Wireless problem that has me stumped!

18 Mar 2005 10:41 AM

The Chairman

Ok, here is the situation: One wireless laptop (XP Home), the rest of
the workstations are wired. Brand new Linksys WRT54G router and Linksys
Wireless G Network card. Very very simple set up that I have done dozens
of times before. The signal at the wireless user's desk is excellent.

However, when the laptop user logs on to AOL, he will often (sometimes
as much as every 5-10 minutes throughout the day) get disconnected, then
reconnected immediately afterward. Also, from what he says, after the
first drop, the networked version of Quickbooks stops working. I am
assuming that this is because he has lost the connection to the
Quickbooks host on the local network. The other users seem to have no
problem with connection stability. Another user uses AOL and they are
all on AIM, and the connection doesn't drop for them.

However, when I brought the laptop to my house, it stayed c
connected to my wireless network indefinetly, with no droppage problems
whatsoever, for over 5 hours. I have also done all the tricks that have
worked in the past: disabled the XP firewall, uninstalled and
reinstalled all the networking devices (I haven't yet found a way to
uninstall and reinstall the TCP/IP stack in XP.)

One last symptom: I recently replaced the old Wireless B Linksys router
with the WRT54G, as the old router seemed to have stopped broadcasting
any signal at all. The laptop picked up on 2 other wireless networks
nearby, but I couldn't find the SSID that theirs was supposed to be
broadcasting. I knew I was going to upgrade them to G anyway, so instead
of going through any major troubleshooting procedures I replaces the
router and network card. I don't know if this problem is related,
although it seems like it might be.

Anyway, any suggestions on what else I might try? They have a wireless
Panasonic phone system set up in their office. Could this be causing the
interference? I tend to think not, as things were running fine with the
wireless network for months before. Could there be something else in the
building that is causing the drops that I should look for?

Thanks,

Ryan

18 Mar 2005 6:02 PM

Duane Arnold

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"The Chairman" <mons***@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Xns961D1B86C17Cmonsterearthlinknet@140.99.99.130...
> Ok, here is the situation: One wireless laptop (XP Home), the rest of
> the workstations are wired. Brand new Linksys WRT54G router and Linksys
> Wireless G Network card. Very very simple set up that I have done dozens
> of times before. The signal at the wireless user's desk is excellent.
>
> However, when the laptop user logs on to AOL, he will often (sometimes
> as much as every 5-10 minutes throughout the day) get disconnected, then
> reconnected immediately afterward. Also, from what he says, after the
> first drop, the networked version of Quickbooks stops working. I am
> assuming that this is because he has lost the connection to the
> Quickbooks host on the local network. The other users seem to have no
> problem with connection stability. Another user uses AOL and they are
> all on AIM, and the connection doesn't drop for them.
>
> However, when I brought the laptop to my house, it stayed c
> connected to my wireless network indefinetly, with no droppage problems
> whatsoever, for over 5 hours. I have also done all the tricks that have
> worked in the past: disabled the XP firewall, uninstalled and
> reinstalled all the networking devices (I haven't yet found a way to
> uninstall and reinstall the TCP/IP stack in XP.)

You can not and should not do it. The only thing you can do is reset it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357
Show quoteHide quote

>
> One last symptom: I recently replaced the old Wireless B Linksys router
> with the WRT54G, as the old router seemed to have stopped broadcasting
> any signal at all. The laptop picked up on 2 other wireless networks
> nearby, but I couldn't find the SSID that theirs was supposed to be
> broadcasting. I knew I was going to upgrade them to G anyway, so instead
> of going through any major troubleshooting procedures I replaces the
> router and network card. I don't know if this problem is related,
> although it seems like it might be.
>
> Anyway, any suggestions on what else I might try? They have a wireless
> Panasonic phone system set up in their office. Could this be causing the
> interference? I tend to think not, as things were running fine with the
> wireless network for months before. Could there be something else in the
> building that is causing the drops that I should look for?
>

Maybe, with Wireless Zero Configuration Service enabled on the machine, the
machine is seeking out other networks in the area and finding one and trying
to connect to it dropping the connection.

Duane :)