Wireless connection dropping every five minutes... or seconds

Question

I have an 8200 running XP SP2 with a Dell TrueMobile 1150 Series Mini PCI card.  My problem is pretty much what I put in the title.  My connection drops A LOT.  It wll come back up either on it's own, or if I repair the connection.  My roommate's computer, however, stays connected wirelessly without a problem.  I've tried reinstalling the drivers.    I also tried using a Linksys pci card, for which I also installed the drivers.  After disabling my internal card, this pci wireless card dropped just as often as my internal card.  I tried using both together, and they would both drop intermittently but normally at different times.    I don't know what else to try.  I don't think it's my router (Linksys with updated firmware).  The only thing that I can think of that changed before this problem started is that I installed the new Firefox 1.5 beta.  I guess it could have messed up my computer somehow, but I don't know how.  I tried uninstalling the beta, and the problem remained.  Any ideas?  Thanks in advance.

esquire · Answer

What are you using to manage your wireless connections?  Windows built-in Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) or the wireless connection managers (WCM) bundled your adapters?

arkoe · Answer

I honestly didn't realize there were different ways to manage wireless connections. I'm using whichever is default, which I'm guessing is the WZC (I show that it starts automatically and is running on my computer).

esquire · Answer

The problem is both can run (especially older versions of WCMs) and when it happens it can cause conflict and cause disconnections.

While the adapter's WCM these days should be able to disable WZC when the former becomes the active service, it is worthwhile to check and make sure WZC is not running.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
The service Wireless Zero Configuration should not be running.

If you are using WZC, this is what you should see managing your connections:

Pre-SP2

SP2

If you are indeed using WZC, take a look at this checklist and see if any of the pointers can help

http://www.mesquire.com/faq/computer/wzcchk/chklist.htm

Message Edited by esquire on 10-30-2005 11:11 AM

arkoe · Answer

Thanks esquire. I disabled wzc and turned off the QoS Packet Scheduler. This has worked, basically. The connection never drops long enough now to disrupt me or what I'm doing. It doesn't stop pages from loading when it drops, doesn't kick me off AIM, etc. However, still every once in a while the icon in the task manager will show for like half a second that it is disconnected. Any idea what would cause it to drop but not interfere with anything?

esquire · Answer

There are a few causes. First thing I would check is radio interference by other networks and radio sources such as cordless phones, microwave ovens. You can try other router channels and see if it makes an improvement.

Another thing to check whether your router's SSID is hidden. A broadcasting SSID can help stablize the connection. In any case, hiding a SSID is no longer regarded by many as a security feature.

Message Edited by esquire on 10-30-2005 08:00 PM

arkoe · Answer

I came home tonight, and now my computer won't connect at all wirelessly. My router is broadcasting the SSID, and I've tried a number of different channels. My roommate's computer is still having none of the same problems I am.

When I try to connect to my network, it gets to the point where it tries to obtain an IP from the network, where it sticks. After about a minute of saying that it is "Waiting for the network to be ready," it stops and tells me that there is limited or no connectivity. However, it shows that the signal for the network is strong when I select my network. This is driving me nuts. I seriously have no ideas. The PCI card does the same thing as the internal card. I'm closer to the router than my roommate, so I know it's not a distance problem.

arkoe · Answer

I forgot to mention, I can connect to unprotected networks in my apartment complex without any problems.

arkoe · Answer

I set a static IP, and things seem to have calmed down. We'll see if it stays stable. So far, every time I've changed something it seems to work great for the day, then overnight go back to being either extremely flakey or not working at all.

Thanks again for all the help.

arkoe · Answer

Man... Now after being fine for about two hours, it's disconnecting, but reconnecting very quickly. The signal strength indicator is flashing every five to ten seconds. This is getting ridiculous.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Wireless connection dropping every five minutes... or seconds

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