[ft.]

Connection loss, perhaps. I don't really know what to make of it.

I'm on a wireless network when I come home from college, so I've only been using it for about 3 weeks now. My trouble is this:

I had a D-link wireless card (PCI, generic PC setup) from which the antenna had broken off, so I got a pretty poor signal, but it worked fine. For christmas I asked for a new card, I ended up with a Linksys WMP54G, a pretty straightforward wireless-g card. I installed the new card, decided to use the windows networking setup as opposed to the linksys wireless setup because i'm used to it, rebooted, and it worked fine.

Now i have an "excellent" signal, but I'll have times where the connection will just cut out for a few seconds every couple minutes.

I haven't really experienced this before and it seems somewhat odd for hardware to be this inconsistant.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[JohnWill]

Are you sure you disabled the Linksys client? This is the symptom when you have more than one wireless client running.

 

[ft.]

Well, I had to disable it in order to get to windows wireless, but it's not in the processes, nor startup, so i dont' see why it would still be running.

 

[JohnWill]

It could also be wireless interference. Any neighbors with wireless networks? Wireless phones? Someone warming soup up in a microwave oven?

 

[ft.]

Not that I know of. And if I didn't really make this clear, the problem was NOT happening for the first week or so and when i changed cards (and put in a second gig of ram) this problem showed up.

I have yet to put the old crap card back in and see if it goes away, but i guess that's my next step if there are no immediate solutions.

 

[JohnWill]

This is the kind of problem that's pretty difficult to diagnose in ASCII. The fact that it just started happening when you changed something makes me think you should indeed change it back. I can't imagine the memory being an issue, but the other wireless card certainly could be. FWIW, most of those PCI cards have the same SMA connector for the antenna, why not take the antenna off the new card and use it on the old one?

 

[jackdw]

why not take the antenna off the new card and use it on the old one?

Just about to suggest that myself John.
My wireless PCI card had the standard antenna but it wasn't good signal (the antenna was hidden behind junk), I bought an antenna on a wire with a magnetic base which now sits above the junk, brilliant connection!

 

[TerryNet]

The following was copied from a PC World article some time ago.

WZC periodic disconnects

Many home and small organizations secure their wireless networks using WEP or, preferably, WPA. But some institutions use the enterprise-oriented IEEE 802.1X authentication framework, which Windows XP supports natively.

Unfortunately, if you don’t use 802.1X on your wireless network, Wireless Zero Configuration may interrupt your connection when it periodically attempts to perform 802.1X authentication against your associated access point.

To prevent interruptions in connectivity, disable 802.1X authentication for your wireless network adapter. In Windows, open the Network Connections control panel. Locate your wireless adapter, double-click it, and choose Properties and then Wireless Networks. You should see a tab labeled Authentication, in which you can disable “Enable IEEE 802.1X Authentication for this network”.

Every few minutes, WZC likes to see if anything better is out there, and it is not always clear what rationale, if any, it uses to make its decisions.

The most common sign that WZC went looking for a better deal is when Windows pops up its friendly taskbar balloon announcing “One or more wireless networks is available” – even though you’re already connected to a network and surfing happily, thank you very much. Or, you may see an equally helpful balloon touting that Windows has successfully connected to such-and-such a network – even though you’re already connected to that network and…

Unfortunately, you may experience instability in your connection when WZC goes roaming. A common (but certainly kludgy) solution is to disable WZC after it has successfully established a connection to your network.

You can do this using the Administrative Tools/Services control panel as described in “Ditching WZC” above, but that procedure can quickly grow tiresome.

As an alternative, follow the “Ditching WZC” procedure, but set its Startup Type to automatic. Now WZC will connect when your system boots.

Create a batch file (a plain text file) containing just the command:

C:WINDOWSsystem32net.exe stop

Save the batch file, or a shortcut to it, on your desktop. Give it a descriptive name like “Kill WZC Now”. Once your wireless connection is established on boot, double-click the shortcut. WZC will go away and bother you no more during this session. Of course, if you move to a new wireless network, you’ll need to relaunch WZC. You can reboot, or create a companion shortcut:

C:WINDOWSsystem32net.exe start

 

[ft.]

I already had that disabled, and I've got a hard set network list with only one network in it.

The reason I didn't just pick up a new antenna is because the entire piece broke off, threading and all.

I'll have to throw the other one in. The odd thing is that sometiems the spikes happen close together, and other times I'll have long periods of no loss. I had one that lasted long enough to disconnect everything today. It could just be an ill-timed network problem, but when i had 2 computers running, the other one didn't seem to have the same spikes.

 

[zupportguy]

Well just a suggestion. Why not install your new adapter on another computer. See if you still have some problems.

Scenario 1
1. If the adapter still had the same issue even after installing it on another PC then try to check for any updated drivers on the Linksys website. Also, try to check if there are any new Firmware for your router. Try playing with various versions of Firmware for your router as this maybe a compatability problem. Last but not the least try changing your channel on the router. You may use channels 1,6 and 11. Interference maybe a cause of the problem.


Scenario 2
1. If you still have the same problem even when installing it on another PC, just replace the adapter as you may have a faulty one.


Isolating the problem is much better than to alter Windows settings. These things are plug and play, and should work without a glitch out of the box. Cheers

 

[ft.]

Well, Problem solved, I guess. I switched to the linksys wireless and it works fine. Perhaps it was just being finnicky because I wasn't wasting processing power by running their service.