Hi,
I have a wireless network at home, running off a Netgear g router provided by my ISP. Everything's been running pretty smoothly for the last few years until I built a new PC.
I bought a PCI wifi card and installed it (had some issues at first because it was improperly seated, but got it working). It connected, but the signal strength was awful and it couldn't run more than one network task at once without killing the others (for example, loading a webpage would halt all downloads for like 20 seconds, and leaving something like Facebook open would halt them until closed). Then it just started altogether failing to connect (could still see the network though). So I got out an old Netgear USB adapter and that worked fine for a while, occasionally failing to connect in the same manner but usually managing it on a second try.
Now it just won't connect at all. It detects the network, just doesn't connect, like the other adapter. I did manage to get it to do it once late last night, but I'm not sure how or why, as it's still failing now. Everything else on the network works, and it has connected and worked before, so I'm not sure what the issue is. I've tried creating adhoc networks and access points with my phone, and both adapters manage those fine, it's just my router they can't connect to.
Sometimes I've seen notifications of IP address conflicts on both this computer and others - I'm guessing this might be part of the issue.
The router is getting a little old and I'm considering just replacing it, but is there anything I can do at the moment?
Thanks for your help!
Try updating drivers and moving the PC to a different location to see if it gets a better signal. Also try changing the channel on the router to 1, 6, or 11.
All the drivers are up to date. I tried it on Ubuntu, also gets the exact same results. It's not a signal issue - the Netgear USB adaptor has 4 or 5 bars out of 5 signal (the PCI card is a little weaker but still gets ample signal on the detection). Will try changing the channel, and see how that works out. Thing is, it sometimes connects, so I'm not sure what's wrong here.
See if there is interference from neighboring access points with inSSIDer, also I had a card that would be flaky because it kept unseating itself no matter what I did, and ultimately had to switch to a USB adapter.
Wow what the hell, I changed the channel to 1 and now both adapters are working. The issue with the prioritization stuff seems to be gone too, but the signal strength on the PCI card is still rubbish and it's kinda slow - any suggestions on what to improve here? The Netgear USB adapter is significantly faster and gets better signal, even though it's a small USB device without the larger antenna.
Some cards just suck. Get one that has good reviews.
The problem seems to have resumed. Also, my brother's computer (which has had no issues until just now) lost connection for a few minutes, and the internet seems very slow.
[editline]11th June 2012[/editline]
And now it just randomly succeeded in connecting. Any idea what's going on here?
[editline]11th June 2012[/editline]
Ok, it just dropped out again.
Try another router if you have one. Also some cordless phones operating on 2.4Ghz can cause router interference, most phones nowadays do not however.
Getting more IP address conflicts. This is probably a router issue, right? It's due an upgrade anyway.
Use a static ip address?
The router should dish out IP's as necessary, make sure that non of the computers or all of them are using static IP addresses. On my network I have it set to automatically dish out IPs in a range and then beyond that range I have static IPs set up.
When checking for static IPs, is it on the device end or the router end?
Both, see what the router is set up to do, and check each pc to see if it's set to static instead of automatic.
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