Thomson V8 wireless connectivity problem with Windows Vista Laptops

[#1]

Hi,
I switched to Plus Net 2 weeks ago and since day one I have been having problems connecting my Windows Vista Laptops to the Thomson V8 router. I have got 2 laptops that have Windows Vista on them.
One laptop is a Toshiba with Windows Vista and is about 3.5 years old , it was not able to connect at all initially. I googled about the problem and found that the Thomson router has some issues with the Windows Vista and there was a solution to change the windows registry so that the router assigns the same IP address everytime the wireless connection is made. I made that change and it connected but the connection drops in between intermittently and it does not connect automatically. I have to reboot my laptop for it to connect to the router wirelessly again.
The second laptop I have is a Compaq with Windows Vista which is about 2 years old, it worked fine for the first couple of days and started having the same problem. Restarting the laptop also did not solve the problem so I have to restart the router and it connects or I have to hibernate the laptop so that it can restore the connectivity.
I have been contacting Plus Net technical support almost everyday and they have been trying different things like changing channel settings on the router, changing security settings but nothing has worked so far. They even sent me a second router to test but the same problem persisted with the second router also. One of the technical team guys asked me to change the power consumption settings on the wireless adapter and that also did not work. 
I have tried connecting laptops with Windows 7 on them and they do not get any problems and neither do I get any problems while connecting wirelessly with my mobile phone. This is all very frustrating as everytime I restart the router my connection speed also goes down and I don't know what to do. I did not face this problem with my previous broadband provider's (Sky) router which was a 5 year old Netgear. Can anyone please help otherwise I will be thinking of switching back to my old broadband provider because so far my experience with Plus Net has not been very pleasant.
Thanks a lot in advance.

[#2]

I assume your router is a Thomson TG585v8 supplied by Plusnet. Does this have v8.2.7.7 firmware? Wireless connectivity problems with that firmware were discussed in a long thread in this forum and Thomson released firmware v8.2.7.8 to fix this. The first thing to do is update your firmware - the firmware required and procedure for doing this is explained in the how to upgrade / downgrade the firmware on the Thomson 585v7 and 585v8 library article.
Hopefully that will fix the problem, but if other issues are seen afterwards see the stickied post at the top of this forum.

[#3]

Thank you spraxyt. I have upgraded the firmware to v8.2.7.8 and it seems to have resolved the connectivity problem with one laptop (I shut it down for an hour and restarted it and it conncted) but the problem still persists with my other laptop. It is a Toshiba Satellite with Windows Vista SP2. The router is not able to assign an IP address to the laptop. I was using a fixed IP to be assigned to this laptop and it works but still the connection drops intermittently in between and I need to restart my laptop to be able to connect it again. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
H.

[#4]

I'm not convinced but this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us is probably worth a try.

[#5]

I had exactly the same issue on my Samsung laptop.
I can connect to the WIFI but cant get onto the internet
Without restarting the router.
My Iphone connects ok but regularly ask me to reselect my
WIFI every time I want to surf the internet.
Rang PN who where helpful but did not resolve the issue.
I have never has any issues with my old Netgear (Sky) router
So decided the best plan was to reconfigure my old router to Plus Net.
I can now connect to the WIFI with all my devices without any issues.
However it was while configuring my old router I identified an
Issue that may resolve your problem.
On first connecting my old router I could not connect to the internet.
Remember this is a router that has worked for the past 4 years without
Any issues.
I resolved the issue by changing the WIFI security from WEP to WPA-PSK.
I have not tried the resolution on the Thompson router but it may be worth a shot.
PS: I temporary switched off security on my WIFI to identify the issue.
Once I was sure all devices could connect with security switched off I new
I has identified the issue. “Don’t forget to switch security beck on or you leave
Your router open to attack”. 

[#6]

Hi,
Thanks for your inputs. I today managed to successfully flash my old netgear router (supplied by Sky) with latest firmware and am using that now without any connection problems with any of my devices. Thomson router is awful so it is packed in the box now. Now the new problem I am having is with the broadband speed. It was around 2.5 MBPS yesterday and has dropped to a terrible 400kbps since morning with Thomson and seems to be the same on the Netgear as well. 
I am regretting my decision to move to PlusNet, never had any problems with the equipment or speed with Sky ever.

[#7]

router stats?
bt speedtest results
high speed broadband info (under connection settings on your PN account) which shows plusnets IP profile?
If you have been disconnecting/rebooting your routers the DLM may have banded your connection (fixed the connection speed much lower) or increased the min SNR thus reducing sync rates.

[#8]

Hi,
I tried to do the BT Speed Test multiple time but it gave the same error everytime, the screenshot is attached. The screenshot for IP profile is also attached. I was restarting the router about once a day and did not restart since yesterday when I upgraded the firmware and there was a noticeable difference between last night and today morning. The max supported speed on my line is 3 Mbps and I was getting 2.1 to 2.3 Mbps even after restarting the router almost everyday. I don't know what has happened overnight after upgrading the firmware that the speed has dropped from 2.1Mbps to 300kbps. Will there be any other reason of the line speed dropping suddenly to this level?
Thanks.

[#9]

You need to click on the 'high speed broadband' icon to get your plusnet IP Profile.
And your routers line stats?

[#10]

Hi Peter,
These are the high speed broadband settings under my account:
Phone exchange:
    SHENLEY CHURCH END
Estimated line speed:
    3.0Mb (This may vary between 2.5Mb and 6.5Mb) - Checked on 2011-01-11 22:37:56
Current line speed:
    1.75 Mb
This is the router stats:
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 3424 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 448 kbps
Please let me know if there is anything else that can help diagnose the problem.
Cheers..

[#11]

The current line speed is the plusnet IP profile. This is lower than your sync speed so one reason for the slower data rates you are seeing - it should be 3000 (3Mbs) for a sync rate of 3424.
We need the full details from the router line stats including SNR, line attenuation etc. What you have given is only part of the info and not enough to fully diagnose the problem.
Can you try a bt speedtest again?

[#12]

Hi Peter,
I have run the BT speed test successfully now. The results are attached below. Looks like a wrong profile has been assigned to my connection. Any ideas how it can be corrected.
Cheers.

[#13]

Are you switching your router off frequently / every night as the sync rate in the BT speedtest is different to what you posted from your router?
Switching off can sometimes confuse the exchanges dynamic line management (DLM) which will reduce your IP profile to compensate for what it thinks is a bad line.
You have to remain at a steady sync rate for several days before DLM will increase your profile - this means don't drop the connection i.e. leave your router on and don't disconnect for any reason.
DLM can be very flaky and does not always work to your benefit and often limits your speeds for no obvious reasons.

[#14]

I was restarting it at least once a day when I was trying to get the Thomson router working with my Windows Vista laptops. I have not switched it off since last 24 hours when I was able to configure my old Netgear router to work with Plus Net. Is there any way to manually reset the IP profile or do I have to wait for the exchange to do it automatically.

[#15]

It's a waiting name I'm afraid, but if nothing changes after 4 days raise a ticket.
It is incredibly difficult for PN to get BT to reset a line so it retrains and gets a more suitable profile.