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Old problems never die: WinXP WLAN disconnections

Hi, I'm having ongoing issues with WinXP SP2 dropping my home WLAN connections. Depending on the client NIC, it can happen anywhere from a few times a day to every few minutes, and only under WinXP. I've left the Orinoco card attached, running under Linux, for days without issue.

I've got 4 different client NICs: Sony Vaio laptop with built-in Centrino PRO/Wireless 2200BG NIC, Microsoft MN-720 802.11g PC Card, D-Link DWL-650+

11b PC Card, and Lucent Orinoco Gold 11b PC Card. And I recently upgraded my AP from a Linksys WAP11 v1.1 to a Motorola WR850G.

With the old WAP11, the Centrino and D-Link NICs would occasionally drop the connection and then immediately recover it. The Orinoco seemed to be better and wouldn't drop it; I didn't have the MN-720 at the time so that was not tested with the WAP11.

Now that I have the WR850G, I get a high rate of disconnects. The Centrino NIC is ridiculous, dropping the connection (and immediately recovering) about every 2-5 minutes. Things get progressively better with the D-Link and Orinoco, and the Microsoft adapter is the best, probably because it has a Broadcom chipset in it which is most compatible with the Broadcom chip in the WR850G. The MN-720 will only drop the connection 1-2 times per day.

I'm mostly interested in solving the Centrino issues, as that laptop is my main machine. In pursuit of a solution for it, I downloaded two updated drivers from Intel's site (an 8.x and a 9.x), and none helped. I've left it with driver v9.0.1.9 for now.

Other interesting facts:

  • I've tried disabling WZC after establishing a connection, but this seems to have no effect for me.
  • The profile for my home network is properly setup, with the proper WEP and authentication settings. And yes, 802.1x is disabled.
  • If you leave up the Wireless Network Connection status window, you will see the speed progressively drop from 54mbps to 2 or 1mbps before it disconnects, even though signal strength is high!
  • We have 5.8Ghz phones in the house (although I can't say what my neighbors have).
  • I do live in a high-density area, and there are about 10 or so other wireless networks nearby. However, I'm careful to select channels to minimize interference. I try to re-scan my house every couple of months.

There are so many factors that can go into why wireless connections drop that I realize it is hard to diagnose. But surely someone else has encountered these issues. And there has to be a fix, or I don't think M$ will be doing themselves any favors by leaving this situation alone.

TIA, Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan
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Problem with XP/SP2 & Wireless networks.. It doesn't actually drop the connect, it just drops the visual indicators of a connect (like stuff in explorer or search).. Links on the desktop and progs that use another machine are not effected.. only the visual indicators.

No fix that I know of, but it's been driving many of us nuts for weeks.

Reply to
Peter Pan

connections.

recovering)

proper WEP

Signal strength can be high and the BER can be high. Usually the only reason the connection speed drops is because of one of these two. If you show great strength then that leaves errors as a suspect. I have a centrino 2200 bg with a linksys wap54g and it has never dropped. (fingers crossed). I have a suspicion,,, not confirmed but, I think there are timing issues causing alot of disconnect problems, especially between devices and chips of different manufacturers.

Reply to
Airhead

You just gave me a thought to try about solving the problem I mentioned earlier (network icons getting lost after a while but still working).. Wonder if something equivalent to an internet "ping" (like I use on my tethered cell data connection to keep it from going into dormant mode) would do anything. The icons don't seem to go bye bye if a prog is in use.. (if i keep explorer open in the background, the network drives stay, but if I close it, they go bye bye after a while) anyone try something like that?

(I know old problems may never die, but I sure would like to kill this sucker)

Reply to
Peter Pan

Broadcast SSID. You didn't mention if you do or not. It is reported to solve problems like yours. There are two settings to review in the computer wireless settings: make sure your connection is the only preferred connection entry - even an usused entry can cause problems in XP SP2 although I never saw a problem in SP1; uncheck Automatically connect to non-preferred networks in the advanced properties. If you use Shared key, try Open key in the router. Shared key is squirrely on my -b system with the Intel mini-pci -b centrino wireless. Open key is rock solid. You might also change the default channel to 1,2,3 or

11,10,9 and see if that helps. Q
Reply to
Quaoar

Actually, my case could be different from yours, but I am getting actual disconnects. I use SSH to remotely login to several Unix servers, and everytime one of these drops occurs, I lose every one of my SSH sessions. Highly irritating!

Reply to
Jonathan

Well thanks for the QoS tip anyway. I will try it regardless, as it is something I haven't explored yet.

thanks, Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan

Hmmm. Is there some way to figure out if the BER is the cause? Would the client be able to log the BER periodically so I could keep tabs on it, and possibly spot patterns? I'm sure logging is not on by default though.

Reply to
Jonathan

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).

Further.net suggests just removing it from the NIC:

Reply to
dold

Ultimately, that didn't work. I moved the SMC7004WFW to a place where it only connects with Win2000 clients, and put a Netgear WGR614v4 in the previous location. Life is good. No disconnects at all.

Reply to
dold

I'm aware of the disappearing visual indicators issue, but I am having the same problem w/ XP SP2 and am getting actual disconnects, with no browser or email client connectivity. My machine has a Linksys wireless-g card (WMP54G) and I'm connected to a Linksys wireless AP (WRT54G). Latest drivers/firmware, etc. I really despise Microsnot.

Reply to
Hackworth

Hmmm, I do have Broadcast SSID turned off, so I'll have to turn it back on and see if that fixes it.

I'm already setup with your other suggestions: Only one preferred network, and Automatically Connect to Non-Preferred Networks is unchecked. And I am using Open authentication.

thanks! Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan

connections.

Well I've tried several of the suggestions listed but nothing's improved (yet). I tried enabling SSID broadcasting, and that didn't help. So I turned it back off and disabled QoS and M$ File & Print Sharing on the Centrino interface; no help either. I then additionally unchecked "AEGIS Protocol (IEEE 802.1x)" and that didn't help. So now I've restored those settings and I've got to figure out what my next plan is.

Thanks for all the ideas though, it's given me a lot to think about.

-Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan

This actually worked for me. I have virtually no disconnects now! Amazing. And I never had aporblem before SP2, so Microsoft must have done something to screw it up before it shipped. I first deleted (uninstalled) QoS under my wireless network properties. Then, I ran gpedit.msc at a command prompt, "Enabled" the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth" setting, then set it to a value of 0. (You have to enable it, otherwise, Win XP keeps using the default of 20%.) That did the trick for me.

Reply to
Hackworth

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