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Dodgy wireless connection

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Dodgy wireless connection

I am wondering if someone could suggest any further action that I can take in respect of my friend's broadband connection?
She has Windows Vista and a Netgear router. I set it all up myself and everything is working OK router-wise - WPA encryption and working on channel 11. Each morning she boots the computer up and it won't connect, even with the ethernet cable in. The signal has been dipping to 2 bars so I updated the drivers and now it is back to full.
She removes the power cable from the router, puts it back in and then the computer connects both via the ethernet and wireless.
Later in the day she seems to have no problems. I cannot understand why it fails in the morning but not in the afternoon/evening. I don't think that it is anything to do with the wireless side of things because it won't connect via ethernet at these times.
Any advice gratefully received.
5 REPLIES 5
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Dodgy wireless connection

poppy
As a first try go into the router through the browser then select Basic Settings and check the idle timeout - the default is usually 5 mins. Change it to 0 (zero)
Not applicable

Re: Dodgy wireless connection

Have heard about this setting but didn't know what it was so have googled it to understand it a bit better. Will try this next time I go through to check things. Am glad that you told me where to look on the Netgear - checked my Thomson router and couldn't find it.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Dodgy wireless connection

On the Thompson it is done via the CLI (Command Line Interface) after telnetting in. Not at all simple
One other thing - when this happens what do the lights show - I would have expected that one of the ethernet lights would be either green or orange (depends on how the bios is setup). If you don't have any lit it may be a computer problem. If so go into Control Panel then Network and Sharing Centre which should give you something like this picture. There are a couple of options in the menu which may help
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Re: Dodgy wireless connection

Got to say that I didn't ask her about the lights on the router when the problem occurs - bit embarrassed about that!  Embarrassed
Your graphic of the Network and Sharing Centre is the same as ours except that we don't have File Sharing activated.
It is on Private Network with Network discovery on and Password protected sharing on (for when her family visit and bring their laptops).
As I said, I have just applied the Windows update for the wireless card and the signal has now come up to excellent.
Although the laptop is about 18 months old it came with a 3 year warranty but I had discounted problems with this as it seems fine later in the day. Thank you for your interest and help.
Not applicable

Re: Dodgy wireless connection

Just an update for oldjim - did as you suggested and the idle timeout was already set to zero.
I am very glad but embarrassed to say that the problem seems to be resolved for now.  Embarrassed
After trying another router and generally messing about (as you do) it was all down to the tried and trusted 'plug the router into the main socket' and 'use another filter' - I should have known better and done both in the first place.
The router was upstairs on the end of an extension cable - the reason for this is that when the Netgear was first used it was hardwired into a desktop computer.
When I changed it to wireless (when my friend bought a laptop), I left it as it was and it has always worked well.
Strangely, it was only the first boot of the day when problems arose - subsequent connections were fine.
It just goes to show that looking for the obvious is not all that obvious (well not to me at least) - another lesson learned.
Thank you for your input.