Thomson router rebooting when my laptop connects via wifi.

[#1]

I've been a Plusnet customer for all of a week and am so far unable to reliably connect my laptop wirelessly to the Thomson router. Via ethernet it's fine, and other wireless devices behave well (phones, kindles and an XBox 360) and don't cause a problem. The laptop is a brand new DELL 15R Inspiron, and can connect without problems to other wifi networks and different routers (tested it on two seperate different routers at work and elsewhere). When trying to connect at home I can browse a couple of pages, but then the router reboots itself and takes about 5 minutes to get an internet connection back. This repeats until the laptop is turned off or an ethernet cable is used.
Googling the problem and looking on this forum points to the Power Save Polling as a likely culprit, and specifically the failure of the router to correctly deal with this feature. However, I've changed the power option settings of the wifi adapter of every profile on the machine to 'maximum performance' (as recommended in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928152) and the problem remains. I've also change the profile used to 'high performance' without success. The intel link quoted by many (http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-006205.htm) isn't applicable, as the options to tweak the CAM simply don't appear to exist in Windows 7.
The router firmware is v8. The laptop has a Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 130 wifi adapter.
As far as I can tell my options are to either buy a new router or use an ethernet cable, which defeats the purpose of having a wifi router in the first place. I'm also very concerned that the many disconnects and router reboots caused by trying (and failing) to solve this problem will result in my line being banded as the disconnects are read as faults. Any ideas?

[#2]

I believe this is a common problem and PlusNet are currently looking at it. I'm sure one of the staff can confirm this though.

[#3]

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The laptop has a Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 130 wifi adapter.

In that case your laptop is probably trying to connect via wireless N which isn't compatible with the router.
I'd advise checking the wireless settings on the laptop to see if you can change it to use wireless B or G.

[#4]

The laptop should automatically connect to wireless G. An N adaptor is backwards compatible so I don't think that would cause the problem.

[#5]

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An N adaptor is backwards compatible so I don't think that would cause the problem.

Not in all cases, some do need this configuring so I'd still advise checking that.

[#6]

I'll certainly check the settings when I get home from work and see if this is the case. I guess I need to go to the network connection centre and right click the properties of the wireless connection there?
However, if it was set to N would that explain the symptoms I posted? Would it work alright for a couple of browser pages and then cause a reboot of the router? Or would it just not work altogether?
Also, my second question was whether these many disconnects are going to cause my broadband to be banded.

[#7]

that sounds right yes. I can't guarantee if banding will be put in place. However if you do see a drop in speeds please shout up and I'll help you look into that.
Likewise if you struggle to get the wireless working we do have options to try upgrading the router firmware and also to replace the router if that turns out to be at fault.

[#8]

Is there a later version of the firmware than v8 (the version on my router) to which I can upgrade? Since other people have reported this problem with the router in question what kind of replacement router would be provided? Obviously a new unit of the same model of router won't be a solution, since the router itself is not faulty as such, it just doesn't deal with something correctly as a result of a design flaw. Presumably the design flaw exists in every router of this make (at least with this version of the firmware).
Or is there a new version of firmware in the pipeline to deal with this?

[#9]

You could try installing the official Thomson firmware on it, but this would probably void the PlusNet warranty and PlusNet could lock it anyway.

[#10]

I probably won't be trying that, then. Thanks anyway, sjrinfroyle.
Like I said, I'll have a look at the wireless properties when I get home tonight but I'd appreciate answers from Plusnet to my other questions in the meantime.
1) you say we can try upgrading the router firmware, but if I'm on v8 isn't this the latest version available? What can I upgrade to?
2) when you say 'replace the router' do you mean another Thomson router, because that would seem to be inappropriate as the the router itself does not seem to have an individual fault, but rather a fault in the design/firmware that will affect all other models of the same router.
3) would the wifi adapter on the laptop trying to use N wireless cause the symptoms I laid out in my original post (temporary wifi access, then the router reboots itself after a couple of pages)? Or would it simply not work altogether?
4) is there a version of firmware in the works that deals with the PSP compatibility problem?
Thanks in advance for any answers.

[#11]

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) you say we can try upgrading the router firmware, but if I'm on v8 isn't this the latest version available? What can I upgrade to?

There is actually a further update that can be done from here, it's mainly to fix issues some customers have had connecting via windows 7.

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when you say 'replace the router' do you mean another Thomson router, because that would seem to be inappropriate as the the router itself does not seem to have an individual fault, but rather a fault in the design/firmware that will affect all other models of the same router.

Yes it would be another Thomson but we would only do this if it is suspected as faulty.

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3) would the wifi adapter on the laptop trying to use N wireless cause the symptoms I laid out in my original post (temporary wifi access, then the router reboots itself after a couple of pages)? Or would it simply not work altogether?

More likely to be no connection at all, but it could cause those symptoms.

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is there a version of firmware in the works that deals with the PSP compatibility problem?

Not directly no, but as per my answer to your first question this does tend to resolve some issues with Windows 7.

[#12]

Many thanks again, Adam. I'll post later when I've been able to examine the wifi connection properties.

[#13]

I've checked my wireless connection settings.
Wireless mode is set to 802.11 b/g already.

[#14]

My Dell Inspiron 2200 has a Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility. Presumably your Dell will have something similar. Using that utility, you could run the diagnostics to check for correct functioning of your wireless card. Worth a try!

[#15]

O2 supplies the same router and whenever I connected laptop to my router, the router itself reboots. The solution was to buy myself NETGEAR router DG834G for £5-£10 from ebay and since then happily ever after... Just waiting for new land line installation and PN broadband