Wireless performance

[net91]

 Hi all - one again a long time since I posted on here.

I'm attempting to improve the wireless performance of my Maplin Value Wireless 54g ADSL2+ Modem Router. At the moment, while using the two laptops that we have in our house (both Toshiba Equium a100s), I have noticed that the wireless connection drops intermittently for no more than a couple of seconds. This is shown by Vista's networking icon briefly displaying a red cross, and streaming video, such as iPlayer or 4OD, pausing and sometimes displaying a message that says it has lost internet connectivity briefly. The can happen fairly regularly – the most I've noticed it happen was three times while watching a 40 minute programme on iPlayer.

There are a number of things I can think of that may help:

•   Changing wireless channel as quite a few of our neighbour's wireless connection show up. (The laptops have some Toshiba software, called 'Radar', that displays what channels all wireless connections in the vicinity are using.)
•   Installing the latest firmware on the router
•   Factory resetting the router to ensure that there is no error on it

Is there anything else that I can try to reduce loss of wireless connection?

All advice appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

[Glenn]

Dan, if you use a wired connection, does the router still drop the connection? Just trying to see if it is just the wireless side of the router having the problem.

[net91]

No, the router doesn't drop the connection when using a wired connection.

[nowster]

Anyone locally with a 2.4GHz video sender, or a microwave oven?

[Technical Ben]

You could use a Network sniffer to check which channel is most used. Like InSSIDer.
Then change to a free channel. Could it be the box overheating?

[net91]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  

Anyone locally with a 2.4GHz video sender, or a microwave oven?

I've checked our microwave and it does indeed have a frequency of 2.4GHz, we have no wireless video sender. I'm not sure about the neighbours though.

You could use a Network sniffer to check which channel is most used. Like InSSIDer.
Then change to a free channel. Could it be the box overheating?

I'll give InSSIDer a go. Well it doesn't feel particularly hot, not sure if there's a more technical way checking that? 

[Technical Ben]

None. Just some of the older Wifi routers get very hot. Then die. At least our old 3com one did. 

[net91]

I phoned up Maplin technical support today and the guy decided it was a faulty router within a few minutes. I returned it to the store I bought it from and they swapped it straight away, they even let me chose a different router - and I bought the original router in August! Very good service from Maplin.  

Anyway, I've got my new Netgear Wireless N150 Modem Router up and running. Fingers crossed all is well.  

[Steve]

 

[Technical Ben]

I've got a similar problem. Can get a full speed sync on the other side of the house at 7mb. You would not even know it was not wired in. Trying to use it in the same room? 2-3mb or less. I've tried moving the sofa and router to all sorts of places, and nothing helps. 

[Rik]

Switch to cable, Ben?

[Technical Ben]

Have done again. :/ Dropped to 1mb with tweaking. 
I've decided it's a duff card. Some versions were recalled, and they never released 64bit drivers (and mine is ). I had no way of knowing, as there were no card offering 64bit compatibility when I looked. 
I'll probably give it to the family for one of their xp machines. Have to get a usb one for myself.

[Rik]

Sounds a it that way, Ben.

[nowster]

Sometimes you can get odd standing waves in a room. Place your laptop on the convenient table, and you get very odd latencies and the throughput is less than a megabit per second. Take it with you to the sofa, and your pings are single digit milliseconds and the link is 54Mbps. Video senders and microwave ovens can be a nuisance in this respect, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_wave

[magicred]

My pcs have been having this problem for a while.the drop-out happens about twice an hour 24/7.I have been trying to download updates for my lads ps3 for about 4 weeks.this isn't happening because of this.I can't download anything without getting cut off.Rather irritating.As I am not very technical there is not much I can do about this.Ihave been asked to put my router into my main socket,Unfortunately when it comes to this kind of thing I'm very lost.Unless someone has a really simple solution I will just have to suffer this irritating problem.Bah humbug.     

[Rik]

Are you losing connection with the internet or with the router?