Wireless question?

[tomfromblaine]

I sure hope somebody can help because what I have now is peggin' out the SUCK-O-METER, I had comcast come and put a wireless set up in my t/home, both computers are desk tops and they put the usb dealio in the backs of them and started out with a basic netgear router, the problem is I keep losing the signal. Well they have been back several times sometimes twice in one day just to see if I was crazy. They now have a rangemax xyz somethin'- somthin' in and I'm still losing the signal at least 2 times a day I think these people have tried but are pretty much done with me I realize desk tops aren't the best thing to go wireless with it's just that not alot of thought went into putting cable/phone jacks into these places and I'd like to keep the expose wireing down to a minimum and eventually have a wireless printer/all in one deal centally located. This isn't a shuttle launch and should be fairly easy to get a somewhat stable signal isn't it? Comcast won't try any other brands of routers, what should I do?

Tom

[spearchucker]

Do you have a 2.4GHz cordless phone in the house?

[upnorth]

If they are disconnecting while you are inactive you will probably need to tweak the power settings to not have the wireless adapter power itself down.

Right click on my computer, go to manage, to device manager, then network adapters, then double click on the wireless network adapter, click on power management and make sure that the allow the computer to turn off this device to save power is unchecked. Also click the advanced tab and in the property mode window find power management and change it to t highest value.

If that doesn't work start looking at your wireless phones, where they are and if they are in use while the drops happen. Also find out if someone is using a microwave near by. Both of those are the worst offenders to wireless network systems.

[tomfromblaine]

phones are 5.8 gig and not in use, I'm an end unit no micros close by, I tried keeping track of the drops by time but it doesn't matter what time it is, and router/modem are within 20feet, most of the time my signal bars are maxed out while I have it, sometimes I'll see them start to drop then recover. I'll check into power program but it does have signal after sleep mode most times, thats how I usually get it back, I'll unplug/replug the power to the router then do a restart on the computer and I usually get it back, it's getting fustrating, oh yea the computer is a Dell and only 7 months old but it happens to my daughters also alittle older e-machine.

[muddpuppy]

Long shot here but if I read right this is a mobile home? Desktop Computer USB port in the back of the computer? Close to the thin wall could possible be unschilded Power wire issue interruption with the Router, Coax cable, Cat5, or the usb card.

Try changing the channel on your router a neibor could be running the same range as you. Comcast should be able to monitor the connection to you router if there are no drops there it something in your inviroment.

Good luck

[tomfromblaine]

Thanks MP, no it's a town home, comcast said they checked the connection to my modem and arn't showing the drops but did see some spikes? I could not get a satisfactory answer as to what a spike is. there has been several tech's checking everything but 1 of them wanted to get into the green box outside but it was under a few feet of snow and we weren't sure where it was.

[MuleShack]

Another long shot here, but you said you were in a town home. If one of your neighbors has RF security cameras that could cut your signal out from well over 100' away.

There might be an advanced option for using a hard wire connection but would require a knowledge of the wiring in the house.

If the phone lines to each room are run with cat5, there would be enough wires to split out the phone and then also make an ethernet connection back to the junction. From there you can pull the same wires and connect/splice to the run that goes to the other computer room. Now you would have to install an Ethernet/phone combo plate and connect the wires on the back on both ends. Ethernet connections only need 4 wires and phone needs 2 and there are 8 wires in a cat5.

A wire is a wire, it doesn't matter if it is used along side something else. I did this on a project a few weeks ago and it is working fine.

[muddpuppy]

Thier spikes could be enough to drop the wireless router and not the modem. You could have a bad filter at the box. Or it could be a bad splitter. I would have comcast test out your cable runs from the box. Also like I said before try changing the channel on the wireless router. one of your neibors could have the same router on the same channel interfering with you.

[DTro]

I never was a fan of those USB wireless adapters.

Is the signal dropping to all computers at the same time? If so then I would suspect the router or modem is the issue.

[tomfromblaine]

Well I never actually checked both computers at the same time as far as the drops are concerned, which is what I would do next but, I can't use my daughters computer now because the last time the guy was here he put some disc in to put in new info and the computer now doesn't work, and didn't work when he left, I talked with comcast today and asked them to remove the wireless system and reimburse me the $150 I paid for them to install it, and somebody is supposed to call me back about the repair for the computer, but they won't give me the money back, I have them coming sunday to hard wire my computer into the modem but I'll be keeping the wireless equipment, I guess I'm gonna just have to have wires running all over the place unless I try Linksys equipment but I'm not sure that will work any better than Netgear stuff.

Is the splitter and filter in the box outside? cause that hasn't been checked

[tomfromblaine]

Well good news, persistance paid off, I get the money credited back to my account due to a "Failed Install" I still havent heard back on the computer that currently doesn't work and I'm sure that we be a hassle too. My buddies son is a guru/geek (I didnt know that) and will get me squared away for good so I'm stoked, just gotta wait till they fix my daughters computer, thanks again for everybodys help.

Tom

[eurolarva]

If you have a bunch of tvs hooked into your cable system that will cause connection problems to the internet. Best thing to do is to either move a computer close to the router or get a real long cat 5 from Home Depot (100 ft cables there around twenty bucks) and see if you loose your signal. Could have been a bad wireless router. My old one progressively got worse and worse till I finally replaced it and this one has been going strong for years. Our one PC we have eats wireless adapters. It is on the third one now in the last two years. Good luck. Linksys has been good for me and is a lot cheaper then 150 bucks. My daughter goes to school at Blaine and if you need help I will wire your wireless for you and you can take me fishing once and we will call it even