Category: Geeks r Us
I am so sick of reading limited or no connectivity! I don't know what to change from here.
I have changed our network name, our network password, I have reset the router... I have downloaded the latest firmware.
I'm getting close to buying a new router! Please any suggestions on what to do or how to improve my connection!
Has anyone used a wireless repeater?
Let me give you a picture of our situation.
Living in an apartment, first floor. Connecting 2 laptops to a wireless cable network. One laptop is xp pro sp3, the other is vista. The xp laptop has wireless G, the vista laptop has wireless N.
I'm trying to remember, did the problems start when the new vista laptop came into the house? Could that be a reason?
The router is a DLink wbr1310.
Thank you thank you thank you!
Are the problems you notice on just one of the computers or on both of them (and if so, which one)? If it's a computer specific problem it sounds like a device driver for the wireless card on the computer rather than the router. Is the router Wireless G or N router?
Is the router located far from the laptops behind foundation walls or anything like that? Generally keep the router as close as you can (although I've never had problems with up to 30 feet and it is supposed to be a lot more long range than that. You can buy a wireless usb device for the computer and it might work better than the built-in card (that's what I do with an Apple Airport Express wireless router and it works very well).
The only thing I can think of is if the router is using a different frequency from the wireless cards. I know N routers can use two different transmition frequencies, something like 2.8 or 5.9 mhz. I think you'd have to explicit set it to use the higher bandwidth though so I doubt this is your problem. Routers are fairly inexpensive, around $40 and you might want to get one and test it instead of your current one, if the problems persist, you can just return it immediately for a refund.
I am no expert with this so I only have those suggestions, you may want to also Google the router type and words like "pborlems" or "no signal" to see if this is a known occurance with this router, it's amazing what you find on Google.
yeah i am gonna take a shot in the dark and say its the vista machine that wont connect to the network and that says limited or no connectivity. A quick google search of your router name and model reveals that its a wireless G router, and that being the older standard doesn't support the newer Wireless N specification. So yes in this case it appears buying a new router one that supports wireless N should fix the problem. I am pretty sure that wireless N routers will support wireless G and B Standards as well.
It is my laptop that has more issues. The xp machine.
I'm really bad at judging distances. The router is down a short hall, we generally use our laptops in the livingroom. Lol, if this is any help, I just walked it. About 12 steps, I take average strides. Don't know if that helps at all.
I've thought about buying the wireless n router. The distance is supose to be bigger and the vista machine would go faster, but how would it effect my laptop with wireless g?
I did google my router, lol, turns it on amazon it gets pretty crappy reviews...oops!
I wondered if the building could have something to do with it. There is 6-12 networks in the neighborhood that my laptop lists.
Could the vista machine be messing with my connection?
Thanks for the continued tips.
Off to double check my wireless drivers.
Wireless N routers should always be backwards compatible with G, B and even A so it should not be a worry for ya.
12 steps is about same distance I stay from our router and I manage to get a download speed of 400 or 500 kbps and no connection problems whatsoever.
Also I doubt other networks should affect you, generally the machine lets you choose the one with the strongest signal (actually it doesn't matter even, I've used at least 5 different networks around here, some with good signal, some bad).
I've seen pretty reasonably priced N routers these days, I got the Airport Express for $99 only because it's literally plug and play, connected it and it worked out of the box (well out of the plastic bubble wrapping inside the impossible to open plastic thingy inside the popcorn ifilled box).
Generally though I've had decent experiences with D-Link routers, buy.com has routers on sale all the time but going to your local Bestbuy might be a good idea for testing purposes.
cheers and good luck
-B
i second what wildebrew said above. and you will get a better price online , so thats usually where i end up getting my tech stuff.
Well, I'm about to give up on this particular router! I have to factory reset it in the last week and keep having issues. Today I spoke to comcast, because I couldn't get any kind of connection. We finally got a wired connection.
I have reset the router one more time, and we'll see. Me thinks a wireless N router is in our near future.
This is what I found on amazon; both of these got good reviews. One person said the dlink ran hot, but that was about all.
Wildebrew, the airport express, is that a router for macs? I've never heard of it.
D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
Amazon-Free S&H. $92.99
Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router
Amazon-Free S&H. $74.95
Any further thoughts on those two?
Yes, it's an Apple router, but it's Wireless N router so works with any type of O.S., they have a little PC utility for logging into and configuring the router, I didn't have to though, plugged it in, selected a password and was off.
I've used both D-Link and Linksys in the past and have no complaints about either really. I do think buy.com might hve even better prices, I get a newsletter for them with offers and I did not see a router in their last one, but if I see one in the next couple of days with a good price I'll post it to this board.
cheers and good luck.
-B
Get the Linksys WRT54GS with Speedbooster, or the NetgearWPN824
either of those should be fine so unless there is some feature of the d link that you want go with the linsys since its a little cheaper.
and it appears that the Linksys WRT54GS with Speedbooster, or the NetgearWPN824
that lil dark piggy reccommended are both wireless G routers so i'd go with one of the two you found on amazon since they are wireless N routers.
Wireless n cards will be backwards compatable so that shouldn't really be an issue.
Have you tried updating the wifi driver on the problematic computer? Have you made sure its not something silly like you typed the key in wrong?
