Wireless adapter shitting out?

[Azalee]

I swear to god, I have the -worst- luck with wireless cards, ever.

To give you an idea of how our modem and such is set up, we live in a fairly small home... The modem and router are set up in my brothers room; and the only thing between my brothers room and myself is a bathroom.

I was originally having issues with my Linksys Wireless G card - I had had it for quite sometime and the antenna wasn't sitting on it properly. My friend gave me a very nice Netgear WN311T adapter to try out and replace my old Linksys card. This worked out absolutely fantastic for over a month. At the beginning of this past week I started having connection issues - I would lose the connection every 5-10 minutes, usually for just long enough to disconnect me from FFXI. I called the friend who gave me the card, and he suggested I go buy a Wireless N router. I made a trip to Best Buy, spent way too much on a WNR2000 router, and got it set up. For at least three days my internet was absolute perfection. I wasn't even getting R0 while playing. Starting Thursday night I was able to connect for maybe 2-4 minutes before it would completely disconnect, and now it is having issues connecting to our G network as well.

We have it set up so that my N router is wired to our G router, which is wired to the modem. We had to keep the G network because my mom works for Boeing, and she spent about 3 hours on the phone with their tech support getting the network set up so she could work from home.

I called my friend last night about the issue I am having, and his suggestion was to take my fancy new expensive N router back and buy myself a new G adapter. He said it is either that or I am just the unluckiest person on earth.

I tried installing all of my windows updates, which I didn't expect to help and they really didn't. My actual computer is fairly new, I had it built in March.

I am going to try taking my PC outside and cleaning it out, but other than that I am really at my wits end with all of this, and completely out of ideas.

[hagun]

Get the appropriate length ethernet cable capable of reaching your room from the main router in your brother's room.

It not the neatest solution, but should be good until the Ghostbusters arrive at your house and get rid of the evil force screwing with your wi-fi. Well, at least until someone better versed in networking provides a solution.

[fishstix]

First, yeah I would return it if it costs too much :3

Is your wireless network secure with a password? If it's not and someone's leeching hardcore, that could disrupt your service. Also sometimes wireless phone handsets can disrupt the signal, shouldn't be a big problem these days, but worth checking into.

The random intervals that this is happening seems to fit. You run ok for a month until a neighbor discovers your wireless network and connects which drops your connection. When you get a new router, there's a new SSID, so it takes him a little while to realize what happened. Get your network secure with the old router and if that works, return the new one

What hagun says brings up a good point, does your brother ever loses his connection while hardwired? Knowing would help troubleshoot, can test your computer wired up and see if you still d/c

[Caiyuo]

I wasn't even thinking about it, but really it doesn't sound like a lengthy ethernet cable would be a horrible idea especially if you were to use the tiny cable staples that television/internet installation crews use to keep things neat when they have leave wire exposed. Something across the point where the ceiling meets the wall so people aren't tripping over it might work? If possible this would allow you to determine whether or not the problem lies with your wireless connection or possibly with the router, modem or physical connection to your home from the ISP.

Anyway, assuming trying to use a wired solution isn't a possibility, have you tried turning off the modem and routers and allowing the connections to be reestablished? It's random, but it's potentially a very simple solution wherein modem and routers would be unplugged, you'd let the modem start back up for a moment, then plug the routers in. Ideally you'd only need one router because the difference between the two is really just network transfer speed (afaik) which most people don't often have a need for unless you're streaming large files between computers often.

As a last resort if you can be assured it isn't a problem between your home and your ISP, then you could consider alternatives to wireless. This article may be of use in that respect: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...king,2470.html

[Caiyuo]

As Fishstix mentioned it's also possible there are devices causing the interruptions or the case of someone leeching, though I wouldn't expect disconnects in that case; it sounds silly but even a microwave being too close to a signal can potentially kill connectivity while it's on. lol

[Azalee]

I have ultimately decided to return the router and buy a 50ft cable to run along the ceiling.

To go over what others suggested -

The new router I set up was just purchased on like Sunday. It is secured, and so is our G router. It was the wireless adapter that I have had for closer to two months now.

We tried initially resetting my router a few times - it would connect, then disconnect shortly after. We also tried resetting the modem. I also tried restarting my computer. Last night I went to bed and shut my PC down totally, turned it on and was connected for maybe 15 minutes before it shit out.

And I am the only one who is having the connection issues - which is why my friend originally suggested the N router, because I was the only one in the house using an N card.

[Caiyuo]

Sounds like the best/most dependable solution. I had to google the wireless card you're using to see if it was N and it goes for quite a bit of money so if you can get rid of it as well your friend might be looking at a really nice Xmas present or dinner. lol

[Azalee]

Well he gave me the card for free more or less. He originally wanted $60, because he paid $120 for it, but I ended up taking him out to Red Robin lol. I will still keep the card, but I am definitely getting back the $95 I paid for the router.

[Caiyuo]

/rambling nonsense

Gawd, I had no idea Wireless-N was so fucking overpriced. Seemingly anyway. lol The adapter goes for $90~ on Amazon as a sale price which is just ridiculous. I bought a brand new WRT54GL for $35 about a year ago that's custom firmware swapped making it worth way more with no foreseeable reason to upgrade anytime soon. Nerd rage is rising.

[killerx]

I ran about 250ft of cable give or take around the outside of my house. Just made neat little jack plugs near the computers so they could run their own length Ethernet cord where ever they wanted to in the room. Worked out really nicely bought the cable stapler and never looked back. I think i ran 3 70ft cords from my modem to the rest of the house.

[Azalee]

In my old house, probably 5+ years ago when my stepfather was afraid of evil wireless hackers, we ran cable under the house and up through everyone's heater vents... Just have to have someone underneath to cut slits in the ducts and force a cable through.

Managed to run a cable along the wall and across the hall, unfortunately the cable isn't exactly long enough to run up to our peaked ceilings... Haha. But it is up high enough that no one will hit it (seeing as I am 6'0 and it is well above my head), and the dogs can't chew on it.

No connection loss since, so I am content.