Windows wireless problem

I realize this is not entirely security related, but everyone knows(or at least I do!) that security professionals know most of the networking answers =D

Anyhow, I have a new Toshiba tablet PC with windows xp - tablet pc edition, and I'm having troubles with the wireless connection going unavailable for about a second, then coming back online. Is windows trying to manage the wireless connection, or is there a utility that is trying to help and only making things worse?

I realize that again these are security forums, yet I have tried to resolve the situation myself and have posted on other general computer related forums, so I am using you guys as my last resort.

Thanks in advance as any help will be very helpful, I appreciate it!

Hmm...what equipment are you using for wireless? First thing that comes to mind as you mention it possibly being a Windows management iss issue is this: Check and see if Windows is set to manage your connection (XP has this feature), and if it is, perhaps it's conflicting with the connection software for your wireless card. If it is, disable it and let the third party software do the job. That's somewhere to start anyway.

You can check the following things,

In your XP amchine check in services by going to start > run>services.msc and then check for wireless Zero configuration service, it would have been started.

second right click Wireless connection that appears in your task bar on the right hand side and check for available wireless connections, i am guessing that there are more than one wireless connection available.

MRG.

Where are you in reguards to the AP you are connected to? A lot of times, a person walking by, or a vehical moving through your signal path to the AP will break your connection and the signal will drop for a second. Some cordless phones will also cause interference and cause loss of signal. I have heard that microwave ovens and TV's can cause a loss of signal also, but I have not seen this happen myself.

Is this happening at regular intervals, or completely at random? Is it happening when you start or stop certain programs, and what is running when it does happen?
There are many different things to consider.

I see this all of the time with XP machines.

As already mentioned, dont allow XP to manage the wireless connection as some cards don't
play nice with XP. Centrino based stuff seems to do better but I usually opt for the vendor supplied utilities.

Replace the driver with updated vendor supplied drivers as Windows likes to use defaults when it can.

Sometimes I have had to remove/re-add network support from XP to clean up any old stale configs.

Hope this helps..

Cheers,

SGS

I also own a Toshiba with XP home at one point I was using a Linksys wireless b card and router in my home and as long as I disabled wep I never got dropped and living in the country that probly wasn't any big deal but I run a wireless ISP and have a totaly open access point does not go over with me very well so I found 2 cures for my problem first off I noticed my wifes toshiba running 2000 pro had no problems at all with being dropped and the thing that worked for me and my XP was a different card I now use a TrueMobil card by dell problem solved. I hope this helps in some small way


Wires,wires,wires and they call it wireless

I will try the suggestions, thanks for taking the time to reply..

to answer a few questions, I would say that it is mostly random, and I will take into account someone walking in front of the AP, but I doubt that as a possible theory because I can be a room away...

thanks again for the help!