Wireless Network dropping - but still looks active?

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Hopefully someone can advise me on things to try and rectify this annoying occurence!

I manage 2 laptop trolleys each containing 20 laptops which connect via 1 Cisco wireless router to a managed service network. This means that unfortunately as it's an external service my ability to modify settings is somewhat limited.

Pupils will log onto the laptops (I attempt to encourage teachers streamline the log-ons to help reduce workload on the wireless router) - and open up Internet Explorer or MS Office and begin their work.

Several pupils will then find that after a certain amount of time their Internet connection becomes inactive - the wireless symbol on their taskbar appears to be connected - but is not flashing / showing any activity. They also cannot access their network drives to gain entry to "MyDocuments".

I find the only way to regain access is to disconnect from the wireless network & reconnect - although this is a solution - it is a right pain in the bum for myself & teachers to do.

The laptops are Dell Inspiron 6400's running Windows XP. As I said it's a managed service - Northgate Classroom 2000 to be exact for those who are familiar with the N.Ireland school system. I have modified the power settings on the wireless card on each one to prevent it from shutting off the network card to save power.

The thing that annoys me is that it's totally random - my colleague and I have tested these laptops a lot & it works fine for us! Once it's let loose in a class setting it's causing issues - it's making us think its user account related.
 
Maybe do some testing with student accounts then you can determine if its the account problem.

What sort of distances we talking from laptops to router..?
 
Distance is within a classroom only - no walls to pass through.

I wired the wireless router into the metal trolley though - to ease setting up times. Would the metal trolley casing cause much interference? I personally thought it would act as a bigger antenna!

I might put wireless router outside of the trolley for next while to see if that makes a difference - also going to log in as student users over half term if I'm not off on holiday.
 
Is it the same laptops which are causing the problem? is it the same student accounts ?Are the laptops all the same? What model/Manufacturer?
 
Is it the same laptops which are causing the problem? is it the same student accounts ?Are the laptops all the same? What model/Manufacturer?

No - different laptops but unfortunately also different users. I have a laptop sitting here beside me which I had left logged on all day - using power charger. It worked fine every single time I attempted to access Internet and MyDocuments.

I then logged on as a pupil & used battery power - still working fine after 1hr! Need to find some more pupils which it's causing problems for and test using their id.

Laptop make + model is Dell Inspiron 6400. All same laptop models within the trolley.
 
ahhh, by any chance are the pupils using the battery? then after a while it will cut out?

if this is the case i think the system starts shutting which it thinks is non essential components such as lan/wireless, cd drive, floppy etc. this may be your problem.
 
Yup using the battery - but plenty of power left in the battery. I encourage them to be charged regularly, thus meaning that pupils usually have 60% charge remaining most of the time.
 
By the way - my colleague logged on as a pupil & used the laptop until 5% battery power remained. Everything still worked fine even at this low battery power level.
 
how do you come to fix the laptops when they become inactive? restart? release/renew ip? whats the lease lengh's of the IP's assigned by dhcp?
 
Does the problem occur with random students btw?

I wouldn't say that the laptops are out of range cause I have 3 Dell 6400's and the wireless cards in them are one of the best that I have come across for range. Top notch cards but one problem I have with them is that when the laptop is in hibernation, the wireless connection is lost some of the time or the message "Limited or no Activity" etc occurs when you come out of hibernation.
 
i don't now the specific name for this but there is an option if you leave the pc/laptop you will get kinda "auto" logged out and you have to ctrl + alt + del and login again, just wonder if maybe that is cutting the connection when it goes into this mode. im sure some students are just leaving the laptop for 10mins or so others will be constantly using it that would explain the randomness of the problem.. just a guess :)
 
The signal is cutting out however if a pupil is just sitting viewing a webpage for a matter of minutes though - or even typing a Word document then attempting to save onto their network area.

The laptops are not going into standby / hibernation by this point. Apparently the managed service allocates a renewed IP every so often - it is at this point I reckon some laptops are unable to successfully renew this IP.

I agree the 6400's are good laptops - we have loads of them in school here & get excellent range for the wireless. It's occured to me that it may be the routers at fault & I may have to get them reconfigured by Northgate. (managed service)
 
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