IT Professionals

Lost Wi-Fi Access

Posted by on Aug 12, 2008 | 3 Comments

Today Craig asks:

A few months ago I bought a new laptop and set up a wireless connection, the signal from the router never broke and ran perfect for weeks, until the signal started to break up and disconnect roughly 2 times a day the only thing I remember happening is a piece of software (mIrc) flushing my DNS, any help would be appreciated thanks.

Well the IRC client should really not be flushing anything to do with your DNS as far as I am concerned. Mine does not, so if the one you are using does, I might explore a less intrusive alternative.

Regarding the dropping wireless connection, the first thing I would test is to see if you are having a connection reset on a wired network as well. If so, then it may be the router. If it is wireless only however and it has been clearly confirmed that a wired network is working fine, then you may be picking up some interference.

Assuming the test described previously has shown that it might be an interference issue with the signal itself, then I would begin exploring the following:

  • Logging into the router, changing the wireless channel you are connecting to.
  • Are you noticing new wireless networks showing up in your wireless settings that seem to have comparable wireless strength to your own?
  • When the connection breaks, are their cordless phones or microwaves in use at that moment? I have never had a problem with this, but have heard that some people do.

If you are still having problems, despite everything above, might be time to look at the software side of this? Any new updates from Windows Updates designed to change your network settings? And as wild as this seems, log in to the router and see if you have it set to turn off access at specific times. I realize how big of a stretch this might seem like, but I have seen it happen. And it would explain what was going on if the disconnect was happening on a schedule like clockwork!

Lockergnome community, do you have additional thoughts of some things to check? Hit the comments; share your ideas there.

Do you have an IT-related question? Perhaps you are just burnt out on writing on the walls with crayons? Whatever the comments may be, drop me a line, and you too can “Just Ask Matt!” Please address comments to the comments section above, my email address is for questions – thanks!

  • http://www.bytehead.org/blog/ Bryan Price

    Maybe it’s not broken.

    Ever since I did the updates in July, this Dell D600 keeps complaining that it can’t either get an address or that the throughput is bad. Funny thing, throughput is fine, and I have a valid address even while the icon keeps saying finding address.

    Something evidently broke in that last update. Things work, so I haven’t really worried about it on my end.

  • http://www.bytehead.org/blog/ Bryan Price

    Ok, I’m here to report that after this months’ fixes, my WiFi icons are working again as they should.

    YMMV

    As far as wired versus WiFi on the router, my router routinely takes a crap on me with wireless going away while the wired computers keep on chugging. The only fix I’ve found so far is to reset the router. I’ve got multiple wireless computers, so I know it isn’t an individual computer. I’m only on my fifth router so far, they seem to keep crapping out on me after about a years use. My preferred brand is D-Link, but the WAN port seems to be the one that craps out on me. The LinkSys’ that I’ve used start to get flaky wireless and then I loose a port until they went useless. The NetGear is what I currently have. It works longer between resets than the LinkSys, usually about a week. The D-Link would go for a month before having to reset it, while the LinkSys seemed like it needed a reset at least every two days, if not multiple times a day.

    Part of me wonders if some of this isn’t from DDOSing, as my D-Link would frequently have some kind of attack listed in it’s log.

    So reset your router and see if your laptop links up without any issue. If it does, I’d be leaning at looking at what is going on with the router further. I find it weird, because most of the time if there is a problem, my laptop automatically reconnects without any input or help from me.

  • Alan

    I had a similar problem with temperature on a previous router. We had a very hot summer and you could see the signal strength getting weaker as the temperature rose. I concluded that the router signal frequency was drifting with temperature and my laptop was not able to track it. Moving the router into a cooler spot improved matters considerably.

    I have also seen problems on a neighbours system when another neighbour installed a MIMO WiFi system – uses several channels. Two of these in the vicinity and virtually all your whole channels have gone. The only real cure is to join them with a MIMO system of your own and pollute the radio environment for everyone else.