How can I fix this wireless router problem?
May 8, 2010 7:16 AM   Subscribe

Is it Windows 7, or my wireless router, or something else that is the problem here?

My home network has been happily humming along until I added a new laptop to the mix. Up to now I have 2 MBPs, an XP laptop, and an iPod Touch, running wirelessly, a Vista Desktop, 2 Tivo Boxes, and a PS3 running wired to a 3 year old WRT54G router.

I added this Lenovo Y550P laptop to the mix, which is my first Windows 7 machine [64bit Home Premium]. And things have not gone well.

When the Win7 laptop tries to find the router, all other wireless devices are instantly knocked off. Often the wireless signal disappears altogether and I have to reset the router before the other machines can find the SSID again.

When I do try and connect wirelessly, the Win7 machine will kinda find the router... it establishes a connection and I can surf for a very short period (a minute or so). Then the connection drops and reestablishes itself.

When I turn off the wireless adapter in the the Windows 7 machine and attach with a cable, and cycle the router everything works fine.

This is not my strong suit, so I'm not really sure how to diagnose this, or if there are settings I need to change in the router or on the laptop to accommodate this new machine.

Ever heard of anything like this?
posted by chocolate_butch to Computers & Internet (3 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I did a Google search "problems with wrt54g" and found similar complaints. The first order solution was to make sure you are running the most recent router firmware-upgrade. Regardless of anything else, your problem sounds like a router issue. I'd look in that direction for a fix.
posted by Hilbert at 8:32 AM on May 8, 2010


Seconding Hilbert's advice (I just had to upgrade the firmware on a netgear router that crashed as soon as more than one device connected).
posted by samj at 8:48 AM on May 8, 2010


Take a look into upgrading your WRT54G with Tomato or DDWRT. Check your version number before attempting an upgrade, or MeMail me if you need a hand. My WRT54GS (running Tomato) runs rock solid, it only reboots when there is a power outage, I can't recommend it enough.

If that's not an option, like the others have said, upgrade to the newest linksys firmware, that will usually fix these sorts of problems.
posted by defcom1 at 10:00 PM on May 9, 2010


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