Wireless Access

I am using a Linksys WRT54G wireless router with my 5385 pavilion notebook (built in wireless adaptor). My wireless connection seems to drop at different times. Sometimes the connection will remain for a good portion of the day, while other times it goes on and off within minutes or hours. It is not consistent.

When I lose connection, it will usually come back right away ("wireless connection unavailable" which turns into "wireless connection available - signal strength excellent").

Other times it will lose connection ("wireless connection unavailable") and the connection will not come back right away. After clicking on properties > wireless connection tab, the "available networks" window, my router is not shown. Sometimes when I click refresh it show up again. Other times I click refresh and it will not come back. Several minutes later (or after a system reboot) the connection comes back.

What can be causing the intermittent connection? I have a pc in the other room connected wirelessly which has no problems so I do not think it is the router, unless the router reacts differently to differnt types of wireless adaptors. I have also updated the firmware in the router.

Nobody can help?

I am having the same issue with my "wireless connection unavailable" I am using a WRT54G wireless Linksys router and a desktop d330 HP compaq. My problem is that when I place the wireless router in my living room area and my PC in another room I get the same problem as above. But, when I bring in the router near the PC area (same room) the problem goes away.

Any suggestions on this issue to resolve it; will be greatly appreciated

I recently replaced my router in hopes it was a hardware issue. No luck. Same problem. My router is right next to my laptop. Perhaps it is interference considering there are 2 2.4 GHz phones in the house.

This seems to be a pretty common problem. I had it a few months ago with a new Dell Laptop. After hours on the phone with engineers in India, replacing the Intel wireless card (needlessly, as it turns out), and more hours on the phone to Dell support in India, it suddenly started working again with no real explanation. What finally worked is simultaneously turning off computer, hub and modem, then turning on computer first, hub second and modem last.

However, now I'm having the problem again with a D-Link DWL-120 UBS wireless adapter and a new desktop. The solution that worked with my laptop isn't working here. So, I googled "wireless connection unavailable" (that's how I found this thread) and I'm looking for answers. So far what I've learned is that lots of people have this problem. I'll try to post back if I find a solution. I hope someone will post here if they know how to fix this.

--David

Unfortuantely this is a very common situation as I've been getting calls from numerous friends and family members who chose to cut the wires. From what I've experienced/and been told, internal wireless cards aren't as good as PCMCIA cards due to the lack of an antenna. However some things that could help your connection are this:

1) position your router antennas to best spread the signal through your house.
2) change your SSID - (I've done this due to interference with some neighbors).
3) Turn off your router and all your computers for a few minutes then turn everything back on.
4) On your computers (depending on which program you use to manage wireless connections) add your SSID & channel number and make it the primary connect to wireless network.

If your other computer is fine then it shouldn't be interruption from other places. It might be beneficial to try out a PCMCIA card such as linksys, d-link, or netgear.

Good Luck!
-Ryan

I have contacted the Linksys live chat help desk (www.linksys.com) asking them about this problem. The only solution they gave is that to change the channel numbers from the web-based menue (192.168.1.1) They recommended that for North Aemrican users to use channels 1, 6 or 11. If that didn't work out try to play around with other channel numbers. For European users they recommended channel 13 and for Japan (Far East) channel 14. Make sure you save your settings every time you choose a channel number for trial on that particular channel, hopefully the problem is resolved when trying different channel numbers.

This solution does not always work, but they say it is worth the try.

They say that the signal loss maybe due to metal objects around the router or concrete floors water and walls, etc... This cuase the signal to drop and come back on.

I thought you guys might find this intersting to try it out at your premises.

-Al

try to download latest WRT54G firmware. There are a few compatibilities issues indeed :
ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/
get wrt54g_1.01.4_012903_us_code.exe and wrt54g_1.01.4_013103_us.zip

I found a fix for my problem which is very similar to Demetrios and David above.

All I did is upgrade my Realtek driver RTL8180 model to the newest version Realtek has on the website (www.realtek.com.tw) I have not had any signal dropping (so far so far it is connected for 40 minutes with an excellent signal strength) as it was dropping every one or two minutes.

I still have the older version from Linksys firmware (1.42.2), I do not think I will upgrade it to the new version they have (2.02.7) since they recommend that you don't have to upgrade the firmware if you do not have problems.

You may try above fix and see if it works for you.

-Al

Dear Demetrios,
I have a brandnew HP Pavillion, and the first thing i did was installing the wireless LAN card, an Orinoco card.
This worked very well for the first hours.
Then i registered my copy of Windows XP at Microsoft. Then i got updates from microsoft. I accepted all of them, about 10 in total. After restarting the PC, things went wrong.
I got the situation accactly like you describe.
I had a good night sleep, and i realised that things where ok before downloading the updates.
Next morning, i removed all the updates, and result: Wireless LAN working super!!!

I do not know yet which update is causing the trouble, but i think that one of the latest updates is causing trouble.

My advice; please remove the updates( control panel, add-remove programs, wondows xp hotfixes)
Please remove one by one, starting with the latest, and check the result.
I will work the other way around, i have removed all, and i will install one by one.
Good luck,

Paul

Keep the replies coming guys! Paul, is your problem intermittent like mine? Specifically, is your connection being lost every 3-4 minutes all the time? If so then yes one of the updates you took is causing that. I am in a rush to leave this morning so I will post back after you reply with more detail on the frequency of loss connections you are having.

So far my connection is up and running with no single drop on the signal (signal strength between excellent and very good)

I think this problem is very common with alot of people who wants to do "wireless connection" I have read many articles and seen forums talk about this issue in the past week and each one has a different fix for this problem. I guess it all depence on the situation, some say remove the hotfixes as they might have conflics with other software of some sort, some says upgrade the router software and the PCI card software. Sometimes they say to disbale the IEEE configuration, some say to stop the zero wireless configuration utility, etc... so all depence on the situation of its' nature.


