Wifi is stopping me gaming! :(

Dazzy

Dazzy

Dazzy

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Joined
21 Jun 2009
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240
I have a wireless g network in my house, and I have been plagued with wireless disconnections since I installed it. Its a WRT5G4g linskys cable router and a belkin pci wireless card in my pc.

Basically at seemingly random times (ranging between minutes to hours) the wireless connection will drop and turn to LAN only or will totally disconnect. The only way I have worked out to reconnect is to disable/enable the wifi card in device manager. I have been doing this about 5 times a day for ages, but its stopping me playing games online as the connection wont last the length of a match.

I should note this only happens on my computer and there are two other laptops in house that arent having any problems.

I tried switching OS (vista, xp and 7) and its the same on each. Changed wifi card drivers, moved my computer to different places in the house. I also bought a different pci card and it was exactly the same.

I have monitored the channels of other networks in range, and theres no conflict there and Im usally getting 4/5 bar connection strength in vista. Also the problem persits unsecured and with WPA2.

Does anyone have any ideas what to try next? I was thinking maybe N band router, 5ghz network (2,4ghz telephone in the house) or USB dongle. But I dont want to be wasting money on things that arent going to help. I think the obvious step is wired but I need to avoid if possible drilling holes around the house! Its not exactly a challenging setup I am like 3m above the router.
 
I had exactly the same problem with a Linksys WAG54G. Doesn't happen anymore, but Lord alone knows why it did it in the first place or why it stopped.
 
I know somebody who's having similar problems and they've changed their router several times with the same issue. I reckon there's something interfering, like a cordless phone, though it's hard to prove.
 
Powerline adapters would be my suggestion.

Still not as good as a bit of Cat5 mind and a lot more expensive, but still far more reliable and consistant than wifi - especially for gaming.

You also seem to have overlooked one key point of failuer and that is your router, you say you've changed positions, cards, drivers even OS but didn't think to look at what is probably the source of the issue?

Can you borrow a friends router, or maybe check to see if there are any firmware updates available for your current router? How old is it, they don't last forever and if its a few years old it could just be showing you that it is on its way out.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, the main thing that suggests to me that its not the router is the fact that two laptops are working fine on it, It might be worth a punt though on a new one to see. Its been like this since it was brand new and I have had it for a couple of years now.

I have been looking into the powerline adapters, is it possible to run those through a router so the wifi isnt lost on the laptops?
 
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You will have a much smoother gaming experience connecting with an ethernet cable rather than wifi. Wifi can be easily disrupted, and has a higher latency.
 
Well I went and bit the £80 bullet and bought a netgear powerline set, its working at the moment but if it disconnects I think im going to jump out the window!
 
Dazzy said:
I have been looking into the powerline adapters, is it possible to run those through a router so the wifi isnt lost on the laptops?
Click to expand...

Yup, ethernet cable from router to Powerline adapter and you're cooking on gas. Wireless for laptop(s) and Powerline to desktop. I am running this setup with WRT54GL (Tomato) and Devolo dLAN AV200 homeplugs. I found the latter to have a much greater throughput (i.e. streaming 1080p = good) and consistent. The netgear HDX101 was inconsistent and 1080p was unwatchable.
 
Won't help you with gaming but you could write a script that checks for the wireless being dropped and then disables and re-enables the connection if it's not found - a bit of automatic reconnecting would sooth your frustations :p
 
sounds like the classic symptoms of another router near yours being on the same channel

which router is it exactly?

if it's a WRT54G v1-4, then you can put Tomato firmware on it :)
 
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