Wireless router/connection issues

[Russ Smith]

I have 2 computers at home now a computer my dad built that's hooked to the Comcast modem, and my girlfriend's laptop in the living room. We have a linksys router and a linksys wireless-g 2.4 GHZ wireless adapter that plugs into a USB port on the laptop.

I have several weird issues.

1) The laptop "loses" the wireless, not the connection, it forgets the wireless adapter is connected to the laptop altogether. I have to keep opening and closing it, plugging and unplugging it from teh USB until it eventually finds it again. This happens more and more doesn't matter which USB port I use.

2) Recently twice in the middle of changing from one website to another the wireless suddenly disconnects and asks me for the WEP password. I have it, but it won't take it.

3) This has always puzzled me, sometimes I have low connection strength, sometimes excellent, nothing has changed, nothing has moved, why is my connection strength so variable?

I'm thinking I need to buy a new adapter I think the router is fine but something is up with the adapter? Linksys customer service suggests the problem is with my windows version(XP) not recognizing what's attached by USB, but the only problem is with the wireless it never loses the digital mouse or anything else connected by USB..

For question 2, does it sound like maybe I'm being hacked and that's why I lose the connection and it won't take the password? The password is 26 characters and when I get a list of wireless networks where I live there's over 20 and at least 5 have no firewall so I can't imagine someone would first bother to try and hack mine, and second be able to get by a 26 character password? Eventually it just reconnects without ever asking for the password.

 

[Russ Smith]

Just happened again 5 minutes after writing, disconnected, won't take the password.

I literally walked the laptop into the room and put the wireless antenna 2 inches from the router before trying to reconnect and it won't connect.

Bad antenna adapter?

 

[82CardsGrad]

Just happened again 5 minutes after writing, disconnected, won't take the password.

I literally walked the laptop into the room and put the wireless antenna 2 inches from the router before trying to reconnect and it won't connect.

Bad antenna adapter?

Just get as new laptop with an integrated wireless card!

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Sounds like it is going to sleep. Go into your power options in the control panel, and try to adjust those.

 

[Russ Smith]

Sounds like it is going to sleep. Go into your power options in the control panel, and try to adjust those.

No the laptop is not sleeping it's doing it now right in the middle of typing an email while logged into work email system.

 

[Sandan]

What is the signal strength like ?

 

[SweetD]

Could also be you don't have enough power going to the USB ports. Sometimes when you hook up to many things like a mouse, wifi, and/or printer you can only use one of the ports. Older laptops don't have enought power dedicated to the usb ports for all the power hungry devices like wifi, ipod, and printers.

 

[Russ Smith]

I think we either have a major issue with the laptop or xp, or some virus.

Last night it did it again, then the laptop screen went blue and white almost like a bios screen split second and then rebooted. This morning I turned it on and it hung, IE wouldn't open, task manager showed nothing running but at 100% capacity, I had to manually power down. When i rebooted it eventually said windows was recovering from a major error.

I am now plugged in direct to the modem running a virus check etc before I try the wireless again.

 

[Darth Llama]

I think the problem might be your Wireless Adapter.

I had that same one, and while it didn't do that exact thing, I had nothing but problems with it. I like Linksys routers and modems, but their Wirless adapters are horrible, even when connecting to a Linksys router.

I had a PC across the room that I wanted to connect wireless. I tried one of those USB adapters first because I was to lazy to put in a PCI Card. Half the time it wouldn't connect, and when it did, it would lose signal after a few minutes. The device wouldn't drop like yours, it would just stop working.

I took it back to best buy, and purchased a DLink PCI adapter and never had another problem. I would try taking the Adapter back and getting a different one. Those things are nothing but trouble from my experience. My laptop has a built in Wireless Adapter, and it has no problems either.

 

[Russ Smith]

I think the problem might be your Wireless Adapter.

I had that same one, and while it didn't do that exact thing, I had nothing but problems with it. I like Linksys routers and modems, but their Wirless adapters are horrible, even when connecting to a Linksys router.

I had a PC across the room that I wanted to connect wireless. I tried one of those USB adapters first because I was to lazy to put in a PCI Card. Half the time it wouldn't connect, and when it did, it would lose signal after a few minutes. The device wouldn't drop like yours, it would just stop working.

