Cable Modem/Wireless Router Dropping.

[Info Tech Geek]

I have a small problem. There is a network of 3 computer (2 WinXP Home and 1 Win2K). In room number one is a Cable Modem, Wireless Router and a Computer. The setup comes into the modem, then to the router and hard wired to the computer running XP. In room number 2 is a computer that holds a signal of 97% and runs Win2K and finally another computer in room 3 that runs XP and holds a signal of 87 - 92%.

The Router US Robotics (USR8022)
The Wireless Cards Belkin w/ external antenna

The Problem, Computers 2 & 3 are being dropped from the network on multiple occasions and the users usually have to reset both the router and the modem in order to reconnect. I'm not quite sure if Computer 1 completely drops signal, but I could find out. Is there any suggestions on why this would happen?

I had a similar setup and never had this issue.

[jinxy]

Has the router got the latest firmware? Maybe its an issue with this router??
Attenuation could be another reason. Is there any sort of pattern to the signal loss?

[Nokia]

I had a similar problem at home, I have a Belkin wireless router and linksys cards in my laptops and they had a signal of 70& or over but the kept losing the signal at irregular intervals

I had the router wireless mode on Long Range Mixed 11b + 11G, I tried changing the mode to just Mixed 11b+11g and the problem stopped.

Im not quite sure what the difference is between the modes (other than the obvious) but I think the long range mode made the signal susceptible to outside interfearence??

I didnt look to deeply into the difference, I was happy as long as it worked!

[Info Tech Geek]

I'll have to check it out, I mean the hardware is good. It is my old router and they purchased their own cards. I think it is currently set at 802.11b. I know the cards ar B & G, but the router may only be B.

[Highlander]

Default settings of most windows boxes have it where it re-authhencates
every 3 mins...
I have a buffalo card that did just that.

Go to wireless Network Connection Properties
Go to properties of the network ssid
go to Athenitication Tab
Un-Check Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network
Click ... OK an OK to save

Fixed mine.... and since then fixed a number of other wireless problems for customers

Hope this helps

[Spyrus]

I have seen this caused by spyware too. What the spyware did was corrupt one of the files within the TCP/IP stack so i had to rebuild the winsock section of it. Also a common problem from AOL install/uninstalls and kazaa removal. If you run a winsock utility fix it will rebuild that section of the stack for you

http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html

I believe this is the one I used to fix this similar problem.

[Info Tech Geek]

when I do an IPConfig the Connection-specific DNS Suffix drops when ever the wireless connection drops. When I reset the modem it still stays blank until I do an ipconfig /renew. It seems like this happens whenever the connected computer connects or disconnects to AOL. How can I stop this? The other person refuses to give up AOL.

[Info Tech Geek]

it looks like the error is being caused by a third party PPP adapter providing the system another IP Address. The network is showing the original information and the PPP adapter is showing another IP address.

[jinxy]

I think the problem here is AOL and the fact they do not realy support home networking. I think the Horse hinted in another post that, you could use mac spoofing to get round, "cheapskate" isp's, or something like that.

[Info Tech Geek]

what would be a good method to test and resolve the issue?