Intermittent wireless problems

I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 and a Netgear DG834G wireless router. The
router is in one room and I generally work in an adjacent room a few
metres away. Most of the time everything works fine but, occasionally,
the wireless signal strength will drop a little, sometimes drop a lot,
and sometimes drop away altogether. If I take the laptop back into the
same room as the router then a few moments later the link strength will
be restored and all will be fine - this always works. I have had this
intermittent problem since I set up the router about 18 months ago.

I can't think of anything obvious that coincides with the signal
dropping - for example it's not using the cordless phone, or turning on
the dishwasher. I live in a detached house so I can't really blame the
neighbours. It seems to be unpredictable.

I have upgraded the router firmware, and am thinking about upgrading
the network adaptor.

Any ideas?

On 6 Aug 2005 08:16:55 -0700, Graeme.freeman@bigfoot.com wrote:

>I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 and a Netgear DG834G wireless router. The
>router is in one room and I generally work in an adjacent room a few
>metres away. Most of the time everything works fine but, occasionally,
>the wireless signal strength will drop a little, sometimes drop a lot,
>and sometimes drop away altogether.

If the laptop is in a fixed location (not moving) when it does its
fade, it's probably interference.

>If I take the laptop back into the
>same room as the router then a few moments later the link strength will
>be restored and all will be fine - this always works.

That's the normal pattern for recovering from a signal loss. It's not
obvious from your description if walking to the room with the DG834G
is required for the laptop to reconnect. Will the laptop eventually
reconnect by itself if left in the adjacent room?

>I have had this
>intermittent problem since I set up the router about 18 months ago.
>
>I can't think of anything obvious that coincides with the signal
>dropping - for example it's not using the cordless phone, or turning on
>the dishwasher. I live in a detached house so I can't really blame the
>neighbours. It seems to be unpredictable.

Without proper test equipment, interference is difficult to find and
identify. Such interference doesn't need to be local and can be
coming from outside the immediate area. Municipal wireless is a
growing source of such interference. It may also be fairly local and
only appear when a delivery truck reflects the signal. The
interference can also be at the DG834G router, or at the laptop side.

Suggestions:
1. Try different radio channels and see if it helps. 1, 6, and 11 in
the US.

2. If the router or the laptop is in front of a window, move them so
that no interference directly through the window.

3. Conduct a substitution test and try running with a borrowed laptop
or a different borrowed router. It's remotely possible that there may
be something defective with the hardware or firmware.

4. Intel 2200BG cards seem to have a problem with slowing down and
never recovering.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...2&page=1&pp=10
I'm not sure your Dell Inspiron 1150 has one of these.

>I have upgraded the router firmware, and am thinking about upgrading
>the network adaptor.



--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
AE6KS 831-336-2558

Graeme.freeman@bigfoot.com wrote:

> I have a Dell Inspiron 1150 and a Netgear DG834G wireless router. The
> router is in one room and I generally work in an adjacent room a few
> metres away. Most of the time everything works fine but, occasionally,
> the wireless signal strength will drop a little, sometimes drop a lot,
> and sometimes drop away altogether. If I take the laptop back into the
> same room as the router then a few moments later the link strength will
> be restored and all will be fine - this always works. I have had this
> intermittent problem since I set up the router about 18 months ago.
>
> I can't think of anything obvious that coincides with the signal
> dropping - for example it's not using the cordless phone, or turning on
> the dishwasher. I live in a detached house so I can't really blame the
> neighbours. It seems to be unpredictable.
>
> I have upgraded the router firmware, and am thinking about upgrading
> the network adaptor.
>
> Any ideas?
>
Hi,
Tried different channel? Or any appliance like A/C coming on/off?
Tried orientation of router antenna like tilt up/down;
vertical/horizontal, etc.? Try to locate router high up.(I leave my
router on top of my desk top case with cable modem)
Good luck,
Tony

Thanks for the advice, but so far no luck...

I've tried a different channel, fiddling with the antenna, raising the
router and even moving the router to another part of the house. I've
tried switching off the cordless phone as well. All make no difference.
I still have the same problem... reception will always be fine when I
am in the same room as the router, but in another part of the house
reception will sometimes be fine but will sometimes vary and sometimes
drop away completely for a period.

I live in an area of low-density housing in a rural village so I really
doubt it's my neighbours or the authorities. We've only just got
electricity round here ;-)

I will try upgrading my device driver (i've got a different problem
here,
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt...2f71de1051fb4).
If this makes no difference i guess it's got to be a h/w fault?

Thanks for your input.
G