I'm experiencing the same problems. I have a Linksys router and two laptops. One is a MAC OS X and other is Windows XP. On the router I have broadcasting disabled, MAC filtering, WEP enabled, and limiting the IP addresses. I've experienced the problem with my XP machine, but never with my MAC machine (and I'm 10 ft away just like you). I don't know what the problem could be, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only person with this problem.
After some research, I found that it might be in the settings of networks you have. When you go into your available wireless networks list, there is an arrangement of WLANs that the card will accept in order. Try setting yours to first and deleting the others from the list. That should work. I've tried it and it seems to be working.
Had the same prob when I went to sp2.. (dropped connections)... Updated my devices firmware to v 2.07. Went to the linksys website, the page for my WAP, and there is a link for "firmware" on the right side.. Click it (or just here
formatting link
) There are firmware updates and an install program.
Hope it works for you, but hey, worth a try, it's pretty easy and free.
I have a Linksys WAP54G wireless router, hardwired connected to one PC ... I then have another PC with a Linksys PCI wireless card connection and a Centrino laptop. At times the secure wireless network that I set up will stop working and when I look for a list of available networks, I find usually a list of about 3 or 4 other networks and mine is no where to be found.
I've changed the channel that I broadcast my wireless on a few times and I've used the laptop a mere 10 ft away from the router (in the same room) and I've still had the network disappear. When it does happen, it's usually for a minute or two, but it's been as much as 15 or longer sometimes.
Usually my connection works fine, except for these annoying drops.
Does anyone have any tips on things I can check or double-check, or settings I can make?
Could this just possibly be from interference? I don't understand how my very close (and always 'excellent' when working) connection can be overpowered by a weaker 'low' connection from some other router in my apartment building.
All the computers run WinXP SP2 ... thanks in advance for any tips!
First off, is this indeed a WAP54G, which is a wireless access point, not a router. Finally, I've been having similar problems with a WAP54G and a WAP11B. I've now got one WAP54G set up as an access point and a second as a router. Sometimes I lose LAN connectivity to the access point. Other times I lose wireless access to the repeater. I've set up a couple PHP scripts so I can ping various devices on the network from anywhere. Each time there's a problem, I've generally been able to resolve it by momentarily removing power on the affected device. REAL FRUSTRATING!!! I'm running the latest firmware available on the website. In a previous thread on the same problems with a WAP11, I was thinking maybe it was RF interference, maybe termperature, maybe the phase of the moon. The power cycling fixing it, though, seems to eliminate these causes. I have another WAP54G set up as a client. Right now, I can ping the access point, the repeater, but not the client. This MIGHT be an RF problem, but I don't know.
Any other experiences would be useful! I'm thinking of setting up something to remotely reboot the devices when they fail.
It's interesting to hear that you don't have a problem with your MAC.
I'm having the same dropping problem with my 2 XP laptops. I suspected that it was an XP problem (SP2), but the issue was clouded by the fact that the drop would happen at the same time for both laptops, leading me to believe that it was a Linksys problem. (Both laptops were 2 ft from the router).
Unfortunately, I don't have a MAC or Linux machine to test along side my XP laptop.
With all the people reporting these problems, you would think that Microsoft and/or Linksys would test what's going on and post a definitive explanation for the problem.
I've got a lot invested in Linksys equipment right now and would like to avoid having to dump it. It'd be great to solve the problems with the WAP54G. Right now I have one set up as an access point running WEP. Another is set up as a repeater. A third is set up as a client. All are running WEP. I on occasion ping the devices and sometimes they just do not respond. I've finally set up a couple devices so I can ring my phone to reboot them. At first I thought it was RF interference, though it seems unlikely to affect the LAN side. Then I thought it was ttemperature. These units are upstairs where temperature sometimes gets to 80F. But this morning, with windows open and temperature between 60F and 70F, I've had to reboot three times. All units are running the latest firmware from the Linksys website. Any ideas will be appreciated!!!!
Have you tried a non-Linksys Access Point? I'd love to hear some comparisons. If that would solve the problem, I'd dump my Linksys gear in a heart beat.
I use a Linksys WAG54G Wireless Access Gateway with my home network setup, and have had no problems of this nature. The only problem I have experienced is a weak signal at the downstairs computer. This computer is located such that the signal has to pass through the downstairs roof, and that roof has sheathing with an aluminum skin. This makes a very effective shield. However, the connection is very reliable, and rarely ever causes any problems. By and large, I'm very well pleased with my Linksys setup.
What operating system are you running on your PC(s)?
Are you sure you're not seeing this problem?
