Hi everyone, I am having a problem with my wireless connection for my wife's laptop.
First I will state what is happening, then the troubleshooting steps I have taken and finally what I think I need to do. However, I am not a wireless tech so I need your advice.
Here is my system:
Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422
AMD Turion 64 x2
4gb ram
Windows Vista(bleh)
Realtek internal wirless network adapter RTL8187b
Problem:
Starting a couple weeks ago the wireless connectin from the laptop drops (actually, it doesn't drop, it is having a lot of packet loss). Sometimes this happens after a couple mminutes and sometimes after a half hour. To reconnect, we turn the switch off, wait 30 sec, and turn it back on. It will stay connected for awhile (30 min to an hour) then drop again.
What I have done:
I checked the driver (it is the most current avail.) and uninstalled it and reinstalled it.
I updated the system bios.
I have run a ping test when the connection drops. I pinged my router. The results vary but there are always lost packets, sometimes all four and sometimes just one. (for some odd reason it does not display a latency).
I have ensured my router is up to date on its firmware.
Also, I have a destop pc that is connected to the same router via ethernet cable and it does not drop.
I disabled Ipv6. (on laptop)
I verified Ipv4 is installed.(on laptop)
(One other issue that I have noticed...we have a Wii that can connect to the same router wirelessly. When we are online with the Wii (whether or not the laptop is online) there are no problems with the Wii. However, when the Wii is turned off (and in standby) it connects to the router every minute or two. It quickly fills up the log on the router. This may be a function of the Wii but it does seem odd. The laptop does not show these conections every minute or two.) I have disabled the Wii's wireless connection.
The signal strength from the router is high and we have a boost antenna on it
Apparent problem:
It apprears to me that the wirless adapter might be bad and causing packet collisions but I have no way to verify this.
What do you suggest? I think I have tried a lot of potential fix's but if you have any suggestions I will be more than happy to try it. Where it stands now is that I am planning on replacing the wireless adapter inside the laptop. My concern is that it might be the router. I would prefer to only fix one thing.
If your router is set for b/g/n, try setting it for G only.
The wii is G I believe, and if the laptop is newer and b/g/n, it could be a negotiating thing.
I had a problem with my wifes new laptop and the daughters (both have N cards) losing sight of the router until I turned it to G only. (Still offers way more speed than the internet provider can provide).
Thanks for the suggestion. My router supports only G so that was already done.
Another thing I just tried last night was to run a ping test with the -t option and captured it in a log file. It ran for a couple hours with no problems other than a high ping every few minutes. The prolems seems to show up when we are running the web browser (IE8).
If the problem is related to the wireless network then you should check both the side, sender and the receiver also. Sometimes if the wifi device become weak, then also you can't get the signals. I think you should check the wifi frequency first.
Hi and thanks for the help. The problem continued to get worse and I also began to notice problems on our desktop which is not wireless. I got a new laptop too and it had the same problem right out of the box. That narrowed the problem down to the router.
I got a new router this weekend and all of the problems have cleared up. That must have been it. It was about 7 years old.
High packet loss 
Linear Mode
