Help me fix my flaky wireless internet connection

March 11, 2008 1:07 PM

What's up with my flaky wireless internet connection?

The hardware: Toshiba Satellite M55, Win XP, Belkin wireless router with security enabled, your average Verizon business DSL service. The Intel PROSet Wireless application, which is what I use to configure and connect to wireless networks, typically shows I'm connected to the network at 24Mbps, sometimes more.

The situation: My laptop is maybe fifteen feet from the router, which is on the other side of a wall in a very old building. Until recently I had the router in my office, and everything played together fairly well. Now we've moved stuff around, and things have gone downhill.

If I click on, say, a YouTube video (or any old website, but YouTube is a better example), everything loads very slow, if at all. If I then open the Intel PROSet Wireless app, which causes it to refresh its list of available wireless networks, everything starts to load properly, i.e., the progress bar on the video starts to move right along. This improved loading speed lasts for a bit, until it doesn't, and I have to launch PROSet again to get things moving. Or at least I think that's having an effect. It's entirely possible it's coincidence, as it doesn't always work, but it sure seems like it's helping.

If I take my laptop home, I get pretty solid performance even if I'm two floors above my wireless router (security not enabled -- I live in the boonies).

Any thoughts, or tests to help me narrow it down?

posted by schoolgirl report to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Mine was doing that exact same thing with different equipment (MacBook Pro/LinkSys router). When I forced it to rescan, suddenly the speed picked up a lot, even though it indicated that it was connected to my network the whole time.

I changed the wireless channel on the router config. It doesn't do that any more. Coincidence? Maybe.
posted by ctmf at 1:23 PM on March 11, 2008

I don't know if this is what's happening in your case, but I had a similar problem awhile back. My router is downstairs and I have two PCs upstairs. Every so often, my wife would yell, "I can't connect to the internet!" I'd go to her PC, twiddle a few wires, release and renew the IP address, and eventually everything would go back to normal. Then one day it happened, and I caught her using an old 2.8 GHz cordless phone that I had disconnected when I bought the wireless router.

It turns out that the problem was caused by interference from the phone. 802.11G wireless devices communicate at 2.8GHz, so they ca sometimes interfere with each other. I've heard that microwave ovens can also create interference on the same frequency, so if you sit down to browse the net after warming up your sandwich and everything is borked, you'll know where to start troubleshooting.

I (re)disconnected that old phone and replaced it with a 5.8 GHz cordless phone, and everything has been fine ever since.
posted by braveterry at 2:09 PM on March 11, 2008

a few things will interfere with a wireless signal. braveterry is right, often phones will interfere, but at 2.4 GHz, not 2.8. pedantic, i know. microwaves will too, at the same frequency.

one of the things i do when setting up a wireless network is check for other networks in range of the computers using the new router. they are usually using channel 1, 6 or 11. usually 6. that's the default. change that to 3, or 9, or 5, and many problems will go away.

many old buildings, especially multi story apt buildings in cities have metal lath in the plaster walls. this forms a very effective radio shield, blocking / reflecting whatever signal you are putting out. move the computer to the same room as the router, then watch the signal strength as you move it back where it was. it should be obvious if the signal drops right when entering the next room.

if that is the case, drill a hole and run an ethernet cable.
posted by KenManiac at 2:22 PM on March 11, 2008

Hey Bro.

If the channel change doesn't work (5 will get you 7, it will), you may be the victim of lead paint that can interfere with the channel. One solution is to make a vegeteable steamer wi-fi extender and stick it out the window. You'll get better reception through your window if it's fairly close.

Helped a friend do that a couple months ago.
posted by lumpenprole at 3:36 PM on March 11, 2008

Thirding ctmf and lumpenprole re channel change. Just had the same problem. Changed channel. Hey presto!
posted by TheRaven at 4:36 PM on March 11, 2008

So far, looks like channel 2 is doing the job. Tried channel 5, but for whatever reason it didn't seem to do much. Thanks all.

I'll keep the vegetable steamer option in mind. Not sure if I could credibly list that as a business expense, but you never know.
posted by schoolgirl report at 6:35 AM on March 12, 2008

OK, after fighting with this for the past few months, finally a real resolution.

First: updated Intel PROset Wireless software.

Second: in Device Manager, in the properties of the PROSet adapter, cranked the Power Management setting to the highest possible.

Worked a treat!
posted by schoolgirl report at 1:16 PM on June 23, 2008