NetGear USB Wireless Dongle problem

M

mrb13676

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
214
Reaction score
51
Hi all

Had a quick search for this but didn't find anything helpful. I bought a netgear Range Max 108Mbps USB wireless dongle yesterday to connect to my wireless network at home from my PC. I'm using a Billion ADSL wireless router modem as my access point. FOllowed the instructions, and was able to connect easily to the network and thence to the internet. Connection quality is OK, 48-54Mbps and signal strength good to very good.

The problem is that after a variable period of time, I get disconnected, and I'm unable to find the network and can't reconnect unless I reboot the PC or unplug and replug the wireless dongle. I've noticed that the dongle itself gets quite hot to the touch, but am sure this is unrelated?

Anyone had similar issues, or know of any cause/solution to this rather irritating problem?

Thanks in advance
Mike
 
I use a different brand of equipment and haven't had this problem. Have you perhaps tested the USB wireless adapter on a different pc?

Other than that the USB wireless adapter is probably faulty.
 
Have you tried setting the wireless mode to 802.11b rather than 802.11g or changing the position of the USB adapter to improve the connection quality? The range on 802.11g is much shorter than for 802.11b. Does the signal strength/quality deteriorate just before it disconnects? If the signal strength/quality is not good enough you will get dropouts. If this is the problem then you could try a small silvered cardboard reflector to increase the signal strength.

Another possible cause could be that your USB port is not capable of supplying enough power to the USB adapter. Some of the Atheros chipsets draw very close to 500mA. Do you know what USB chipset you have on your motherboard? You could try to change the current USB port that you are using to a different one or use a Y shaped USB extension cable like the ones used for portable hard drives.
 
Thanks for the replies.
Got it sorted. All of the above not a problem. What worked was telling the Netgear equipment at setup that I am in North America, and not in Africa. BTW the Billion ADSL router is set to North America. I guess now the frequencies are equivalent. Can't explain it any better than that, but it now is working wonderfully!

Thanks again

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X