Why do I keep having to REPAIR my wireless connection?

It is a Netgear MR814v2. I havent tried plugging in a computer to the wireless router but will do that now. It just did it again a few minutes ago...!!! Ive had the router for over a year-would it just go bad? THanks for your help-always! :)

1) Make sure your router and your wireless card have the latest drivers.

2) If you already have the latest drivers, try re-installing them for your wireless device.

3) Are you receiving an IP address by DHCP? If you are getting a IP address conflict suspect that a device may have a static address.

4) Try changing channels on the router. You may be getting interference from another AP.

If the connection goes out on all your computers at the same time, that would seem to indicate a problem other than with the wireless cards. However, if it is from some other source, repairing the connection would be ineffective.

Don't know the situation around you, but it is possible another AP is giving a strong signal and your wireless cards are attempting to connect to the other AP.

On the 802.11b and 802.11g band, channels overlap. There should be 5 channels between any two channels. For that reason, channels 1, 6, and 11 are the best choices. Whatever you are on, try another of the above three. (If you are using 802.11a -- not likely -- any other channel is OK because 802.11a doesn't overlap).

If you right click on your connection and choose 'View available wireless networks', do you see other APs? If not, that probably isn't the problem.

If you do see other APs, make sure they are not in your preferred networks list and make sure your wireless client is not set to connect to non-preferred networks. If you are using Windows to manage the connection, click your connection and choose Properties. In the Wireless Networks tab, remove any APs you don't recognize in the Preferred Networks list. Click the Advanced button. Uncheck the 'Automatically connect to non-preferred networks' checkbox.

Yes the connections are going out on all computers at the same time and when we repair each one, they work fine-until the next "outage"!

Im in an apt so we do pick up other wireless networks. Somehow, they automatically add themselves to my preferred networks-and the box is unchecked "automatically connect to non-preferred.." I did go ahead and delete all of them.

I'll try changing to Channel 6 since we're currently on 11. -If I change that on the router settings, do I need to change something on my comp. settings too?

Tonight, Im going to leave one computer hooked into the router and see (if the wireless one goes out) if the connection is dropped on the one thats hooked in.

Thanks again!

When you change channels on the router, you don't have to do anything on the computer side. You wireless card should automatically change to the current channel.

So about a half hour ago it went out again. BOTH the wireless computer and the one hooked into the router had to have their connections REPAIRED. It popped up on both computers saying "IP Address Conflict"....?

Then it is not a wireless problem if the wired computer sees the same problem.

The IP address conflict should be fairly easy to localize. Check the IP addresses of everything on the network. If you can't find a conflict, I would suspect a problem with the router itself.

Okay, so I shouldnt even bother changing the channels then, right?

So right now the IP addresses are different on both computers. But then I guess they try to use the same one and thats when it comes up saying theres a conflict and we have to repair. What would be making them all of a sudden, get the same IP? Is that where the bad router part comes in?

Should I just get a whole new router? Or try contacting Netgear?

Thanks.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I actually went to Netgears site and there was a firmware update. I installed that so Im hoping that will fix the problems. So far, so good (it's been about 4 hours). If I can go 24 hrs Ill be happy! :)

If not, Ill try changing channels.

Thanks!

It is impossible to troubleshoot these things second hand.

You could be getting an IP conflict because the router is defective.

You could be getting an IP address conflict because someone else is using the same channel and the same subnet as you. Your wireless computer could be conecting to another AP, receiving an IP address, then reassociating with your AP but with a bad IP address.

I would change channels first to see if the problem goes away.