Wireless Network Problems

[Mundu]

My modem is wired to my wireless router which is wired to my main PC which is networked to the PC downstairs.

Scince yesterday my main PC has been switched off but for some reason I can't use the internet on the other PC. Yesterday it was fine when when my PC was off and this has never happened before.

The icon in the notification area seems to show me connected to the access point one second then not the next. My sister who uses the PC often says it happens a lot as when she first switches on the PC it takes a long time to connect to the network but repairing the connection seems to fix it, something that isn't working in this case.

Rebooting the PC router and modem doesn't seem to be working either and I'm not sure what else I can do until my PC is up and running again.

Router: Linksys WRT54G
PCI Card: Linksys WMP54G

 

[RobH]

My sister who uses the PC often says it happens a lot as when she first switches on the PC it takes a long time to connect to the network but repairing the connection seems to fix it

This sounds like your modem is going to sleep mode when there is no traffic. Your modem will disconnect from the Internet if you leave it idle for a certain amount of time, a lot of modems/gateways have this feature, sometimes undocumented. This will cause limited connectivity warning in windows if your the first person to use the Internet after it has gone to sleep, it takes about 20-30s to re-establish the connection to the Internet. Repairing simply flushes the ARP and DNS caches which allows you to get on the Internet again because Windows would have cached the bad response from your router.

I haven't tested this but I suppose you could create a batch file that pings the modem when windows starts, this might give it enough time to "wake up" before the Internet is used.

seems to show me connected to the access point one second then not the next

What is your signal strength like? I have used this Linksys PCI card before and it doesn't seem to like weaker signals, you haven't somehow decreased the strength recently have you? Having an arial next to a big metal computer case doesn't help with signal strength, the PCI cards tend to suffer with this a lot more than USB or notebook adapters.

 

[Mundu]

The signal strengtyh is very good. In the Linksys monitor one second it wil say it's connected to the acces point but the next second it says it isn'y.