Shouldn't really make a difference, but have you tried changing the channel on the router?
Most users don't need the bandwidth and range of n. Whilst its always good to future proof yourself, if your on a tite budget, i'd advise that you get a good wireless g router / modem / ap combo instead of getting a cheap n one.
B3n, do you recommend a particular wireless g router? If we go that route, should we make sure the vista machine is set for g wireless and not wireless n?
The passkey is fine, I've played around with the channels, there is no driver update for my wireless adaptor. *smile*
I was thinking of trying to set up the network via windows, instead of using the wireless interface. The one part of this I don't understand, is what to do with the usb drive once I have the settings on it. There is no usb port on my wireless router. Any furture instructions on this, or do you think it is a good idea?
Thanks all!
How about wireless accessories? Does anyone suggestion any of those options? What is a wireless access point? Is this different from the wireless router? Would some range extender help or a repeater?
I was reading via google and trying to learn more about dns servers. Tweaking these, could this help?
Thanks all!
Polkadots, I believe that the access points are essentialy the routers. So that would be like switches, hubs, stuff like that. But I could be wrong.
Dlink at times do have d-o-a's perhaps that might be your issue. Your wired would work, but wireless might have an issue. However, you have mentioned that your xp machine is the one at fault, and not your vista.
This leads me to conclusion as mentioned before.
1. Have you been able to connect before using your xp machine on another wireless network? E.g. at your friend's house/hotspot?
2. If no, have you tried re-installing your d-link driver? If yes, how recent prior to the d-link router? If not so recent, try going to someone's house and use another router, see if you can still connect with the xp machine. If you can, the router is at fault. A g router runs at 2.4 ghz. Most of the devices are 2.4 ghz as well, including cordless phones, microwaves, and gateways/routers. This will cause interference between devices and thus will result in signal disruption. Get a dec phone, or an n router that will enable the router to travel at a higher frequency than your typical devices in your household.
3. How long have you had this router? You did not mention whether or not it was a new or old router.
4. How old is your laptop? You may have xp sp3, however, an old laptop will have an older g card. This results in limitation in the card itself. Which leads me to the next question.
5. what encryption are you using? WEP(wired equivalent protection) or WPA(wi fi protection access)? Older cards may not support such encryption as wpa2.
6. Try changing to channel 11
7. Get an n card would be my recommendation.
You have ask about dns and changing it. Do not do that, as your ips uses dns to issue your ip and other ips static or dynamic. If you change your dns, you will not be able to connect to the world wide web, as your ip will not know to whom it should lease the ip address to.
Hope this helps.
1. Update your router's firmware; go to dlink's site and search to download your model's firmware
2. backup your settings, then apply the download
3. restart your computers
4. If that does not connect, check to see if you can update the drivers to your network card. Even if you can, and yet you can't connect, purchase a new router.
To post 16:
I agree with almost everything you'd said when it comes to router configuration. All except for the dns server thing. I've got alternate dns servers set up on my DLink router. And I've got no dhcp address issues. No, it's not a wireless router. Its a DLink DGL4100 gaming router. I chose it because it handles bit torrent and skype at the same time well. To the original poster of this message:
I'd advise you get a PCMCIA 802.11N wireless card for the xp laptop, if at all possible, and try to keep the drivers up to date, if you plan to get a new 802.11N duel mode router.
Thank you all so much for the replies. Sounds like I need to buy a new router and possibly update my xp machine.
Both laptops are having issues. Especially, when we play all in play.
It's too bad the wireless repeater thing wouldn't solve my problems.
I do plan on going to my mom's house and playing all in play to see if I have the same issues.
Do what we did and go with a Broadband provider who'll issue you with one of their routers when you subscribe with them. We've been with Sky, 2 Meg Broadband for hmmm, about 18 months now and we have no complaints. If the router should die or disconnect on us, just unplug it from the mains, wait around 3 minutes, it should reset itself, plug it in again and you're good to go. We live in a 105-year-old house to date, so not at all a modern building, but the signal from our Sky router's excellent, anywhere you happen to set up camp all over the house and garden with your Dell Studio 1537 or your Toshiba laptops, each laptop running a different build of Vista. Basic on mum's, Home Premium on mine. In this room for example, with the Sky box just along the landing and down 3 steps in the back room/office, my signal strength is 95 percent. Bloody brilliant Sky. You'd never know we were only running 2 Meg Broadband here. This laptop also, being a Dell, handles it like a dream and just flies along like merry hell, no matter how fast or slow Broadband is. Could set you back oo, um, $1200 for the laptop, even with just a fairly basic setup like mine, but boy, it is so, so worth it. Swee'ee'eet! Or, get a Hawking Range Extender. Basically, those're like a second router/Livebox, but you have to install the drivers on your machines, sighted assistance required here, to make it work. It basically extends the coverage of your router but also logs you on to a Hawking network as oppose to your Broadband provider network. I purchased one from Maplin Electronics for $120 last year as I thought I might need it when I stayed two weeks with my Grandparents where just about nothing works apart from Fm radio, in fact, they had to move their Wireless router so I could get on line, only just about possible, gur'r'r'r'r, so they're bloody useful things Range Extenders once you have the software installed on the computer.
Jen.