Wireless Woes

[Dymetrie]

So here at Chateau Dimtree we have a lovely wireless network to power the funky laptop which I got for my sister (which I use more and am in fact posting from right now! ), the only problem I've encountered is a curious oddity which, for no reason, causes the interweb connection to drop for a few minutes every now and then.

Now I've checked (on many occasions) and the wireless is still running, the laptop can still see the network and access the other machines connected to it but just can't access t'interweb...

I thought it was possibly just an anomoly with the wireless card and laptop possibly overheating, but I found out yesterday that my brother is getting the same problem on his wireless network (well the losing interweb thing, not sure if he can still access the network as I've not been over to look and he doesn't run loads of machines 24/7 like what we do).

The only thing which is the same for both wireless networks is that they are being run by Netgear Routers (albeit our one with DHCP turned off as the wired router in my room runs t'interweb and DHCP/DNS for the network).

Anyone got any ideas about what could be causing this and how it might be fixed?

Thankee.

Garp Log: additional: My main thought kinda revolves around possible routing issues, though I can't figure out quite why. The setup involves two routers, one non-wireless hooked up to a cable modem, the other is the wireless one connected by physical cable to the primary. My machines are hooked direct into the wireless one and they DONT get the disconnections that the laptop does which kinda implies its a windows issue...?

[Mark]

Seems like you already have the right expert in the house to me. I'd be looking at exactly what Garp 'logged'.

I'd be playing with traceroute. Get the IP address of a 'reputable' site that is unlikely to go down, and run a traceroute to it while the network is good. Then run a traceroute to the IP address you noted earlier when the network is broke and see where it stops.

Also, P2P apps (BitTorrent in particular) are well-known for their ability to bring down routers that don't have a strong constitution. Are you running any of those?

PS - after spending the best part of two years fighting with wireless, I gave up, though in truth I still use it for my Mac Mini. That, however, is 2ft fron the router at all times so never drops connection (other than when OS X has a bad day).

[Blackstar]

When i'm at Martin's if i lie between the laptop and the direction of the wireless then the signal drops.

[mejinks]

when you say hooked into, you are meaning hooked via ethernet port? Is the laptop the only wireless device?

It seems to suggest that both networks suffer with the same problem which is something to do with the way the Netgears are set up. Have you got the latest firmware?

Something I have seen recently which is probably not the case here, was someone using ARP poisoning with something called cain and abel.

Has Mr Jarp run wireshark to see what traffic is floating about on your network. I was surprised to find my laptop trying to log into a radius server when I had it running once.

[LeperousDust]

I was having exactly the same issue with Vista, but after installed the service packs it cleared itself up. It was annoying because if i just disconnected and then connected again it was perfect, and then an hour two or more later exactly the same thing... hasn't happened for a week now though so its safe to say.... (Talk about chancing fate )

[Dymetrie]

Well today I was reintroduced to the interweb and as there's now just me and Kate and only 2 (well, 3 at the moment) computers in the house then I am using the wireless router.

It's now set up as the DHCP server with the latest firmware and openDNS coded into it.

Despite the router being approximately 2 miles (I may be exagerating, but my new flat does go on FOREVER) from the living room I am happily sat here browsing t'interweb and chatting to peoples on MSN.

Kate logged the drops as being about once an hour (annoying for her when she's streaming a 3 hour radio programme), and current stable uptime is well over 90 minutes

Need to test it further but everything looks to be working well now. Will have a go at upgrading the firmware on my brother's router when I'm next over there to see if that does any good.

[Feek]

All sounds good, surprised Jarp didn't think of something as basic as router firmware *runs and hides*

[Mark]

Wireless is generally much better at coping with casual browsing than it is with sustained transfers - especially those that need a lot of bandwidth. This is where I fell over problems with my old wireless setup (streaming Freeview needs a constant 5-10 Mbps).

[Dymetrie]

I'll be sure to test the streaming at some point... But it was doing it with standard browsing as well :/

CBA to test it tonight though, allegedly I have to celebrate my newfound interweb connection with some HalfLife Deathmatch

[Dymetrie]

This is quite an interesting one, and can probably be answered remarkably easily...

Current network is being run by my O2 Wireless Box II, hardwired to Phoenix and then WPA-PSK encrypted wireless for the two iPhones and two laptops.

All of this works fine...

Today I tried to get my mediabox onto the network with an old D-Link wireless card (there's no way I can have it wired)...

It refuses to connect, or more accurately it refuses to even acknowledge that a WPA key is needed and just states that it is unable to connect.

The mediabox is running Vista Ultimate and the network card is a DWL-520+ (802.11b, network is set to allow b and g). Vista says that the card is properly installed and working but I get nothing

I've tried manually configuring the WPA settings but then I get a nice big red cross next to the network saying that the settings are wrong (when they're not)...

Anyone got any ideas of stuff to try, or should I just pick up a nice 802.11g wireless card which won't give me a headache?

Ta