Apparent random loss of wireless connection

[#1]

For some time now I've been experiencing a random pop-up reporting "Wireless Network Connection is now connected" (see attached). This seems to imply that the connection has been lost and re-connected although I've never noticed a loss of connection whilst online.
I was wondering if anyone has seen anything like this. As can be seen the signal strength is reported as Excellent so I can't see why the connection would fail. This issue hasn't really been a problem - I'm just curious as to what's going on.
This is on a desktop PC running XP Home SP3 with a Belkin USB wireless dongle.

[#2]

Possibly some sort of interference on the wireless channel you are using?  Try a different wireless channel.

[#3]

I suspect this is just the wireless connection going to sleep when not in use (power saving feature). When called into action it wakes up and reconnects.

[#4]

Thanks for your replies. I've never been able to find a way to change the wireless channel on the Thomson router.  As for the connection going to sleep, my email client checks for mail every five minutes.  I wouldn't have thought it'd go to sleep that quickly.

[#5]

Quote

I've never been able to find a way to change the wireless channel on the Thomson router

It's definitely there, you need to hit the configure link (towards the top right) when viewing wireless networks on the config page...

[#6]

Hi Adam,
I presume you mean the router page shown attached? As you can see it says changes to the service settings can only be made through the Configuration Wizard and when I went through the steps (with some trepidation as I didn't want to risk upsetting any of the existing settings) there wasn't any option to choose a wireless channel.

[#7]

HI Buggwrit,
How to change the wireless channel
1.Type 192.168.1.254 into a browser address bar
2. If prompted enter username: admin
                            Password: CP********* (found under a bar code on the underside of your router)
3. from the left menu select 'Home Network'
4. In the center, left click 'WLAN PlusnetWireless'. This will take you to a page entitled Wireless Access Point.
5. At the top right of the page click on 'Configure'
6. Where it says Channel selction, change from automatic to manual. This will allow you to change the wireless channel which there are 13 of.
7. Start at 1, and if that's no better change to 13, then 2 then 12 and so on....
8. Click apply.
...something I prepared earlier

[#8]

Many thanks JoJo, now I see it.  Interesting that when I select a new channel I get the pop-up I mentioned in my OP, which makes me wonder if the router has been changing channels on me. Is that possible?

[#9]

AFAIK if it's set to auto it can change the channels

[#10]

Clearly if it's set to Auto it can choose its own channels but it would be interesting to know if it is likely to channel-hop under normal running conditions, that's to say without the stimulus of a power cycle or a restart command from the browser.
Obviously now I have it set to manual it can't do that so time will show if that has made any difference.
Thanks again for your help.

[#11]

Quote from: Joanne

7. Start at 1, and if that's no better change to 13, then 2 then 12 and so on....

Well, I've worked my way through all 13 channels in the order suggested and it's the same on all of them. Is it possible that Spraxyt's suggestion is correct?

[#12]

Hi Buggwrit,
It could well be that Spraxyt's suggestion is correct. Have you tried that? Also, it may be worth setting the security to just WPA rather than WPA2, I've heard that can make a difference.
Jojo