Keep losing wireless connection with Linksys WAG54G

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Soldato
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Reet. I have a Linksys WAG54G with which i have two PCs wired up. My sister uses the wireless on her laptop and complains that she keeps losing her connection. So she's always rebooting the router to get it back.

I'm running Firmware Version 1.02.1 which i believe is the latest. Is there anything i can do, or settings i can change which might stop this happening? I'm not too hot on my wireless stuff (in my experiences it's always cack anyway), but it is set up with a 64bit WEP. Other settings that dont mean a lot to me;

Code: 
Wireless Network Mode: Mixed
Wireless Channel: 11
Wireless SSID Broadcast: Enabled
Control TX Rate: Auto
Beacon Interval: 100
DTIM Interval: 3
Fragmentation Threshold: 2346
RTS Threshold: 2347
Authentication Type: Auto

The internet connection is Newnet ADSL Max. What my sister says is that it suddenly disconnects and then she cant find the network until she's rebooted the router.

Any ideas? Thanks! :)
 
For starters, not that it's related, WEP's useless. It can be cracked in a matter of seconds, so it's a waste of time. WPA, or better still WPA2, is a far more secure choice.

Is there any interference - other networks, other devices using the same frequency range, microwaves?
Does the laptop work fine with another wireless network?
Are you running anything that might make the router crash - P2P apps or game server browsers that open loads of connections at once are the usual.

The WAG54G isn't that great a router, so it's possible it's just being crap.
 
Tolien said:
For starters, not that it's related, WEP's useless. It can be cracked in a matter of seconds, so it's a waste of time. WPA, or better still WPA2, is a far more secure choice.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks. Will swap over to WPA at some point.
Tolien said:
Is there any interference - other networks, other devices using the same frequency range, microwaves?
Click to expand...
My sister can see between 1~3 other networks (it varies), so possibly those. We have a microwave and wireless phones but neither seems related. For example she's been getting disconnected a lot within the last hour and neither has been used.
Tolien said:
Does the laptop work fine with another wireless network?
Click to expand...
Hmn wouldnt know as we've only got ours!
Tolien said:
Are you running anything that might make the router crash - P2P apps or game server browsers that open loads of connections at once are the usual.
Click to expand...
According to her she's only ever using MSN/IE. No P2P or anything.
Tolien said:
The WAG54G isn't that great a router, so it's possible it's just being crap.
Click to expand...
I'm inclined to agree!

I've set IPs for all PCs/adapters on the network too.. do you think i might be better off trying DHCP, or will it not make any difference? It's just that sometimes when i fiddle the settings for her wireless adapter it seems to 'forget' what i've put in, or say that there's a conflict with her ethernet/LAN adapter (which there isnt, and it's disabled anyway) :confused: Just a thought.

Thanks for the advice, any others for any ideas? :)
 
Using DHCP or not shouldn't make any odds - try changing the wireless channel (you should be able to see what the other networks are using)?
Not know anyone else with a wireless router?
 
Channels 11 and 2 I believe are the most commonly used so try changing the channel. It does depend on the layout of your house but I find channel 8 or 9 to be the best so try a few and see what the signal strengths like.
 
Thanks, i will try to see what other networks are using and try changing ours. As for the layout of the house, it's a standard semi. The router is underneath the stairs and my sisters room is at the top of the stairs. So not far at all!

I dont think i made it clear also; that when she gets disconnected, she cant find the network again until the router is rebooted. :confused: I've been online (wired) when she gets disconnected and it doesnt affect me at all.
 
Righto, bit of a thread bump but this is where i am now.

I changed the channel to 6, as i did some quick reading and that is one of the most popular/'middle' ones, and none of our neighbours were using it. Signal shows as good (4 out of 5).

I thought our static IPs might be confusing things so i changed to DHCP to make things simple for the time being. So i did this, and changed the encryption to WPA Pre-Shared Key with TKIP algorithms). When i did this, the laptop could connect, but it seemed to be remember the old WEP password. It could connect, but disconnected almost straight away and then complain it couldnt connect. Very odd. I thought maybe the network connection in Windows was confusing it. So i changed to DHCP just to 'clear' things and tried again. Everyone elses internet went slower then :confused:

So i've thought, 'sod that' and put static IPs back on with OpenDNS servers too. Seems better. At the moment the wireless is on, but unprotected. It seems to stay connected like that. I'm about to give it another whirl with WPA protection. Is 'WPA Pre-Shared Key' with TKIP the correct setting to use? There is WPA RADIUS but i dont know what any of that means :confused:

Also what kind of WPA key should i be using?
 
Yeah, WPA-PSK is the option. WPA RADIUS needs a RADIUS server. Ideally you want WPA2, but WPA2 > WPA >> WEP.

