cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Can't get laptop to connect wireless

jgardner
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Hi,
I've got a D-Link DSL-904 router, but i can't get my laptop to connect wirelessly.
It sees my router and shows it as having full signal strength, and sometimes connect for about 10 secs before the internet stops working. It still shows as being connected, but nothing works.
I know its not the laptop at fault because my Wii has the same problem.
Any suggestions on what this could be. I'm running Vista premium as my OS.
17 REPLIES 17
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Hiya,
Just to ask the obvious, do you have any cordless phones or similar near the router that could potentially cause interference?
I used to have a similar problem caused by my cordless phone, which bizarrely only happened after 3pm.
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

have u got wep set on the router as your problems are normally due to wrong key/password
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

If that were the case, it wouldn't connect at all though, let alone for ten seconds.  I'd be of the opinion that something is causing the connection to disconnect.
jgardner
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

I have cordless phones in the bedroom and living room. The PC with the router is in the spare room and i have tried connecting the laptop wirelessly in every room in the house.
I have tried removing all security and connecting, but that still doesn't work.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Can you try unplugging all of the phones and see if this makes any difference?
jgardner
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

I'll give it a go when i get home tonight.
I'll be pretty narked if this is whats has been stopping it all this time lol.
Quote from: James
Can you try unplugging all of the phones and see if this makes any difference?
jgardner
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Would you believe it, now i've turned off the cordless phones, its working fine.
How is a novice like myself supposed to know that lol.
Thanks for the help guys.
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Well at least you got to the bottom of it!!
On some cordless phones there is an option to change the frequency they are using, it might be worthwhile trying a few different ones and seeing if it keeps dropping.
Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
zubel
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,793
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Or alternatively, you can try changing the "Channel" that the wireless is using on your router - you should have a choice from channel 1 to channel 11, which each use a slightly different frequency band - you may find a channel that doesn't conflict with your phone!
B.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Have to admit when I had problems with my wireless, I tried pretty much every single wireless channel available on the router as I didn't have the functionality on my phone.
Definitely worth a go though.
jgardner
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

I was already on channel 6, tried the other channels and still had the problem, but works fine for a while when the phones are switched off.
Connection does drop after about 20mins, but the connection on my PC (which is connected to router with a cable) drops as well so now looks like i have a timeout problem and the only timeout setting i can see on the router has 1000 minutes on it.
If i unplug the router and plug it in again, connection is restored.
zubel
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,793
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Set the timeout on the router to 0
Barry
Red_Baron
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎04-08-2007

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

I suspect you are using WPA encryption. Vista will only work satifactorily with WPA2 encryption. Check that you are getting connectivity by switching off encryption altogether, though I don't recommend running like that. I had exactly this problem, as have thousands of others, and I solved it by replacing my fairly new router with a Vista compatible new one.
M$ have introduced a hotfix for this problem, which is not a freely available download (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935222/en-us) and they are very mealy-mouthed about it - not intending to really address the problem until SP1 is issued, possibly in the new year.
A comprehensive thread on this tale of woe (going back to the beta days over a year ago) can be found on M$'s own TechNet forum at http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?pageindex=8&siteid=17&postid=481371&sb=0&d=1&at=7&.... There are plenty of others.
I haven't tried the hotfix myself as I had already spent my hard earned money on a new router before I found out about it.
Not applicable

Re: Can't get laptop to connect wireless

Also not knowing about the potential problems of positioning of cordless telephones/wireless routers, I have had my router and telephone base set sitting right next to each other and on the same telephone socket (filtered).  This does not seem to have caused any problems, although I have moved them slightly further away from each other since reading this post.  The Linksys router that I use is WEP encrypted and is on Vista.