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jacour
Premium Member
join:2001-12-11
Matthews, NC

jacour

Premium Member

[XPHome] Losing network connectivity

My wife has an XP Home box, fully updated to SP3, that has a strange problem; it keeps losing wireless connectivity because the network settings change spontaneously. The network uses WPA-PSK with TKIP data encryption but her computer resets the data encryption to AES. I am running XP Pro in the same environment and it never drops connectivity. This is not my router or else I would just change it all to AES and be done with it.

Anybody know why this is happening, and how to prevent it?

Cudni
La Merma - Vigilado
MVM
join:2003-12-20
Someshire

Cudni

MVM

What security software is in use if any? Did you check eventviewer logs for errors or warnings (in case they offer more clues). Maybe update wireless drivers. Otherwise I have seen similar on occasion on Win7

Cudni
jacour
Premium Member
join:2001-12-11
Matthews, NC

jacour

Premium Member

The only security software is Avast AV and there hasn't been an evil looking event manager log entry for 45 days. As for wireless drivers, this is an older machine with a PCMCIA wireless cared that Linksys hasn't issued an update for in several years.

Cudni
La Merma - Vigilado
MVM
join:2003-12-20
Someshire

Cudni to jacour

MVM

to jacour
It could be the "misunderstanding" between router and client. What does your wife need to do when it happens, re-enter the credentials and continue working?

Did she notice when in particular the connectivity is lost (after a period of inactivity or ...)?

Cudni
jacour
Premium Member
join:2001-12-11
Matthews, NC

jacour

Premium Member

All she needs to do it to toggle AES to TKIP in the network settings and it usually reconnects in a few seconds. When connected it stays connected while in use, but if the machine hibernates it will reset TKIP to AES on its own.

Cudni
La Merma - Vigilado
MVM
join:2003-12-20
Someshire

Cudni

MVM

Sounds like hibernate is the cause then. Not sure it is worth the effort to fix it (for what is a minor issue)
Aranarth
join:2011-11-04
Stanwood, MI

Aranarth to jacour

Member

to jacour
I would double check that the network drivers are up to date.

A firmware update to the router MIGHT help and certainly wouldn't hurt anything if you have had it for a year or more.

You could also google the issue and see if anyone has complained of the issue and possibly found a solution. Hibernation on XP does not work 100% all the time. Hibernation in Win7 certainly works better!

If this is a dual core machine with a decent video card (vista ready or better) I would highly recommend upgrading to win7.
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