The key is ideally as long as possible, a mix of (mixed case) letters, numbers and symbols. Like one of these (each one is 42 characters long, you might find apostrophes break the router's web interface):

EU;WOaYHM"{VbA;r1@N]bV"@`I%iZki($'^+`1SL`5
H^Fp5yZiFjO;3g<-6($nYc!Nv0qHuv6qm7R;n}b1N+
oYk3Y_i=kZ?STaU@K]m~"yQFANL\yL`neoe~tv-*-"
QX@E|6OOLjI'c]tc+SD`DC&iOwp`ZHSI`zg^xmQ/R#
5beSIb0zmb'REz5\c>\17;7c{ZaKY~p.F:yd\O+V%>
HjEQ*Khy}::A![KJz^osOZ],u{GGW4<cvqd8KqbRY}
^7\$VApy>j|.\VE+:m;[sODAf\62B3\IV}!+^feFv1
]IS|L9RFbKX>q7FQXp3-]W|a4;HBIGM%e>z{L\X%8#
/#`b0Pg4aBw'p`y(ki)sMjfZE.s$R.|Cv;e<@Jqj69
e}Zp>b|r'T?w`*0txa~h"7>KmsZe*At|}F&(d+k}T.
)s,o&ZpZ^kV0zX%=Or_@#`Y$qK<{meif2'F.bcSYb$
,[email protected]{VKu(DEG9-F#6ICt1rnHbtNR\>/h
B==G_\wJRUc~AFCQ&H4}QWgFVVs5r8hqTsb<DMkCZ"
HVT>bd_?S+h#M#zt*9;aL%1'd=*_6I,B^>4#(d098:
A"yJ1rlUCd3WRR%(d^2cDQYFa;9yGGLLX`ev6&gHD=
QrY>mk9/43ngro=<drPuI,_Ox3ZY%vra(#$7]YWUw$
]Y8-_i]bvkl5vXz0;cLh@mqgcnw_!}~;J^vaRf=6]6
"&I+@$%&BtErc4nHE]n~l'?rN,#?Q\z)MmU;aAki'5
:y-#*+;@KEYD$t"K_;]F,5>}mr)vTM~(8N{&<u99h9
1rF/J>@0nYX+LdFKglo]5`ukK?p3s|-G_z(}iuhCSg
 
Tolien said:
Should be fine, though I'd be a bit wary of giving a password to a random site.
Click to expand...
Nah. They just have auto-generate things. There's no pass-phrase or anything to generate it. So i know technically they have the key (as they generated it), but really what are the chances of them [a] storing those attempting to do anything with them and [c] being anywhere near my home network :p

Anyhoo, i think i've found the cause of the problem. It seems to be my sisters laptop at fault, actually. Whenever she gets disconnected (i still dont know why), she cant reconnect because it has seemingly saved the wrong password. In the properties of the wireless connection, here:

Excuse the horrendous colour scheme!
4041_wireless.JPG


llemmacs is the SSID of the network, in the left box i've tried removing it and adding it again (with the right password, obviously), but it still came back with the wrong password in the right-hand box, when she got disconnected!

In her 'network connections' folder, i cant delete the connection, which i thought might have solved the issue.

Also, in the 'network authentication' dropdown box, what's the difference between selecting WPA-PSK or just WPA? The options below dont change.. :confused:

Any help, please? This is driving me insane, and i still dont know why she gets disconnected, although i have a feeling it might be because it's constantly trying to (re)connected to it** - and if it's storing the wrong password it gets kicked out. Once she's kicked out, it tries to reconnect and again it has the wrong password stored so it cant until she manually changes it...maybe? :confused:

**EDIT: Hmn just spotted this setting for WPA: Group Key Renewal: 3600 seconds. That sounds an awful lot like what i'm talking about? Does it check every 3600secs that users have the right pass and maybe thats why she gets kicked out? :confused:
 
Last edited:
If i use the Belkin software, how do i set up her static IP and DNS settings? Still in Windows connection properties?

Also, since she's been off work i've left the password off because it was giving me so much grief. I came back from work today and she said it had been fine all day. But then it cut off and she couldnt find it again until i rebooted the router and repaired her connection :mad: So that's the whole disconnection thing happening again without even any bloody password. Grr!

God this wireless stuff makes me so crazy! :mad: :(
 
Slight bump here.

I've been away for a few days and came back from work today. I asked my sister how the wireless has been and she said it's been fine. That it hadnt cut off.

About an hour later she came downstairs and said it had cut off twice within half an hour. The thing is, my PC was on downloading. She's just said it's cut off again. So i'm beginning to think it has got something to do with other people using the connection? Is there anything i can do about that, or is it just the fault of the router? :confused:
 
Tolien said:
What were you downloading with? Just a normal HTTP download, torrent/usenet?
Click to expand...
Soulseek. But it's limited to 2 downloads at a time, max (and it only downloads from single sources). But i've only been using that recently, and the problem has been about before i installed it. I think it's to do with my (or my mum's) PCs just generally being online :confused:
 
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