I took it back to best buy, and purchased a DLink PCI adapter and never had another problem. I would try taking the Adapter back and getting a different one. Those things are nothing but trouble from my experience. My laptop has a built in Wireless Adapter, and it has no problems either.

Thansk I actually got the adapter for free so I can't complain about the cost.

I was thinking of getting one that plugs into the PC card slot but I'm now pretty sure there's also something seriously wrong with the laptop itself. It's now not hibernating when I close it, and the other day it hung when I tried to turn it off it said shutting down permanently until I manually turned it off by pushing the power button.

So I think there's a definite issue there but probably also with the adapter. just not sure there's any point in spending money on a new adapter if the laptop is dying.

 

[Darth Llama]

Thansk I actually got the adapter for free so I can't complain about the cost.

I was thinking of getting one that plugs into the PC card slot but I'm now pretty sure there's also something seriously wrong with the laptop itself. It's now not hibernating when I close it, and the other day it hung when I tried to turn it off it said shutting down permanently until I manually turned it off by pushing the power button.

So I think there's a definite issue there but probably also with the adapter. just not sure there's any point in spending money on a new adapter if the laptop is dying.

It could still be a software issue if you have a driver problem someplace. Do you have any yellow ! markers listed in your device manager?

Probably the easiest and cheapest fix would be to try backing up anything you need and just reformat the laptop and re-install windows fresh. Sometimes a fresh format/install can fix annoying little problems like that. I know it's probably not the ideal solution for a fix, but at least it's free.

You might also want to check the manufacturers web site and make sure you're using all the latest drivers for your laptop model. Hope you're able to get it working soon, sounds really frustrating.

 

[Sandan]

lmao.

Have to do that 2-3 times a year myself

 

[dreamcastrocks]

lmao.

Have to do that 2-3 times a year myself

Agreed.

 

[Russ Smith]

It could still be a software issue if you have a driver problem someplace. Do you have any yellow ! markers listed in your device manager?

Probably the easiest and cheapest fix would be to try backing up anything you need and just reformat the laptop and re-install windows fresh. Sometimes a fresh format/install can fix annoying little problems like that. I know it's probably not the ideal solution for a fix, but at least it's free.

You might also want to check the manufacturers web site and make sure you're using all the latest drivers for your laptop model. Hope you're able to get it working soon, sounds really frustrating.

That's sort of where I'm heading with it. Not familiar with device manager I'll have to check into that. There's clearly something wrong with windows.

Just of course a hassle to do but it's probably what I'll end up doing. I do have the original CD's for windows etc so I can do it just have to get motivated to spend the time on it.

 

[Sandan]

Waiting for Vista SP1 before next time.

Plan to go 64 bit

 

[Duckjake]

Just get as new laptop with an integrated wireless card!

I did that and it won't pick up a signal from the router if I'm more than 10 feet away.

My other laptop also an HP picks up a very good to excellent signal just about anywhere in the house.

What's fun is to put them side by side about 50' away from the router in another room and watch the older unit fire right up while the new one indicates it can't find any wireless networks.

EDIT: The power is on. So is the wireless switch.

 

[DeAnna]

I think the problem might be your Wireless Adapter.

I had that same one, and while it didn't do that exact thing, I had nothing but problems with it. I like Linksys routers and modems, but their Wirless adapters are horrible, even when connecting to a Linksys router.

I had a PC across the room that I wanted to connect wireless. I tried one of those USB adapters first because I was to lazy to put in a PCI Card. Half the time it wouldn't connect, and when it did, it would lose signal after a few minutes. The device wouldn't drop like yours, it would just stop working.

I took it back to best buy, and purchased a DLink PCI adapter and never had another problem. I would try taking the Adapter back and getting a different one. Those things are nothing but trouble from my experience. My laptop has a built in Wireless Adapter, and it has no problems either.

Ah, yes - this happened to me this weekend. Tried to add the new laptop to our wireless network (Belkin router). Got a Linksys PC card; Best Buy said brand doesn't matter.

After 3 hours, I gave up on it since I couldn't connect to the internet (not even after manually confirguing the ISP). Took it back and got a Belkin USB adapter. Worked for 5 minutes, then kept dropping the connection.

Took that one back and then went Circuit City to get the Belkin PC card. Worked like a charm right out of the box.