What's wrong with my wireless?

I've had a lot of trouble with my internet connection before, but the problem I've had for the last week or so is really starting to annoy me, and all the information I'm pulling up from Google searches is either too general or doesn't match my problem.

The symptom's pretty simple, for the last week or so the wireless connection between my PC and router has been dropping randomly. It's usually happening every few minutes, but sometimes it will last a lot longer without trouble. The net will stop responding, the icon on my task bar will swap to no signal/no connection for a few seconds, and then it'll reconnect straight away. When I'm playing WoW it usually doesn't even disconnect long enough to boot me out of the game, just causing a long pause where the game doesn't respond before suddenly catching up.

The facts:
- I'm using the same USB wireless adaptor I've used on my PC for years, with settings unchanged (it's kept at maximum distance from the PC itself because the PC case was causing poor signal early last year).
- The router is a BT Home Hub we got in October; we've had some problems with it before which were solved by disabling the feature that automatically changed wirless channel to find the best signal.
- Switching the wireless to different channels manually does not stop the dropouts from occuring.
- We had a cordless phone which has interfered badly with our internet connection and wireless in the past, but is currently disconnected and switched off.
- The connection and equipment have been functioning fairly well for the last couple of months, and this problem's just started in the last week, with nothing changed in my setup.


Any ideas what could be causing this kind of repeated dropout?

First things first (because I've been having similar problems lately too) - is it definitely the wifi connection between PC and router, or is the router actually crapping out entirely and dropping the connection to your ISP?

The router is staying connected to the net all the time. This problem is the wireless connection on my PC dropping out and reconnecting.

Most interference along the 2.4Ghz wave band comes from wireless phones, microwaves (I had this problem whenever someone in my house tried to micro), bluetooth devices etc

For now, check for the above, do a reset on the router (make sure you remember password etc and special settings you might have)

Also try checking if it behaves differently under max load, or when idle etc.

How many other networks does your wireless pick up when you search ?

Does your Wireless overheat? Maybe it collected some dust and now is heating up...
Do you have neighbours which have new phones, new microwaves, etc?

totally OT: why not cable LAN?

Far as I know there's nothing new in the house that would be interfering, but I can't really say about neighbours. House is semi-detached but I'm up against the adjoining wall so I guess something next door interfering is possible.

I pick up about 4-6 other connections, only one with a strong signal, followed by a couple open networks (BT hotspots). Those have always been around, and the rest are very weak come-and-go things.

Go to 192.168.1.254 (homehub manager)

Go into your settings, advanced settings>broadband tab>ADSL tab.

Take a snapshot of that, I'd like to see what is going on with it, especially since it remains connected to the web

I have similar issues since I switched to BT Infinity (fast broadband!! but only when your asleep!!!) I switch channels and all seems back to normal for a few days then it starts again. Driving me a little crazy at times.

I have spent hours scouring the internet for solutions and seem to get nothing other than 'it's interference, change channel'.

laterna wrote:Go to 192.168.1.254 (homehub manager)

Go into your settings, advanced settings>broadband tab>ADSL tab.

Take a snapshot of that, I'd like to see what is going on with it, especially since it remains connected to the web

Not sure what the ADSL satus would tell you about a problem with the wireless signal (completely seperate, aren't they?), but here you go:
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6969/adslstatus.png

The 2 days, 16 hours connection time is from resetting the router. Like I said, I've had no problems whatsoever with the ADSL connection. My PC is just losing the wireless signal from the router all the time. I can't say if it's happening more when there's higher activity because it goes off and on again very quickly and I only tend to notice it if it interrupts something I'm doing. That said, it does kinda seem like it gets worse while I'm playing WoW. It made raiding on Thursday night pretty painful.

My PC is not using a cable because it's at the opposite end of the house from the phone socket. That said, until last week I have never had this problem with signal.

The newer BT Home Hubs support b/g/n. If your USB wifi device is older, it is probably on b or g, which is in the 2.4GHz range where you'll get a lot of conflict from your neighbor's wireless phones, baby monitors, etc. You might try upgrading to a wifi interface that supports n to get you in the 5.4GHz range where you'll get fewer conflicts. Also, check your wireless router for unexpected clients. You can get severe performance degradation and disconnects if a very old device connects, as most routers will fallback to the mode supported by the oldest/slowest device.

Welp, not sure why but something's changed from late last night. Getting full signal strength now and haven't seen a disconnect at all.

I might still look at upgrading my hardware in case it is contributing. It's a pretty old adaptor. Though I'd prefer to wait until I upgrade my motherboard so I can get a card instead of a USB device.

Powerline Networking
I am looking to get this soon for my Blue Ray player as streaming Netflix to it is garbage.