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Wifi Difficulties - 1/8/2010 7:52:36 PM

peppermint

Posts: 5170
Joined: 10/18/2005
From: Montana
Status: offline

Hoping some techie type person can help me with my internet problem.

We have satellite internet which we've had for 3 years. A few weeks ago I started losing my wifi internet connection via our router which is WPA protected (we checked and never seen anyone using our internet), however, Gary was wired in and experienced no problems. On my computer I would either not see our internet at all or I would have an excellent signal strength (5 bars) but only have local access with no internet access. Other times everything works fine. After hours on the phone with our router manufacturer it was decided that our router must be defective and it has been sent back for a new one.

In the meantime a friend has loaned us his internet access while he is out of town. The town were we live has wifi available throughout the town for a fee. He loaned us his modem and we hooked up another router to see how it would work as we might consider changing ISPs. We're experiencing the same problem. Sometimes our wifi signal is gone completely. Sometimes it is excellent but we have no internet connection. Sometimes everything works just fine.

We're beginning to think we are doomed. We have NO idea what is wrong. Just in case someone has an idea let me go over anything that might be relevant. We live full time in a motorhome. We are within 2 miles of a military air base as well as a civilian airport. I haven't heard of anyone else experiencing internet problems in this RV park where we live. We also got a message from our ISP saying that we are using way too much bandwidth and we've been cut back until our usage goes down. We've never had this problem before with the service we now have and are at a loss as to what we have done differently in the past few weeks. Perhaps something at the military base or the civilian airport has changed recently. Maybe they are using a different frequency or something. Could that be our problem? Could our using way too much bandwidth while being kicked off the internet be a clue to our problem.

At the moment I am hard wired into the modem our friend loaned us. Gary is hard wired into our modem from our satellite. We both have internet as long as we are wired directly. That's what makes me think that we have some strange interference that effects the router signal and not the signals from the satellite or the signal from the town's wifi system.

What can we do to fix this??

Post #: 1

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/8/2010 8:16:21 PM

OrionTheWolf

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Joined: 10/11/2006
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Sounds like you may have a bot infection.

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Post #: 2

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/8/2010 8:23:51 PM

peppermint

Posts: 5170
Joined: 10/18/2005
From: Montana
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Thank you very much for the link. It was very informative and could possibly explain why we have used more band width in the past few weeks.

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Post #: 3

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:03:55 AM

DomImus

Posts: 2004
Joined: 3/17/2009
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Two modems and two routers - same problem with the same computer. I would look at the pc/laptop in question. The bot infection would certainly account for added bandwidth but why would it make your connection inaccessible? That would defeat the purpose of having the remote bot.

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Post #: 4

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 6:10:50 AM

OrionTheWolf

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Joined: 10/11/2006
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Sometimes bots do things that your ISP considers a no/no, and will cause an IP reset. This will cause the connection to drop and then re-establish. The extra band width, and it occuring after routers and modems were different is the key to it likely being bots. The problem is that good bot programs are extremely difficult to detect, but if they were good they would also not soak bandwidth as obviously as they seem to be.

To the OP, I was just thinking if it is just the one computer it could be as simple as needing the driver for your wireless deleted and then reinstalled. That is a preferable to reformatting the hard drive and reloading windows.

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Post #: 5

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 7:22:53 AM

peppermint

Posts: 5170
Joined: 10/18/2005
From: Montana
Status: offline

This happens with all 3 computers. When we get dropped it could last an hour before, all of a sudden, the wifi is back again for no apparent reason. I think we're going to have to do more investigation and ask around to see if anyone else is having similar problems here.

I had thought the military base could be our problem. I've lived and worked on one before. I had a small TV in the area where I worked on base and at 8 am every morning the reception via the antenna was gone for the day. Also those key fob things to lock and unlock a car wouldn't work on base. We have lost internet before when a squadron of helicopters flew by.

Thank you, Orion and DomImus for your advice. Every bit of knowledge I get is one step closer to figuring out what is happening.

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Post #: 6

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 10:12:36 AM

OrionTheWolf

Posts: 7803
Joined: 10/11/2006
Status: offline

You can try this site http://visualroute.visualware.com/ and use their free diagnostic to check your connection. If you rule out the connection from the ISP, then the only thing left is the problem inside the house. It could be environmental, but is likely something running on one of the computers, especially because of the bandwidth usage.

_____________________________

When speaking of slaves people always tend to ignore this definition "One who is abjectly subservient to a specified person or influence."

(in reply to peppermint)

Post #: 7

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 10:19:36 AM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: peppermint

Hoping some techie type person can help me with my internet problem.

We have satellite internet which we've had for 3 years. A few weeks ago I started losing my wifi internet connection via our router which is WPA protected (we checked and never seen anyone using our internet), however, Gary was wired in and experienced no problems. On my computer I would either not see our internet at all or I would have an excellent signal strength (5 bars) but only have local access with no internet access. Other times everything works fine. After hours on the phone with our router manufacturer it was decided that our router must be defective and it has been sent back for a new one.

