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February 21, 2005 12:31 PM

My laptop crashed and I've been reloading all my software on it. Most of it has worked fine except that when my built-in wireless network card connects to my base station, it disconnects ever 2-5 minutes (and then reconnects). What is going on?

I also bought an additional backup laptop (my laptop is my biz) and it's dumping out too (ever 2-5 minutes). I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. My base station and laptop was working just fine before the crash.

Info:

Broadband internet: works fine
Wireless setup: Microsoft Base station
Attempts: *Removed network card and let xp reinstall
*made sure the Encryption Key was exact
*made sure the desktop (connected a la cable) works (it does) and that it communicates with Laptop A (laptop B has a long way to go).

Help!

posted by Hands of Manos to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Driver update?
posted by SpecialK at 12:48 PM on February 21, 2005

Are you using SP2? Is Windows managing the wireless connection, or a third-party app bundled with your Wi-Fi card?

XP is notoriously bad at Wi-Fi, though SP2 is an improvement. You might want to try Odyssey Client as a different Wi-Fi manager too...
posted by benzo8 at 12:58 PM on February 21, 2005

Drive Update attempted, installed, worked for 5 minutes and then it said it had to reconnect :(
posted by Hands of Manos at 1:02 PM on February 21, 2005

Is IEEE 802.1X Authentication disabled in the Authentication tab?
posted by curse at 1:16 PM on February 21, 2005

curse,

It may look like this is working. I'm still watching it but I think this is going to get it. (I'm praying that it doesn't disco here in a minute)
posted by Hands of Manos at 1:29 PM on February 21, 2005

If you're using WPA (as opposed to WEP), make sure you've got SP2. If you insist on running SP1, search for the patch that makes WPA work reliably.
posted by aberrant at 2:31 PM on February 21, 2005

Here's the link for the patch and documentation.
posted by aberrant at 2:35 PM on February 21, 2005

curse's blessing worked!

hooray!

thanks guys
posted by Hands of Manos at 4:03 PM on February 21, 2005