Wireless connection drops during file transfers

Thanks Duane. I'll try disabling that. I assume I'll have to re-enable it if I go out and try to connect to a hotspot?

Apparently I need Wireless Zero running to have any connection at all, so that didn't work.

When I disable or stop the Wireless Zero service, my local network continues to function, but if I try it access the Internet, my two wireless machines lose service.

Obviously, something in my configuration is off. I don't have any manuf. config tools installed. I was using Windows to manage the wireless connections.

It could be signal interference. It was bad on the ME O/S when it dropped the signal and the machine rebooted itself right in the middle of anything it was doing when a car, truck or motorcycle drove by that put out heavy frequencies. I cleared that problem by going to Win 2k.

When I converted the machines to XP pro, the problem became Wireless Zero Configuration Service on XP that made the machines seekout other networks in my area and tried to connect to them dropping the connection. I disabled WZCS and I have not had any connection dropping problems anymore.

Duane :)

No, but I can give that a try tonight. Each machine has an assigned local IP, FWIW.

I'm using an Actiontec GT701 DSL router/AP with WPA, on a 6Mb/sec circuit.

My "real" machine is connected to the ethernet port and I use my laptop via WiFi.

If I'm driving the line hard with multiple simultaneous connections from the desktop machine, the WiFi link to the laptop will drop, even if I'm not using the network from it at alll.

Watching the network with Ethereal, I can see that the router starts missing the periodic WPA handshaking and then the connection drops. Once the router is less busy, the connection stabilizes.

I'm guessing that the Actiontec doesn't have enough horsepower to keep so many balls in the air at once; maybe your Belkin has the same problem.

That is not true. I certainly don't need it on any of my machines. In addition to that, I downloaded the card's driver from its site and installed the driver and configured the card using the O/S's Device Manager and discontinued using the card's utility to do anything not even to show signal strength. That can be shown on the NIC's LAN Properties screen selecting *Show network connection* and mousing over the Network Connection Icon in the job trey net to the clock.

Doing the above made the wireless connection on XP solid as a rock and I have not looked back.

Duane :)

You booted the machines when you did that right? I am not saying that would be a need. What IP does the machine have after doing the reboot and using IPconfig /all?

Duane :)

Byron wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@newshost.AllTheNewsgroups.com:

Well, you need to see if a machine is getting a 169 IP from the DHCP server on the router, which would indicate that the O/S timed out and cannot get an IP from the DHCP server that would allow the machine to access the Internet. That would be a sign of mis-configuration somewhere.

If by assigned local IP (a static) IP you have assigned, it may hide the picture you need to see. Whatever IP solution you're using, if you try to access the router's Admin Screens when trying to access the Internet when the machine cannot do it, the machines cannot access the router too or can it?

Duane :)

The problem seems to be that the Wireless Zero service is what stores my wireless card's settings (network key, etc.), so when the service is turned off my card doesn't know what network to connect to or how to connect. Is there another place to set this stuff up?

Well, you're correct that WZCS holds that information. I suggest that you enter the card's configuration info at the Device Manager by right-clicking the card and select Properties/Advanced tab where it can be entered. Again, you don't need WZCS.

Duane :)

I looked for an alternate spot to enter it and couldn't find it. So I installed the Intell configuration manager on my new notebook(which has onboard Intel wireless) and that solved the problem, even though Wireless Zero is still running on the other notebook I'm transferring from.

No more network outages during transfer, but if I'm doing heavy transferring between the two on the local network, the Internet is inaccessible from my desktop PC. I assume this is poor bandwidth management on the part of my router. Solve one problem, meet another. Sigh.