Comments on: How can I get back my wireless functionality?

Question: How can I get back my wireless functionality?

Nikolai — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:26:34 -0800

Yesterday my wireless connection to my home network on my Windows XP laptop kept dropping and I had to reconnect. Since then, wireless networks kept randomly disappearing from my list, and now mine plus all the neighbors' networks except one are gone and no amount of refreshing or restarting brings them back. I can still connect to the Internet through a wired connection. How can I get back my wireless functionality?

By: k8t

k8t — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:41:20 -0800

Have you unplugged both your cable modem (or DSL) and your wireless router, counting to 20 and then plugging them both back in, then restarting your computer and trying to reconnect?

Also, go into your Wireless Connection advanced properties and look for the list of all the networks that you've connected to in the past. Delete them all.

By: Lucie

Lucie — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:43:02 -0800

I would call the wireless provider's tech support.

Then again, I'm a glutton for punishment.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:45:23 -0800

Have you talked to your neighbors? It could be just you or it could be some sort of local interference.

By: the ghost of Ken Lay

the ghost of Ken Lay — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:47:53 -0800

Have you tried:

Updating the wireless driver?

Changing the channel of your WAP. Pick either 1, 6, or 11?

A different laptop (or wireless card) to see if you get the same results?

By: kindall

kindall — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:52:57 -0800

Your wireless card may be coming unseated. (It's probably a PCI card inside the laptop.) This has recently happened to my Fujitsu and it's going to have to go in for service, as this card is not accessible without disassembling the laptop. Fortunately I have a 3-year warranty...

By: idlemind

idlemind — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:54:09 -0800

You could be suffering from a neighbor with brand new 2.4 GHz cordless phone. Most of them aren't very wireless friendly. You might try changing the channel on your wireless access point to see if this fixes it.

My neighborhood goes through a cyclical process whenever a new phone shows up. We all start changing the channels on our wireless access points until we end up on one that has the lowest amount of interference. It's like musical chairs for adults.

By: Nikolai

Nikolai — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 15:00:05 -0800

k8t: Did both of those, no luck.

Lucie and nathan: Considering doing that.

Ken Lay: Updated the drivers already, don't have alternate devices to use at the moment, and is changing the WAP channel something I do to my laptop, or my router?

Kindall: Although I hope it's not, that may be why.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 15:06:26 -0800

In order of operations:

1) Unplug, wait 30 seconds, and reconnect your cable modem. 3 to 5 minutes later (to allow cable modem time to obtain its network address and gateway & DNS info from the cable company):

2) Unplug, wait 30 seconds, reconnect your wireless router. 2-3 minutes later (to give wireless router time to get WAN address from cable modem, above):

3) Do a cold reboot of your laptop, thus clearing the ARP cache, reloading the network stack and wireless card drivers, obtaining a fresh DHCP address lease with current DNS info, and verifying network connectivity. If this reboot does not automatically reconnect you to your last wireless network, you may have to go through discovery and selection of available wireless networks, and supply any needed passwords or pass phrases for connecting to WPA or WEP secured access points.

Don't rush the reset process of the cable modem and wireless router. If you continue to have problems, you should be able to get into the router's admin page via a wired connection to whatever your router's LAN address is (192.168.1.1 for the default Linksys products address), and see what the status page and logs (if any) have to say.

If you still can't get a reliable wirelesss connection after doing these steps, and have tried it from within a few feet of your access point, you've either got a failed access point (router), a bad wireless card, or substantial interference from a new source (wireless phone, microwave oven, or even an electrically noisy PC or other electronic gadget). You can at least eliminate your wireless card and laptop as the source of trouble by taking them to a nearby coffee shop or bookstore offering free wireless access, and trying to connect there. If you do that successfully, the problem is either your wireless router or interference.

By: k8t

k8t — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 15:14:09 -0800

Reset your router back to factory defaults and set it up from scratch.

By: drmarcj

drmarcj — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 20:26:36 -0800

I might have missed something, but it could be that it's your laptop's hardware or software, not the router. Have you checked the problem with another computer, either using the same wireless card/dongle or a different one?

By: todbot

todbot — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 21:36:59 -0800

Defintiely try another known-working computer, as drmarcj suggests. It may be that one of your neighbors has a new 2.4GHz cordless phone or x10 wireless video camera that stomps over all Wi-Fi.

By: gregschoen

gregschoen — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:03:01 -0800

If you haven't already, upgrade your version of XP to SP2. The Wireless support via SP2 is VERY much how you describe, and updating the Zero Config Wireless might help.

Good Luck.