Wireless Connection Suddenly dying?

Rezident · 20 Mar 2012 at 21:52

Router connected to one pc works fine, second pc picks up signal perfect but my pc - which got the signal perfectly up until about 2 weeks ago - now usually doesn't work, it does occasionally but then drops after 30 seconds.

Network meter gadget used to have signal strength at 30% constant, now it varies between 10% and 'none detrcted'. What are the possibilities here? Router is in another room but so is pc 2 which receives fine :confused:

Meatball · 20 Mar 2012 at 22:23

Sounds like interference from another source. Any new wireless networks cropped up?

Rezident · 21 Mar 2012 at 19:20

Meatball said:
Sounds like interference from another source. Any new wireless networks cropped up?

Yes actually there are three other networks being detected but I'm not connected to any of them.

Also somone else in the house has started using a laptop to connect to the same wireless connection - would that be somehow cutting me off?

Tealc · 21 Mar 2012 at 23:37

Rezident said:
Yes actually there are three other networks being detected but I'm not connected to any of them.

Also somone else in the house has started using a laptop to connect to the same wireless connection - would that be somehow cutting me off?

Connected or not the air is still full of their radio waves and can make it difficult for your device to pick out which data packets are meant for it. Set a different, quieter channel 1,6 or 11 and see if it improves.

As for getting booted from the network this would usually happen only if there's an ip address conflict.

Rezident · 23 Mar 2012 at 18:25

Tealc said:
Connected or not the air is still full of their radio waves and can make it difficult for your device to pick out which data packets are meant for it. Set a different, quieter channel 1,6 or 11 and see if it improves.

As for getting booted from the network this would usually happen only if there's an ip address conflict.

hmm ok thank you, I'll try. I turned off the windows option to turn off the device to save power and that has definitely helped whent he signal does drop. The problem is the signal strength is only ever 10% or no signal at all. DOn't know what reduced it from 30% constant for the last year or so :confused:

Tealc · 23 Mar 2012 at 19:08

Still could be as my description above.

Think of it like having a conversation in a quiet room and how difficult it gets if other people start talking all the time.

Changing channel effectively raises, or lowers the frequency of your radio signals so they can more easily be heard against all the other 2.4Ghz radio sources.

Use something like InSSIDer to determine which are the best channels to use, which will be the one with least strong signals from other routers.

Rezident · 24 Mar 2012 at 19:30

After trying loads of different things I just tried an old USB dongle and the signal is back! My Linkysys dongle but have just sort of died, well not completely but mysteriously went very weak. Bizarre, but fixed, thanks for the input guys cheers.