Hi I have intermittend wireless connection problem this is the same setup for about 2 years now (connected wireless to another laptop with Vista and wirless connected to printer) and never had a problem until about 3-4 month ago, it dropped my local network connection, the internet was slow in between.

Troubleshooted the router upgraded firmware etc didn't worked, purchased a new linksys router and it worked great for about 1 month same problems creeping up again loosing my local network connection, internet is sometimes slow.
My laptop is windows XP.

Any ideas what else it could be. When I run a CAT5 cable it's working, but that is not very practical in our office setup.
I clean all my cookies, etc on a reg basis, I ran Norton Systems work a few times.

But the little PC in my taskbar is showing status connected, Speed 54 Mbps.

Any help ideas etc will be greatly appreciate, can't afford right now to buy a new laptop.

thanks,

Hello Infogaby! Welcome to PCHF!

We have a fantastic team of techs here as well as a very knowledgeable member community and I am sure we will be able to help you

I will mark your thread as open and someone will be with you as soon as possible, thank you for your patience.

Regards,

Smokeycheech

A clearer picture of the setup and problem would be helpful -
How are your devices connected and what OS do they run e.g. Printer-Router via USB, PC1(XPSP3)-Router CAT5, Laptop1(Vistax64SP1)-Router Wireless.
Does the 'little PC in your taskbar' ever show an error?
Is your wifi secured (WEP, WPA, etc)?
Does the connectivity affect any other computer/device on the network?
What firewall/anti-virus do you use?
What are the makes/models of your new AND old router?
Could you be flooding your router, downloading updates, watching youtube, uploading to online backup and copying files to/from another PC at the same time?
Is it only a problem with connecting to devices on the LAN?

Sorry for the huge list of questions but intermittant problems are difficult (in my opinion) to diagnose.

There are 2 laptops VISTA Home (which I am connecting it is basically the server) we connect wireless via a Linksys Dual N Gigabit Router, which is brandnew

The little PC never shows an error it just turns black but always shows connected.

WIFI is secured WPA

We only have these 2 laptops so no

The Vista Laptop has WebRoot and windows fire wall, the XP has McAfee and also windows fire wall

New Router: Linksys Dual N Gigabit Router

Old Router was Linksys G Router

It is used mainly for accessing Quickbooks and files on the Vista Laptop, no watchin you tube, downloading updates are done after hours

Yes that is the only problem when I'm connected it works great

Thanks hope I answered all your questions

infogaby,

From what you've said I am guessing that:

'Little PC' (let's call it Wireless Icon from now on) green means connected to router AND internet

Wireless Icon black means connected to router but NO internet

So if this is correct (can you confirm this - if it is black then click Start > Run and type in cmd then click OK. Then type ping xxx.xxx.x.x where the x's are the IP address of the router (aka Default Gateway).

You can find that by doing the same as above except typing ipconfig/all. You want to note the Default Gateway.

If you get a 'failed' message when trying to ping the default gateway when the Wireless icon is black then that means you have been completely disconnected from the network.

If the ping succeeds then the router is working fine and it would suggest that the problem is with your ISP or perhaps the network card in the laptops. But I think its unlikely for two to fail at the same time.

My questions are:

How long is it between a Wireless Icon = Green and a Wireless Icon = black?

Are we talking a few minutes or a few hours?

Also how long did you have the Ethernet connected for? You should connect it for at least the same amount of time as it takes for the Wireless Icon to change colour.

Then, if you lose internet via Ethernet you can be certain that the problem is with the ISP and you should contact them.

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One last thing:

You say that the new router worked for "about a month". ISP's bill for their service every month so is it possible that you have been downloading or uploading a lot in recent months? There are a few ISP's in America who are notorious for limiting their customers' internet connection speeds.

Hi,
the wireless icon changes constantly we take maybe between 5-15 seconds on and off, I was able to ping the problem without a problem.

It's really strange...
No I have not downloaded anything that I can think off, usually just the updates from McAfee or Windows updates, mainly the computer is used for business to share softwares and files which are on the VISTA laptop.

I know my router is up to date with firmware, my laptop is up to date with all windows updates.

Hmm it is strange.

How are you connecting to the wireless router...are you using the built in Windows Wireless Zero or some other software eg Linksys etc?

Running both at the same time causes this problem apparently.

Here are some other things to try:

In your router's settings try changing the Broadcast Channel to something in the range of 9-11.

Try moving the laptop(s) closer to the router and see if the problem remains. Even if a wireless adapter / icon says the signal strength is "Excellent" it may not be correct.

Lastly...

Have you bought any cordless telephones recently? They interfere with the wireless signal. And that's about all I can think of.

Use Netstumbler to get a more accurate measure of the wireless signal strength:

http://downloads.netstumbler.com/dow...ller_0_4_0.exe

The majority of wireless problems are due to distance / being too far away from the router.