-Al

I was also losing connection every 3 minutes after turning on WEP. Signal strength was always excellent and the Windows would reconnect after a minute or I could immediately reconnect.

After installing the Wireless update rollup package (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;826942) I have had no trouble with the connection.

My system:
Windows XP home
HP zv5000
Broadcom 802.11b wireless adapter
Linksys BEFW11S4 802.11b router

Hope that helps.

I have tried upgrading router firmware and drivers for the wireless adaptor to no avail. My problem is not the 3-4 miunute connection loss. That is a result of a Windows update as somebody mentioned above. My connection can be solid for a few hours or even the majority of the day, but then it can crap out 4-5 times a day throughout the day at various intervals. It's never consistent.

I have since went back to a wired solution as I pretty much gave up. Either the wireless adaptor in my Pavilion notebook is crap or my Linkys wireless router is for the birds (I am leaning more towards the router as being the culprit).

By the way Eric your link for the wireless rollup package does not work.

Yes hello -- I would just like to join in the ranks of the people that this is happening to. It's June 8th and no one has written a response in a few days so I was just trying to keep the thread alive. I was pretty sure I have downloaded all the possible driver updates, etc ... to no avail. This has only been happening for I would say about a month now -- I thought it was a fleeting problem and I am glad to know other people are having it as well (misert loves company afterall).

If anyone has any other advice -- please list it here. I will try to remove the Hotfixes one by one tomorrow ... afterall ... it's late.

Thanks for listening to this rambling. Good luck!

I think we should start listing the hardware we have. I'll start first:

Linksys WRT54G router - Firmware Version: v2.02.7

HP Pavilion 5385 notebook (not sure what wireless adaptor is built in)

I posted a long time ago about this. I was not able to fix the problem, so I gave up and hardwired the troublesome computer to the wireless hub. I'm convinced that the problem is on the software side (Windows XP), so I'd suggest in addition to hardware we list our operating systems.

Windows XP personal edition

Belkin wireless hub (which I bought new in December to replace a D-Link wireless hub when I was having the exact same problem with a different computer -- replacing the hub didn't fix the problem... that problem resolved mysteriously after I turned everything off for the 5th or 6th time... left for half an hour... came back and turned everything on... it's worked fine for six months since then).

D-Link UBS wireless adapter

Dell Dimension desktop.

--David

Hello all,

I have been very frustrated at this very issue for a few days now and have been to several help pages. I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop running XP Pro with and internal WIFI card. I am running a WAP54G Linksys AP

I think that I have stumbled across the answer in several forms. First I believe that this is a problem of Windows XP (Service Pack 1) I believe the WZC( windows zero configuration) is the main problem. It is constantly searching for a new and better connection, and will dump the existing connection without hesitation.

It does not appear that Windows has admitted such problems from the research I have done, dispite the vastness of the problem.

So the solution I have come across is temporary until Microsoft fixes it. The links will provide all of the info for the temp fix. If anyone else sees a better solution let me know.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8727891

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1566989,00.asp

Thanks to the the authors of both articles, it nice to not have to worry about this issue for awhile.

Hi All:

Since I have fixed my problem that is similar to the original inititated above, I have not had any signal drop at all.

I will list hardware as you requested:

1) HP compaq desktop with XP Pro

2) Wireless router WRT54G (2.02.7)I have upgraded my wireless router firmware after I fixed the problem.

I have resolved my problem as follow:

* Updated the REALTEK PCI card (model No. 8180L) to latest version from www.realtek.com.tw. I have read on the version update release from REALTEK that on version 1.50.122 "Fixed compatibility issue with LinkSys WRT54G(Low throughput)" This is similar router that we are refering to here.

I have tried the WZC service as some of you suggested prior fixing the problem and did not work for me.

-Al

Well I'll list my hardware as well -- I too am using the -

Wireless router WRT54G

With
An HP Pavilion ze4400 notebook

And am running Windows XP Personal

I am going to go try some of the fixes above right now -- this is seriously getting annoying -- in fact as I was just typing this it just happened (give me strength). Thanks everyone!

Hey guys -- I cannot claim that this as my own response -- but I wish I could because I haven't lost my connection in 15 minutes and let me tell you something -- that's as long as I've had it for weeks -- so fingers crossed -- I am not posting this response TOO SOON -- good luck -- let me know if anyone has luck with this fix:

_____
Because the XP wireless connection problem has not been solved yet, i created my own way of doing it easier. It stops the Wireless Zero Configuration Service the same way the previous post tells you about, but one doesn't have to do anything..

- Create a .bat file with notepad:
sc.exe stop wzcsvc

- Create a shortcut to it

- Put it in your startup menu

This way the service will have a chance to connect to the network while starting up, but it will stop the service right after that.

Forgot to mention I am also running WinXP Pro.

So I tried one of the links Tyler posted and I created a batch file to turn off the Wireless Zero Config service. So far it has been up and running without any hiccups for 10 hours. The true test will be in the coming days. I will report back with my success (or failure). I hope this fixes it...and thanks Tyler for sharing.

I just wanted to say I have been up and running 2 days now with no cut out in service. I have also applied the fix to the other clients on are network and all seem to be working.

Good luck to everyone else on this issue.

P.S. Does anyone know a good resource for figure out why I cannot connect my laptop through my L2TP VPN connection?? Error 791??

Tyler, day two and the fix is holding.

Go to www.broadbandreports.com forum and you will find a lot of answers there.

It's been a while since I last posted. I just wanted to say that the fix (to stop the wireless zero config service) works like a champ! My wireless connection almost never disconnects anymore. Looks like MS needs to update this problem as it seems to be an O/S related problem.