Red_Rhino
join:2006-03-21
Gainesville, GA
 ·Vonage
| [Wireless] WRT54G V5 wireless problems
I have been struggling with a variety of issues since moving from DSL to cable, however, I believe I have resolved them all with the exception of an intermittent wireless problem. Every day whether its for for 5 mins or 5 hours, the wireless part of the router will not work properly. Symptoms include loss of wireless signal all together, degradation of signal to 1 or 2mpbs, instead of normal 48 or 54mpbs, high ping and latency issues and frequent page/server not found messages. Now I assume all these symptoms are caused by one thing, but I'm having a hard time finding it.
Here is what I have done so far. Moved router, cable modem and phone adaptor away from television (RF interference), no phones within 20', upgraded firmware on router to latest 1.00.9. I have changed to RTS and Fragmentation thresholds from everything between 2048 to 2348 which appears to give temporary relief of the problem, but it always seems to come back. Also unplugging the router or router&cable modem sometimes helps, but not always.
My ISP has worked to resolve a lot of my previous problems and though I do not rule out them as the culprit, I want to eliminate my router as the issue, since their standard line is to remove the router and see if the problem reoccurs. Well of course it doesn't, my problem is wireless not wired!
I'm hoping someone has some ideas on a solution or at least a better way to track the problem to find the root cause. |
|
radojevic
join:2000-12-14
Salinas, CA
| Switch to 802.11b only mode. If the problem goes away, you have the same problem I do. 802.11g mode seems to work great for a while, but then we'll get network disconnected and reconnected messages at least once a day.
We have zero problems using 802.11b mode. We also love the distance our signal reaches. 100 feet thru several walls, and very stable.
To be fair, I have not tried 802.11g mode since firmware v1.00.2. I'm using firmware v1.00.9 now, so maybe I'll try 802.11g, again. Nah!
g |
|
Red_Rhino
join:2006-03-21
Gainesville, GA | I am running a mixed mode right now, but will try to move to a 'b' mode only and see how things go. Since everything is 'g' capable I may test that mode only too. Thanks for the suggestion. |
|
Meupc
@com.br | reply to Red_Rhino
Goto Linksys and get the new firmware to WRT54G V.5 released few days ago vbersion 1.00.9 and try to see if your prolblems are gone. |
|
Red_Rhino
join:2006-03-21
Gainesville, GA
·Vonage
| My OP indicates that I have already upgraded to 1.00.9, which is not helping. I've also changed my mode from Mixed to 'B' Only, but after 12hrs of no problems, it finally came back, so that is not the problem. I will try 'G' only later tonight when I get home, but I doubt that will help either. |
|
radojevic
join:2000-12-14
Salinas, CA
| Something else to check out is that your computer's wireless card is not near much metal. My wife's PowerBook G3 had a hard time connecting to our wireless router that was only 5 feet away in the same room. We found out her laptop was directly above a metal dining room table rail, which was causing interference.
Besides certain spots on that table, her laptop can pick up the wireless signal from as far as 100 feet from the router.
g |
|
Red_Rhino
join:2006-03-21
Gainesville, GA
·Vonage
| I will check, but the problem is that I have 4 PCs that are all wireless and when the problem happens, it happens to all of them at the same time, so it does not appear to be a CPU issue, but something on the Router/ISP side.
However, if I'm plugged into the Router, even when the wireless computers are having problems, the wired computer is working fine. And if the problem is with the ISP, I would believe it would affect both wired and wireless connections.
So frustrating!!! |
|
radojevic
join:2000-12-14
Salinas, CA
| Okay, the problem happens to all four computers at the same time. Sorry, I missed that earlier. It's important, and it probably points to the wireless portion of the router, since your wired connection to the router seems to continue to work fine.
A few things... find out what the wireless computers are running when the problem occurs. For example, bittorrent tends to hose many routers, wireless or not.
Also, check the wireless router's channel setting. It defaults to channel 6. Try switching it to 1 or 11.
Also, find out if you have other neighboring wireless routers or access points within reach of your computers:
This might occur if you have more than one wireless network available. You computer might be switching from yours to another one and back.
Open the 'Network Connections' control panel.
Right-click on your wireless card displayed in the window, and select 'Properties'.
Click on the 'Wireless Networks' tab.
Make sure 'Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings' has a check in it.
Make sure your wireless network is listed at the top of the 'Preferred networks' list section.
Remove any wireless network entries you do not want to use.
Finally, click on the 'Advanced' button (not the tab).
Select 'Access point (infrastructure) networks only'.
Uncheck 'Automatically connect to non-preferred networks'
Also, always make router changes with all computers off, except the one you're using to make the router changes. And then shutdown your computer. Unplug the power from the router, wait a few seconds, plug the powercord back in the router, wait a minute, and then start up your computers.
One final suggestion, as if you didn't have enough already.  Get a UPS (uninterruptible power supply). One with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) will not only be used as a backup battery for everything plugged into it, but it will also condition the power so that it is stable and prevent not only blackouts, but also brownouts. I find the brownouts wreak more havoc than blackouts. I use a Belkin 550VA UPS with AVR. My ISP modem, wireless router, inkjet printer, USB hub, and CD burner are all connected to the battery backup side of the UPS.
It may seem like overkill, but that's what I always do and I seem to have 1% the problems everyone else reporting here seems to have.
g |
|
Red_Rhino
join:2006-03-21
Gainesville, GA
·Vonage
| The computers will generally be running various programs, but mostly websurfing or AIM, no bittorrent or P2P programs.
Router is on channel 2, as there are 2 other wireless networks I can see. Not all my computers see 3, some will only see 2, depending on signal strength.
I changed all my PCs to let Windows handle my wireless connection and made the changes you described. I also moved to 'G' mode only since everything is G-enabled.
You bring up a good point with the UPS, I'll check around for one. In the meantime, I will monitor the router and hope all stays quiet.
Thanks for the suggestions. |
|
radojevic
join:2000-12-14
Salinas, CA | The power just went out for a few seconds in my house. My ISP modem, wireless router, and computer automatically switched to the UPS battery backup, and didn't miss a beat. I highly recommend a good UPS.
g |
|
Red_Rhino
join:2006-03-21
Gainesville, GA
·Vonage
| For about 15hrs it looked pretty good, until I started messing around with my PS2 and network card (see other thread). However, I think I've noticed something during those 15hrs that may shed some light on the problem.
I have 3 desktops and 3 laptops that I use on my router. They were all having wireless problems and when I looked in the event viewer for each system, the TCPIP 4201 errors all seemed to be at the same time. However, during those 15 hrs I noticed that some computers were still getting TCPIP errors and others weren't. So this leads me to believe that the problem is still common among most (or all) of the computers, but some seem to be affected more than others. My 3 desktops all use the same PCI wireless card, but 1 system had no TCPIP errors, the other only had 4-5 and the third had about 50.
It would appear your changes has helped some, but still have a few lingering issues. I will continue to monitor to see if things clear up over the next few days. |
|
