadcasts.

 

Hope that helps!

[Guest Animis]

Alright I checked all the house phones and I never use the microwave except for cleaning my sponges and gym socks. There aren't any other interferences in the house. I have a Nintendo Wii that connects wirelessly and it has the same issue, except not as often.

I'm using a WRT54G Linkysys router, at the time it looked like the best available and it has the double antenna thing going. Although I moved the device closer to the router and I still have the same issue so it can't be a distance thing. I guess it must be the router in this case. I'm curious though because I used this router prior to moving into my current residence and it worked fine.

[Guest trex09]

I recommend you wrap your head in Tin Foil and try again!

[Austin]

Hi Animis,

 

That sounds like a common issue that's been known to plague that router. I'm guessing the wired connection works fine, and you're going to have nothing but problems with its wireless connectivity. Updating the firmware has been proven to help, but I can't guarantee it'll fix your problem 100%.

 

Go to this page to download the firmware update. http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/sup ... G/download

You'll have to look at the model number on the physical router to figure out which download to use.

 

Make sure that when you install the firmware update that it is from a WIRED connection.

 

Let me know how it goes.

[Steve Krause]

I recommend you wrap your head in Tin Foil and try again!

 

Brought a smile to my otherwise dull day. thanks

[Kumanina]

Um Wait The picture that your Showing up there Looks Like from Windows 95 and as I thin that this is the windows 7 category sow That may be the problem if your with win 95 the new network's are not the same as before.They have something new and for win 95 thats a Problem.Sow try it with Win 7

[jordan]

I use to have that exact router and that exact problem. Thinking back I know I did the firmware upgrades and messed around with it for a long time. We basically ended up just being wired in all the time because it was too unreliable. The sad part is that router wasn't a cheapo one at the time either. We ended up finally switched to Netgear, but this one has it's issues as well.

 

I recently had a lengthy talk with one of the network programmers on the Windows team at Microsoft, the basic outcome was that the hardware on these routers are usually pretty good, esp. the top brands, but the issue is that they have really bad software developers, or in a lot of cases they just sub out the software portion to a 3rd party, which aren't very good. Ever notice how bad the UI is on the administration portion of your router? So yeah, typically we get stuck with doing the things MrGroove said, walking over to the router and unplugging it for 10-30 seconds or so and plugging it back in. Not real geeky but we're working around outdated and poorly written software.