Constant wireless disconnects

Claymore

Claymore

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I have a customer whose laptop's wi-fi link to her ADSL router disconnects constantly. She can "repair" it, but it'll disconnect again, probably within 10 or 20 minutes.

She has a Dell Inspiron laptop, with a USB Zyxel wireless adapter, connecting to a Mega100 ADSL router, roughly 6-8 metres away (she gets a good to very good signal all the time).

I have:
*Replaced the router.
*Replaced the USB adapter with a known working D-Link adapter.
*Updated BIOS and drivers on her laptop.
*Updated Windows XP with lated updates etc.
*Tried WAP, WPA2, WEP, and no encryption at all on the link.
*Moved her laptop to less than 2m away.
*Set the wireless connection to auto & manual, using Windows to manage it or the adapter software, etc.

The problem persists.

Any ideas? It's driving me mad.
 
maybe windows is f*cked. The storeman at our offices had the same problem... kept repairing connection and after a while disconnects. Turns out the pc was full of viruses and pretty much old and buggered up.
 
Well its wireless, you can expect disconnects. Try adding a external antenna to the router to boost the signal a bit.
 
Kloon said:
Well its wireless, you can expect disconnects. Try adding a external antenna to the router to boost the signal a bit.
Click to expand...

But disconnecting from less than 2 metres away?
 
acidrain said:
maybe windows is f*cked. The storeman at our offices had the same problem... kept repairing connection and after a while disconnects. Turns out the pc was full of viruses and pretty much old and buggered up.
Click to expand...

*sigh* That may be my next step...
 
Claymore there is various factors that can affect your wireless signal, try moving the router to another place in the room.
 
Kloon said:
Claymore there is various factors that can affect your wireless signal, try moving the router to another place in the room.
Click to expand...

I've moved it all over the house, even 2 metres away, direct line of sight. I dunno how it can get better than that... *sigh*
 
Have you tried playing around with the pc wifi settings? It kinda sounds like a timeout setting.
 
It is also possible that it is the router - both sides of the connection have to be working properly to allow a stable connection.

You could also be fighting with interference or rf noise which is causing the 2 devices to loose each other even though they are close to each other. Do you see a large number of other wireless networks when you search on the laptop?

You could also try changing the channel number that is set in the router to move away from the interference (if it is in a narrow enough band)
 
Finally got it working.

I'm not sure exactly what the issue was but it was one of these three things:
  • I changed the wi-fi channel (I've done that before with no improvement)
  • In the router, there was a "4X" setting. I have no idea what it does, but I tuned it off.
  • I plugged the USB adapter directly into the laptop, instead of via a hub (though I'm sure I've tried that before).
 
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