Wireless Routers

[LynnF]

About 2 months ago we ordered a laptop and a Netgear wireless router from Dell. Got everything hooked up fine and registered with Telus (our ISP) and it works fine for the most part. But the problem which is most annoying is that the laptop tends to lose its internet connection quite often - for a split second usually - but it happens quite a bit. I don't notice it so much just surfing around, but if you're playing an online game it can cut you out and it's a pain in the arse. We tried another computer on the router and the same deal so we know it's not the laptop. We thought there were signal issues so we took the laptop downstairs to where the router is but still the same problem. I called Telus because I thought maybe I had to register the laptop with them or something and they said that that would not solve the problem. I've troubleshooted off Netgear's website and, honestly, this one just has me at a loss. It's not like it was a cheap router - we did research it among the selection we had and went with one of the more expensive ones (believing that you get what you pay for). But it's kinda useless to have this setup if it's not a reliable internet connection like we have downstairs with our other computer that's plugged right into the ethernet box. I guess failing all else, I can get an "all in one" box from Telus that will probably fix the problem, but I'd hate to throw money out the window without exhausting all my options with this router.

 

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

[bhurt]

Lynn,

 

You could be getting some interfence from stuff like cell phones or 2.4ghz phones, there are lots of things that share the same frequence as wirless routers that can cause some problems.

 

Also where is your router placed in relationship to where you are, remeber routers work on the umbreal effect, where you get the strongest singal right above it where as beeing under the router you will get a extremly weak singal also.

 

Hope this helps.

[Nick0Danger]

The net gear also has a fairly small buily in memory, if you are doing any firesharing or transfering of files or any program that requires a high amount of NAT (network address translation) it will cause the router to blink offline. You could try a slightly higher end router such as this one, http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX2974(ME).aspx which has 64 MB or Ram which seem to be enough for all my online doings (2 servers and 6 pc's almost on all the time with plenty of web traffic.)

 

You can also log into the router and try to fine tune the frequency and channel your router is using, in the manual it should explain how to do that.

[cheeler]

Does the same thing happen when you try a wired connection?

[birchy]

Not a big fan of NetGear myself.. if you can take it back and get a Linksys, great!

 

If not, give this a try Lynn:

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1568517,00.asp

[LynnF]

Very cool...thanks guys.

 

It appears I didn't do my homework well enough on this one - the higher end Linksys and DLink ones were not offered and I just chose what they had. When we mostly notice it is when playing online poker and gone all-in on a hand for first place. This is what has prompted the movement to something better. I know it's the router now - the hard connection doesn't do this, so I'm either gonna buy a new one or get the Telus one.

[PeteZahut]

Did you check if there has been a firmware update for the device? I have found that a lot of devices sit around in the factory or in stock rooms and by the time they hit the market there are updates to the firmware but no indication to the user. I had an issue with my Linksys and that its throughput was abismal. I looked on their website and other forums and found other people had the same issue and that an update to the firmware would fix the problem. That did the trick for me. So I would have a look around and see if there is any kind of update like this for your router.

[SanJuanWorm]

Go get a Linksys dual antenna router. Thats all i'm going to say. You'll never have signal problems. Just change the channel from the default "6" to something else. Every wireless defaults to 6 i think.

[Hawgstoppah]

Go get a Linksys dual antenna router. Thats all i'm going to say. You'll never have signal problems. Just change the channel from the default "6" to something else. Every wireless defaults to 6 i think.

 

Amen

 

I have the Linksys "wireless G broadband router" works amazingly well. I had a D - Link before that that was a peice of sh**.... so that's 3 votes Linksys... if your gonna get a replacement..

[Hawgstoppah]

Oh and I forgot to mention, I play fairly extensive and graphical online games on it all the time (world of warcraft) so u shouldn't have any problems.

 

And, yeah, I'm addicted to those dang games... /sigh

[Weedy1]

I have the Linksys "wireless G broadband router" works amazingly well.

 

Ditto

 

Not a problem at all, works excellent.

[birchy]

And now that Linksys is owned by Cisco.. their products are only going to get better.

[SanJuanWorm]

I think chuck norris owns wireless internet and he approves the linksys.

[LynnF]

I think chuck norris owns wireless internet and he approves the linksys.

 

Well that does it for me then....if it's CHUCKNORRIS approved, then it's good enuf for me!

 

I think we may well just go invest in a Linksys if it's that good. I can't take many more online poker incidents. Apparently it's quite distressing.

[KingSalmon]

Another vote here for Linksys. I have the same one as Hawgstoppah, and it works great

[brewingup]

Lynn, before you drop $...

 

In addition to above suggestions:

 

Have you changed the default wireless network name?

Have you secured your wireless network?

 

I would do the above as well as possibly changing the wireless channel (frequency). In my experience doing the above will fix most of your connection issues. And if not, then maybe it's time to get a linksys.

 

peter

[brewingup]

if you need any help with specific steps on how to do that stuff pm me and i'll be happy to give you some more detailed instructions.

[LynnF]

Lynn, before you drop $...

 

In addition to above suggestions:

 

Have you changed the default wireless network name?

Have you secured your wireless network?

 

I would do the above as well as possibly changing the wireless channel (frequency). In my experience doing the above will fix most of your connection issues. And if not, then maybe it's time to get a linksys.

 

peter

 

Hi Peter,

 

The first 2 I did do. I have not changed the frequency (somebody suggested that it defaults to 6 or something and to try changing it). Maybe I'll give that a go before I go out and buy something else this weekend.

 

Thanks!

[birchy]

Lynn, before you drop $...

 

In addition to above suggestions:

 

Have you changed the default wireless network name?

Have you secured your wireless network?

 

I would do the above as well as possibly changing the wireless channel (frequency). In my experience doing the above will fix most of your connection issues. And if not, then maybe it's time to get a linksys.

 

peter

 

Peter,

 

If it were either one of those things (the SSID or the security) they wouldn't be able to connect at all. The problem is that the connection gets dropped for a few seconds from time to time, and then reconnects again.