If you are just doing random surfing, you might not even notice the drops. On my systems, the wireless links drop randomnly, but automatically reconnect with 10-20 seconds. Unless you are running "ping -t ....." in a command prompt window, you probably wouldn't even notice what happened.
Guess I'll throw my two cents in, too. Of the seven computers currently connected to my WAP (a Linksys WRT54G), all with Linksys equipment, my personal computer is the closest to the WAP yet is the one with the flakiest connection (old house, thick corner walls diagonal to my home office, you get the idea). I didn't have too many problems with Win XP SP1, and although I would disconnect once in a while, it was usually only for about two or three seconds and then it would reconnect on its own. If I happened to be reading a Web page and not trying to connect to my mail or news server at the exact moment the thing disconnected, I wouldn't have even noticed had not the little bubble popped up indicating that I was "now connected" again.
After I installed SP2, however, XP seemed to become much less tolerant of signal fluctuations. I would disconnect as often as several times in a five-minute period, and sometimes it couldn't reconnect. It became *very* frustrating. The following advice (copied from some fairly recent post) helped a little, although some say that it's an urban legend:
+ + + + + + + There is a Wireless "Quality of Service" service in Windows XP that has been rumored to knock the speed down if errors are encountered, but it never goes back up... ultimately leaving you with zero speed.
I disabled the QoS service in the service panel, Set the reserved portion to 0 in the group policies, and uninstalled the QoS from my card's network properties. The Earthlink page suggests reducing the bandwidth to zero, says nothing about the service panel, and says to enable the NIC (which I didn't do).
formatting link
Further.net suggests just removing it from the NIC:
formatting link
+ + + + + + +
What *really* helped was this Hawking Technology 6-db hi-gain wireless -b/-g antenna from Newegg:
formatting link
It solved all of my connection problems. It's amazing. No more disconnects. No more signal strength fluctuations. I connected it to my WMP54G wireless adapter, set the antenna on my desk, and my connection has been running rock solid ever since. That's the best $33 I've spent in a long time.
Still, it can't be a coincidence that so many people running SP2 are complaining of the same problem, and naturally I would have preferred not to spend $33. I know that MS has added more wireless support with SP2, but it sure seems as though something got broken in the process.
I think there are a couple different problems being discussed here. One has to do with RF signal strength, where a higher gain antenna can help. The problem I'm having is loss of the LAN connection to the WAP. I can cycle the power on the unit and get it to come back. For now, I've wired up a circuit so I can ring my telephone to reboot the WAP54G. Yesterday, which was pretty warm (80F upstairs indorrs) here, the unit was very unreliable. I finally stuck a bag of ice under the unit and it seemed to work fine for several hours (I was able to get a ping response). So, I'm thinking there's a temperature problem.
In the system, I've got a WAP54G as the wireless access point, another WAP54G as a repeater, and a third as a client. The repeater also seems to suffer from temperature. The client is in a cooler location and has not seemed to suffer from this problem. I've also got a WAP11 set as a repeater. It also seems to drop out if the temperature goes up.
I did a customer service chat with Linksys yesterday. They had not heard of any temperature effects. Of course, I'm not SURE it's temperature, but it seems to be. The fact that several units are exhibiting this behavior makes me think it's not a hardware problem that's specific to a certain unit. I'm waiting to hear back from Linksys. Meanwhile... reboot!
That's funny.. Turns out I actually have the WRT thing now (got the 4/5 RJ45 jacks on the back, I looked at the box for the old one that I used when I had cable and only wireless), so I made a mistake too, but it turns out are mistakes worked for each other rather than against...
Reading the other posts, I should point out that I wrote the wrong product ID, this is all in regard to the WRT54G wireless router by Linksys, not the WAP54G, which I do not own.
That being said, I did upgrade the firmware of the router and it seems to have solved the problem. Knock on wood, hopefully that is it. (although, lol, it just dropped out while I was typing this, but for the first time in a few days after upgrading)
I also find it hard to believe the unit is overheating. There IS a lot of traffic on the network, but I don't know if that would cause the problem. Sunday I set two of the WAP54Gs on bags of ice. They worked all day. Prior to that, they'd only stay up for 15 minutes or so before losing LAN connectivity. Last night I put a small "muffin" fan on top of two of the WAP54Gs. I've not lost contact with either one since. I'll continue to ping them through today (every now and then I do a ping -c 100 to them to see how they're doing. One is on the LAN, another is a repeater, a third is a client. Right now I get no packet loss on the two with fans. I'm getting some loss on the one without a fan.).
So, hard to believe there's a heat problem, but SO FAR, the fans seem to fix the problem!
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