Wifi Woes

[techwhosaysnee]

Having some network problems at home. In the past it wasn't as bad, but I'm thinkign I just didn't notice it as much with the way I use my connection when I'm home. My wife has always complained.

Before getting into my current understanding of the problems, I've done the following and have illeminated every simple solution I can think of: Replaced the modem, replaced the router, tried from various cards. Disabled all settings on router. Plugging into the modem directly makes all the problems go away, but I refuse to beleive I have two broken routers in a row. I don't remember the cause of replacing the router for sure so I'm going to set it up later this week and see if it gives me the same problems.

Right now I'm noticing that signal is good in all areas of the house (several bars, anyway) but the connection is slower than I think it should be. I've also noticed that the modem/router need to be rebooted usually around once a day at least, but sometimes much more. If I go to any graphic-intensive site such as a photoshop contest, the connection stops communicating with the internet, and sometimes disappears altogether from my list of available networks.

My wife read something that makes her think it has something to do with the modem going too fast for our cards, but when I plug into the modem directly this is fine, unless it's something about the modem working too fast for wifi, which I'm not very familiar with yet.

I'm going to try my old router, and see if I can make it work, but I remember something about losing my connection made me change in the first place, so I am not hopeful about that solution.

Also, I don't have any cordless phones (or any home phone really) and I've tried moving my computer away from the other livingroom electronics such as the stereo and TV to prevent RFI, but it still is teh broken.

 

[techwhosaysnee]

More details

well..first of all which wireless router are you using? THe network instalbility can be serveral things but interference is your most common cause. Do you live in an apartment/condo/townhome?

My old router is a standard Linksys 802.11b router, and my new one is a Netgear B+G router, but I don't have either model # with me (I'm at work.) I live in a modular home and I'm not in a crouded city area. There are a couple of other visable networks in the area but they all have low or no signal, depending on where my computer is.

 

[vibrokatana]

I used to have a issue with loosing packets on a rt61 chipset, i have since switched to a rt2500usb and have a better connection. Wireless will sometimes go nuts if it has signal issues and will keep on retransmitting. The best bet is to mess around with the fragmentation threshold (lowering it to around 1/4 worked good for me) and the number of retransmits, as it will not "hang" on to that dumb wireless packet.

Also if you have a 2.4ghz wireless phone and notice that your network drops every once in awhile...

Also switch the channels around, particuarly to something that your neighbors arnt using. and to something that doesnt coincide with any other wireless devices in your houshold

 

[techwhosaysnee]

I fixed it!

The problem was that since I did not research and purchase this router, it was given to me, I didn't realize it had a firewall built into it. When I first got it, I wasn't able to get networking of our computers to work between me and my wife, and after some reading and thinking I determined ZoneAlarm may in fact be the problem. My wife (as do I) loves our free firewall solution, and didn't want to give it up so I was unable to test enough to get a good idea if that would fix it.

When I went to the Netgear site to find drivers I saw that it has a firewall, and two firewalls never work well together. After disabling zonealarm, not only does it stop dying, but it is also faster, being just below the average rating for Comcast on all the speed test sites, which I attribute to not connecting directly to the modem.

See? This is why the Bible commands wives to be submissive to their husbands! God, in his all knowingness, decided this was the only way his children's internet connections would work!

Having some network problems at home. In the past it wasn't as bad, but I'm thinkign I just didn't notice it as much with the way I use my connection when I'm home. My wife has always complained.

Before getting into my current understanding of the problems, I've done the following and have illeminated every simple solution I can think of: Replaced the modem, replaced the router, tried from various cards. Disabled all settings on router. Plugging into the modem directly makes all the problems go away, but I refuse to beleive I have two broken routers in a row. I don't remember the cause of replacing the router for sure so I'm going to set it up later this week and see if it gives me the same problems.

Right now I'm noticing that signal is good in all areas of the house (several bars, anyway) but the connection is slower than I think it should be. I've also noticed that the modem/router need to be rebooted usually around once a day at least, but sometimes much more. If I go to any graphic-intensive site such as a photoshop contest, the connection stops communicating with the internet, and sometimes disappears altogether from my list of available networks.

My wife read something that makes her think it has something to do with the modem going too fast for our cards, but when I plug into the modem directly this is fine, unless it's something about the modem working too fast for wifi, which I'm not very familiar with yet.

I'm going to try my old router, and see if I can make it work, but I remember something about losing my connection made me change in the first place, so I am not hopeful about that solution.

Also, I don't have any cordless phones (or any home phone really) and I've tried moving my computer away from the other livingroom electronics such as the stereo and TV to prevent RFI, but it still is teh broken.