Paging the WiFi-isti

I've just got home from setting up a computer belonging to a colleague
again.

It involved formatting the Hard Drive and reinstalling Win XP plus
their Linksys USB WiFi device.

Everything is working fine apart from the WiFi. I've set up quite a
few in my time but this one has me stumped. The software is installed
and it's running but the Wireless connection doesn't work all the
time.

It finds the wireless network which has excellent signal strength and
quality but every few minutes the Linksys tool says it's connected to
the wireless access device but not connected to the internet. The IP
address falls off (I've tried manually assigning one or just using the
auto-assigned one but that doesn't help) and it says it's connected to
the network but not to the internet.

Oddly I downloaded the 200+Mb version of Service Pack 2 and it keps
saying it was connected and working properly and then a few minutes
later that it's connected to the network, but not the internet. The
download continued throughout, even when it said it wasn't connected
to the internet.

I'm not used to Linksys kit, and the Linksys client I downloaded was
quite simple to use. WEP/PSK is set up and working properly and there
is another laptop in the house connected to it which has no problems
whatsoever.

The DHCP lease is set to 0, which it says is 24 hours so I'm stumped.
Any pointers on why the IP keeps falling off, even with excellent
signal quality?

 

This could happen if you are using the same channel as your neighbours.
Channels 1 and 11 are very popular because they are defaults on many
routers and in residential areas they can get quite crowded. Set your
router to some less crowded channel (you are likely to have a utility
somewhere showing you the other networks and which channels they use).

 

I had exactly the same thing with mine.

Have you tried connecting to the internet? It made not a jot of
difference and was ok.

The other thing that helped (signal strength as well as quality) was
ditching the Linksys software and doing it manually. I've now got a
laptop I can use anywhere in the house with a full signal.

 

The Linksys router has been connected to t'internet for months. One
of her Kinder's computers was wired into the router, the laptop is
connected (without issue) via WiFi.

As it was a fresh install of WinXP it came with Service Pack 1a. XP
SP 1a doesn't come with native WEP/PSK support so they're having to
use the Linksys software for the moment. I started a download of the
'network install' version of SP2 before I left. Once SP2 is installed
then I'll try ditching the Linksys software to see if that helps. If
it doesn't then I'll just instruct her to buy some pikey WiFi device
and I'll install that instead.

If it was working all of the time then I'd be happy, if it was working
none of the time then at least that's easy to troubleshoot. When
something works for a few minutes and then doesn't work for a few
minutes and then works again without having changed anything it's a
bit frustrating.

 

The router was on channel 11 and although I can't remember seeing what
channels other WiFi networks were on in the local area there were four
or five of them. There's an option to change the channel in the
router. I'll suggest that she changes that.

 

Err... that's what I'm planning to do once SP2 is downloaded. SP1a
doesn't come with native Pre-Shared Key (PSK) in the format I need.

I've set up a few networks like this before and once SP2 is installed
I've always ditched the OEM software.

 

BGN () gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying :

So how about either downloading SP2 on another machine and shift it via a
USB key, using WEP for the time being, or using a bit of network string
instead...?

 

remember the channels overlap, so only 1, 6 and 11 are actually using
unique frequencies

 

<Snip wireless problems>

And there was me thinking that Windows stuff just worked all the time..

Phil

 

The Lord works in mysterious ways, Phil. Sometimes He just doesn't want
wireless communication to work.

 

What, like WC's did when he set it up in Windows rather than using the
obviously dodgy Linksys software?

You really need to ditch this anti-MS stance Phil - it's so 1990s.


--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tigtona 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

In

<snip>

Check he's not got a cordless phone in the vicinity.

 

In

PS also, I had this recently when I upgraded my laptop to Vista, turns out
my router didnt like the IPv6 that was installed by default as well as
"normal" IP.

Removed the IPv6 and all was well.

 

As per the original post:

""
Oddly I downloaded the 200+Mb version of Service Pack 2 and it keps
saying it was connected and working properly and then a few minutes
later that it's connected to the network, but not the internet. The
download continued throughout, even when it said it wasn't connected
to the internet.
""

So it has downloaded it now, but I wasn't going to wait around until
after midnight for it to finish downloading. I'll visit them this
week and see what's happening

 

I checked that and there aren't.

I even sat next to the computer with the working laptop. I assume
there's something dodgy about the Linksys software.

When I visit again I'll install SP2, move the wireless connection
management into Microsoft's hands and see hopefully one or both of
them may help.

If it doesn't then I'm going to instruct them to get a cheapo USB
dongle.

 

I'm reminded now that their Nintendo Wii also has connection problems
so it might not be just the fault of the Linksys unit attached to the
pooter so playing with something on the router will probably help.

I had a look and fiddled with a few settings but everything seemed
pretty normal to me.

 

Kin right, all of medicine agrees now that it is a real disease.

 

Actually - I use wireless here - and I've found the Windows client to
be about as reliable as the Cisco client[1]..

When they make products that work reliably (like server 2003 - which is
good - very good) I do. When they make useful and reasonably reliable
products like Active Directory I say so - and use them quite happily.
When they make cack I say so. When they make badly-written, insecure
cack and use illegal methods to make people buy it I tend to object..

Phil.

 

Phil Launchbury banged the rocks together and said:

<snigger>