In the meantime a friend has loaned us his internet access while he is out of town. The town were we live has wifi available throughout the town for a fee. He loaned us his modem and we hooked up another router to see how it would work as we might consider changing ISPs. We're experiencing the same problem. Sometimes our wifi signal is gone completely. Sometimes it is excellent but we have no internet connection. Sometimes everything works just fine.

We're beginning to think we are doomed. We have NO idea what is wrong. Just in case someone has an idea let me go over anything that might be relevant. We live full time in a motorhome. We are within 2 miles of a military air base as well as a civilian airport. I haven't heard of anyone else experiencing internet problems in this RV park where we live. We also got a message from our ISP saying that we are using way too much bandwidth and we've been cut back until our usage goes down. We've never had this problem before with the service we now have and are at a loss as to what we have done differently in the past few weeks. Perhaps something at the military base or the civilian airport has changed recently. Maybe they are using a different frequency or something. Could that be our problem? Could our using way too much bandwidth while being kicked off the internet be a clue to our problem.

At the moment I am hard wired into the modem our friend loaned us. Gary is hard wired into our modem from our satellite. We both have internet as long as we are wired directly. That's what makes me think that we have some strange interference that effects the router signal and not the signals from the satellite or the signal from the town's wifi system.

What can we do to fix this??

Try this simple possible fix. With your wifi software, do a search for other connections..You may notice that someone also has a router that's close to you and set for the same channel. They are not suppose to interfere with one another but that's not true that they don't. If it is set on the same channel. I would suggest setting it to 1 instead of the most likely default of 11 or 6. Whatever you do..Change it to a channel that may not be used.

Hopefully that helps.

< Message edited by Icarys -- 1/9/2010 10:23:33 AM >

_____________________________

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Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
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http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to peppermint)

Post #: 8

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 10:22:00 AM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: peppermint

This happens with all 3 computers. When we get dropped it could last an hour before, all of a sudden, the wifi is back again for no apparent reason. I think we're going to have to do more investigation and ask around to see if anyone else is having similar problems here.

I had thought the military base could be our problem. I've lived and worked on one before. I had a small TV in the area where I worked on base and at 8 am every morning the reception via the antenna was gone for the day. Also those key fob things to lock and unlock a car wouldn't work on base. We have lost internet before when a squadron of helicopters flew by.

Thank you, Orion and DomImus for your advice. Every bit of knowledge I get is one step closer to figuring out what is happening.

I didn't read this till now. That may be the case..They may be using electronics that are close to the same frequency and or powerful enough to cause interference. I'd still try what I posted before..It's worth a chance and it has worked for me when I ran into similar problems.

If you do what I suggested and post a screen-shot of your wifi connections I could tell if that was the case.

< Message edited by Icarys -- 1/9/2010 10:26:58 AM >

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to peppermint)

Post #: 9

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 3:39:43 PM

stella41b

Posts: 4258
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: SW London (UK)
Status: offline

Have you tried these people?

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Post #: 10

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 4:43:14 PM

peppermint

Posts: 5170
Joined: 10/18/2005
From: Montana
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: stella41b

Have you tried these people?

LOL....thank you, stella. I haven't seen that in years!!!!

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Post #: 11

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 4:44:22 PM

peppermint

Posts: 5170
Joined: 10/18/2005
From: Montana
Status: offline

We're going to try to do the channel change thing. It's simple and how knows, it might do the trick.

We do have other wifi systems around us. Nothing is strong enough that we've been able to hook up to it, not even the system offered in this RV park. At most they are showing 3 bars for strength. On my old computer I could hook up if I found a system with 3 bars. On this one I seem to need more. Guess that is one of the differences between getting a more expensive computer and a cheapie.

< Message edited by peppermint -- 1/9/2010 4:47:39 PM >

(in reply to Icarys)

Post #: 12

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:14:24 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: peppermint

We're going to try to do the channel change thing. It's simple and how knows, it might do the trick.

We do have other wifi systems around us. Nothing is strong enough that we've been able to hook up to it, not even the system offered in this RV park. At most they are showing 3 bars for strength. On my old computer I could hook up if I found a system with 3 bars. On this one I seem to need more. Guess that is one of the differences between getting a more expensive computer and a cheapie.

Okay, I hope it works. Yeah computer might have less to do with the difference in your wifi connection than the chipset that's in your card. I never buy wifi cards out of retail stores. The most you usually get for power is around 50 miliwatts from your retail stores. I have a usb linked card from G-sky. My particular model is 300 milliwats..The FCC max I think now.

If your interested in a decent card..Here's a link to a similar model but I'm not sure if it's allowed in the states. They have the 300 Mw models as well.

http://www.acesuppliers.com/Supplier_Company/High-Power-500mW-27dBm-USB-WiFi-Adapter_Product_Showroom_56633.html

Try searching Ebay for G-sky if your ever in the market for a better than average card and remember the antennae is pretty important as well.

Take care.

