Wireless router problems

Hey there everyone. I'm haveing a few problem with my wireless router and the connected computers. Normally the connection strength is brilliant, and everything works perfect. Then, for no reason i can see, the connection gets lost. I ask the wireless card to scan for a network and none is found. I need to wait a couple of minutes before it comes on.

Is this a normal thing to happen? If not, is there anything i can do to fix things? It's like having dial up again...

Ello fatboi! :D

Change the channel that the router operates on.

Failing that, move the router antenna a bit.

Also, use WEP instead of WPA encryption. My router lost its connection every few minutes on WPA for some reason.

One more thing - make sure there's nothing metal near the router. I used to provide home technical support, and once got paid £47.00 for moving a metal tray from where it was, leaning next to the router.

Things like TV remotes, cordless phones, microwaves etc can effect wireless routers, so my money is on the 'change channel' solution solving the problem.

*me looks at this waist line*

Cheeky fatty :P

How you doing!

I'll try and see if i can work out how to change the channel on this... thanks for the advice man. Hope your doing alright.

Btw, i have no security encryption on the connection. Only thing i've done is set up an access list, based on MAC addresses.

Oh I'm just splendid!

The broadcast channel should be somewhere in your router config, under "wireless settings" etc.

I agree with GFK, it's probably interference. Particularly if you've got one of the 2.4Ghz cordless phones. I know a few people have bought the phones which work on a different frequency ( 900Mhz? ) to solve the issue but changing the channel works most of the time.

Cool, thanks guys, i changed it from channel 11 to channel 5. We'll see how that goes :o)

Long time no see, Ross. Get your bottom on IRC, now! :p

Guess this may be a good place to hopefully resolve my wireless router problem also...

Basically, had this router for nearly a year, a wireless-G LinkSys router, was only a few months ago did I actually go about and purchase wireless ethernet cards for my PCs.
(purchased the thing initially for my DS/PSP)

Thing is, recently (last month), my PC can't seem to send or receive at all from the router when connected. Signal strength shows excellent, it's connected properly and all from the looks of things, just it does jack, even pinging my router does nothing.

Any ideas on the prob? May try changing the channel from its default (6), but considering that was working fine for a few months......I'm not really sure what to try here.
(more-so since my DS, PSP, & Wii have no probs connecting to it)


Actually, now that I think about it, are you only supposed to have one active connected-device per key when using a wireless security mode?

Wasn't only until around the time did I pick-up my Wii did this problem start occuring...

It could be an interference issue, or a hardware problem with the router itself crashing/powercycling itself every once in a while.

Some routers keep track of packets send/received somewhere in the webinterface. you may want to look around and see if yours has that too. If so, you can check those values after losing the connection when you are able to get back in.

If all of a sudden the bytes sent/received are very low again, then most likely the router crashed. If it happens repeatedly, then it might be near the end of its life.

If it's an interference issue, then changing the channel may help a little (especially if there are immediate neighbors with wifi on the same channel. If they have configured their router to not broadcast the SSID, you may not even be able to 'see' their network even though it could exist and conflict with yours.)

Other devices that can interfere:
- 2.4 GHz cordless phones (which is the majority of cordless phones use these days). Even if you don't have one, it could be your neighbors phone interfering with your network... A bit harder to find out for sure though.
- Microwaves. Our 2.4 GHz cordless phone becomes pretty much unusable while the microwave runs, so I imagine it could very well interfere with a standard 2.4GHz wifi router as well. Are there any microwaves close by? (which may include your neighbor's if their kitchen shares a wall with your computer room)
-

My problem was hugely exadurated when I got my WII, and it still seems to be killing my bandwidth. changed my router to channel 6 and the total dropouts stopped though. I get the feeling the Wii's WIFI module hasn't been designed too well- it's supposed to listen and give way to other Wifi Signals as should all WiFi adapters.

I have found that a lower channel setting (e.g. 3 or 4) generally feels a bit nippier. I could be completely and utterly mistaken though.