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ping works and then doesn't work

I have 3 wireless connected XP PCs and 1 wired XP PC in my LAN. All PCs have manually configured TCP settings and are part of the same workgroup. I tested the LAN with the ping command and are machine respond correctly. Accessing the PC shares through network neighborhood works also. But after a few minutes of idle time one of the wireless PCs becomes unreachable. Both by ping and network neighborhood. But I can still reach web pages and ping addresses outside my LAN at the same time the PCs inside can't reach it. Then after a few more minutes the PC responds again to pings. It's like the network adaptor lost connection to the LAN and not outside the LAN. A Netgear WG111 USB network adaptor connected to this PC. What else can I do or check?

Reply to
d28
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Update. I moved the adaptor to a different USB port on the PC. Things appear to be stable. I'm going to claim success after 1 full day.

Reply to
d28

Very confusing situation. The 3rd wireless connected PC just drops off the LAN and then comes back. And at the same time other PC on the LAN can't ping this machine, this machine can get out to the Internet. I switched USB wireless adaptors without success. I connected the 3rd PC through the Linksys USB wireless adaptor. Another things I noticed was that when I scan for available networks I see networks with stronger signal strenght than the AP sitting in the same room as the PC. The other two PC show signal strenght at 100%.

Any suggestions as to what to check? When I connect the PC through CAT5 I don't have any problems so I don't think its the TCP stack.

Reply to
d28

Round and round I go. Pulling my hair out to get these USB adpators to work and stop the signal drops. Last solution was to move the AP to a different area of the room and change the signal channel. Can someone explain just what might be the best channel to operate from and why? When I scan through my WLAN cards I see 4 other networks. Two of the WLANs are using channel 6, one using channel 11, and the other uses channel 4. Could it be my WG111 adaptor is switching any while my WLANs signal reports 100%. And many time I see these networks with

80-90% signal strenght in my house. How can this be. I live a development where the homes have clearly 25yds between homes and more than that as I look across the street. I can understand why those signals are so strong.
Reply to
d28

Switched to yet another USB adaptor. The D-Link DWL-G122 54Mbps USB adaptor. I turned off the WPA encryption and my signal strength from my AP jumped to 100% to each PC in my WLAN. The only security feature I'm using now is the MAC address filtering. Waiting and watching for the first drop.

Reply to
d28

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