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to peppermint)

Post #: 13

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:20:38 PM

hopelessfool

Posts: 988
Joined: 7/29/2005
Status: offline

Also call the phone/sat company and ask them to run a line test, It might not be the connection in to the cpe is down/not working/has a short

_____________________________

" I have nothing left to give, I have found the perfect end, You remain to make it hurt, disappear in to the dirt, carry me to heavens arms.....Dear Agony Just let go of me, suffer slowly, is this the way its gotta be, Dear Agony...."

(in reply to Icarys)

Post #: 14

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:24:09 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

Found this. http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/953511

What is the impact of RF interference? As a basis for understanding the impact of RF interference in wireless LANs, let's quickly review how 802.11 stations (radio cards and access points) access the medium: Each 802.11 station only transmits packets when there is no other station transmitting. If another station happens to be sending a packet, the other stations will wait until the medium is free. The actual protocol is somewhat more complex, but this gives you enough of the basic concepts. RF interference involves the presence of unwanted, interfering RF signals that disrupt normal system operations. Because of the 802.11 medium access protocol, an interfering RF signal of sufficient amplitude and frequency can appear as a bogus 802.11 station transmitting a packet. This causes legitimate 802.11 stations to wait for indefinite periods of time until the interfering signal goes away. To make matters worse, an interfering signal generally doesn't abide by the 802.11 protocols, so the interfering signal may start abruptly while a legitimate 802.11 station is in the process of transmitting a packet. If this occurs, the destination will receive the packet with errors and not reply to the source station with an acknowledgement. In return, the source station will attempt retransmitting the packet, adding overhead on the network. Of course this all leads to delays and unhappy users. In some causes, 802.11 will attempt to continue operation in the presence of RF interference by automatically switching to a lower data rate, which slows the use of wireless applications. The worst case, which is fairly uncommon, is that the 802.11 stations will hold off until the interfering signal goes completely away, which could be minutes, hours, or days.

Sources of RF interference that may cause problems For 2.4 GHz wireless LANs, there are several sources of interfering signals, including microwave ovens, wireless phones, Bluetooth enabled devices, and other wireless LANs. The most damaging of these are 2.4 GHz wireless phones that people are starting to use in homes and some companies. If one of these phones is in use within the same room as an 802.11b wireless LAN, then expect poor wireless LAN performance. Microwave ovens operating within 10 feet or so of an access point or radio-equipped user will generally just cause 802.11b performance to drop. Bluetooth enabled devices, such as laptops and PDAs, will also cause performance degradations if operating in close proximately to 802.11 stations, especially if the 802.11 station is relatively far (i.e., low signal levels) from the station that it's communicating with. The 802.11 and 802.15 standards groups, however, are working on a standard that will enable the coexistence of Bluetooth and 802.11 devices. Other wireless LANs, such as one that your neighbor may be operating, can cause interference unless you coordinate the selection of 802.11b channels.

< Message edited by Icarys -- 1/9/2010 5:33:53 PM >

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to hopelessfool)

Post #: 15

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:27:57 PM

hopelessfool

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Joined: 7/29/2005
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Thanks for the reminder Icarys.

Also make sure the routers are for what you have in your pc, IF your card is standard A B G or N They might not be enterchangable, Im fairly sure If i remember that class topic N does both b and g transmissions and g does both G and B but I dont think much transmits A...

_____________________________

" I have nothing left to give, I have found the perfect end, You remain to make it hurt, disappear in to the dirt, carry me to heavens arms.....Dear Agony Just let go of me, suffer slowly, is this the way its gotta be, Dear Agony...."

(in reply to Icarys)

Post #: 16

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:31:25 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

Take each step presented and methodically cross them out one by one and you'll figure it out.

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to hopelessfool)

Post #: 17

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:32:33 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

Thanks for the reminder Icarys.

You bet.

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to hopelessfool)

Post #: 18

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:36:28 PM

hopelessfool

Posts: 988
Joined: 7/29/2005
Status: offline

I think the best thing to try however is the phone/sat company first line tests take 2 minutes, and if theres a short anywhere in the line it could be causing the problems.

then making sure whats broadcasting is connected to whats able to be rcvd.

after that try broadcasting with out any encryption... or deleted all the wifi settings in the pc so that it doesnt keep trying to connect with the old settings

_____________________________

" I have nothing left to give, I have found the perfect end, You remain to make it hurt, disappear in to the dirt, carry me to heavens arms.....Dear Agony Just let go of me, suffer slowly, is this the way its gotta be, Dear Agony...."

(in reply to Icarys)

Post #: 19

RE: Wifi Difficulties - 1/9/2010 5:39:29 PM

Icarys

Posts: 5757
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: hopelessfool

I think the best thing to try however is the phone/sat company first line tests take 2 minutes, and if theres a short anywhere in the line it could be causing the problems.

then making sure whats broadcasting is connected to whats able to be rcvd.

after that try broadcasting with out any encryption... or deleted all the wifi settings in the pc so that it doesnt keep trying to connect with the old settings

I believe it's been stated that the computer that's hard wired works just fine. It's not that

_____________________________

submission - the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness - the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Alaska Bound-The Official Countdown Has Started!
http://tinyurl.com/872mcu3
http://alturl.com/mog7m

(in reply to hopelessfool)

Post #: 20

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