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General discussion

Wireless connect On then OFF

Mar 3, 2005 11:07PM PST

Shortly after my wife picked up a wirless Sony Viao
laptop, and decided to share our Comcast broadband with our kids (using AOL dial-up), I picked up the standard Linksys router (which is looped directly through my desktop in my office), and a Linksys adapter for my kids computer two rooms away. The router is the G, four port, WRT54G.

After a week of wireless bliss (kids in seventh-heaven over no more dialup), the connection began to intermittently lose connectivity, then with "repair, pick up again. That lasted another week. From that point on I was on the phone with Linksys every three days, going through complex diagnostics, pinging left, right, and center. Each time they managed to get my kids puter back online...but it has become tedious.

It seems each tech has a different reasoning for why that adapter loses signal. It's two rooms away, and no brick walls or other obvious impeding structures in the way.

I recently read in a pc magazine the glitch could be the 2.4GHz cordless phone, and fax/cordless phone in my office. What do I do? Shoot out and replace everything with 5GHz communication equiptment...or is there a better router/adpter I can switch to???
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Ron Kolman
doonbiz@aol.com

Discussion is locked

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try to put your cordless in the base
Mar 4, 2005 5:19AM PST

the Logic is when the cordless is off the base, it will transmit a signal... also when you don't use it anymore.. same logic apply... remove the battery..

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Move the phone further away from the Wireless router
Mar 4, 2005 5:55PM PST

The cordless phone COULD be your problem, but it doesn't sound like it to me. Try moving the phone on one side of your office computer, the router on the other. See if that makes a difference (same for any cordless phone near the kid's computer). I have heard that the proximity of the phone to the router (or adapter) can be a problem, though I didn't experience it myself.

If you seem to keep losing connections at a regular interval (like every 24, 48 hrs), then it would likely be your Router's LEASE time settings for the internet connection.

Presuming that you have a DYNAMIC IP address for your cable modem (like MY Comcast connection), check your router's LEASE time. Either set it to NEVER (if that is an option), or check for an option to have it auto-reconnect. It could be at some interval close to when you usually have the connection drop on you. If it doesn't auto reconnect, you lose connection, and have to restart the router.

If it is only the connection to the wireless adapter on the Kid's computer, it COULD be simply having trouble getting a good signal. That could be phone related, or due to other structures in the house (plumbing in walls, brick work, etc).

If the adapter on the kid's computer is a wireless USB adapter, see if they can move it farther away from the monitor or computer. And change the orientation of the antenna. That might help.

The last option would be to place the router in a more central location between the computers, or get an range extender.

I say check the LEASE time settings on the router first. Make sure it is either set to NEVER, or check for the option to auto-reconnect.

good luck

Larry Bell