laptop dropping wifi connection every 5mins

[st13phil]

Whenever I've had flaky Wi-Fi connections that drop at random and the problem seems to be solved by opening up security on the router I've ended up just changing the router. Most likely there's some obscure chipset compatibility issue that you'll chase around forever without ever solving.

In the past I've ended up wasting so much time chasing around changing drivers and everything else I might as well have spent the £80 —£100 at the start.

[ghummy]

your not by any chance using the virgin media superhub with built in wifi router?

[wemorgan]

I'm on BT standard broadband using a Netgear DG834G router/modem.

[jepho]

Originally Posted by wemorgan

My newish laptop has recently developed a fault. Every 5 mins or so it drops the wi-fi connection. I beleive that's what's happening as all web pages time out and I can not even log in to the router.

The wifi icon shows connected throughout though.

No messages are left in the Event Viewer log.

All drivers on the laptop are up to date as is the firmware on the router.

My other laptop works all OK.

Any pointers much appreciated. Thanks.

If it is a newish laptop it ought to be covered by some sort of warranty, rather than waste your own valuable time, let the vendor deal with the issue if the issue is really exclusive to this newish machine and does not happen with your other wiFi enabled hardware.

One solution, if you want to solve the issue for now without involving the laptop vendor, is to hard wire the router and laptop together. Have you got access to gigabit ethernet and some cat 5 or 5e network cable?

[JohnEBoy]

In diagnosing this myself, if you are saying you cannot always logon to the router, then it still sounds to me like the wireless is dropping out.

If we start at the beginning, your other laptop works fine, I presume via wireless.

This rules out everything from the Internet connection all the way up to the router (but not including the router).

So, on the duff laptop, I would open up another cmd (START > RUN > 'CMD' > [OK]).

Then type ipconfig and look for the Default Gateway. With the router you have, it should be 192.168.0.1.

Whatever the Default Gateway is, type in the following command and leave it running and then use the laptop as you were:

ping -t 0.0.0.0

(where 0.0.0.0 is the Default Gagteway e.g. ping -t 192.168.0.1)

Then see what happens. You should get something like this repeating down the page:

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

If not, wait for a while until you do as it could have dropped out at that moment.

Once you get the reply from, then carry on using the Internet as normal.

If you notice it stops working, have a look and see what the ping window is doing.

If it is not saying 'Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255', it might be saying:

Request Timed Out

If so, wait and see what happens. The reply should return and then it should be working again.

I am still in the 90's% certain it is your drivers, except that if a rollback to a previous version did not work, you need to find even more up to date drivers than those you were running when you first had the issue.

This might mean going to the laptop vendor or even the WiFi adapter manufacturer (e.g. Intel).

It could be the chipset in the router but I have the same router and have yet to find a WiFi adapter which doesn't work.

You can turn off wireless and plug in with a network cable to see if you get any outage as suggested. If not, you know you are most likely dealing with a wireless adapter or router wireless issue.

PS: No, you do not want WPA turned off, and ideally you want to use WPA2.

[wemorgan]

Thanks.

I mostly get the message: Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255

every 20-50 lines I then get: Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=248ms TTL=255 or similar longer time

The web access remains OK, but I still find only intermittent access to my router: 192.168.0.1 web page

If I plug in via the Ethernet everything is all OK. So it does seem wifi related.

I'll try some different Intel drivers next.

For info. I'm on channel 1. All my neighbours are 6,7,8,9. So that looks OK I believe.

Thanks

[wemorgan]

edit: even with my latest configuration I am getting "Request Timed Out" every 15mins or so.

Mmmm.

I'm moving house next w/e. I hope it cures itself during that process.

[JohnEBoy]

I don't think moving house will change anything personally but that will hopefully rule out environmental issues if applicable.

I would still think it is the drivers of the wireless card given you are getting carp response times sometimes and others it drops out completely.