Poor Wireless Internet Signal Strength

[Goldenballs]

Currently my wireless router (Buffallo WBMR-G54) is upstairs, and has been for ages, and the signal strength of the wireless internet on my laptop (which is downstairs) has always been excellent, and very stable.

Recently though, the signal strength is all over the place. It keeps dropping down to 'Poor' and pages are taking an age to load. The Internet will disconnect, and then re-connect all the time. Also, I been having quite a few 'connection lost' when playing Xbox Live.

Nothing has changed on my laptop, I haven't installed or un-installed any programmes, so it's a bit weird why it's started to play up all of a sudden.

Any help appreciated.

[Hohum]

Try changing the channel used to something else, as it's possible that another wireless connection (i.e. neighbours) could be interfering with your current setting.

[Goldenballs]

Try changing the channel used to something else, as it's possible that another wireless connection (i.e. neighbours) could be interfering with your current setting.

I could detect about 5 wireless networks, so that's possible. I've changed the channel, so I'll see how that goes. Thanks for the advice.

[abigsmurf]

check the powersupply. Routers are almost always supplied with horrible quality power units that fail after a year or so. Routers are very picky about their supply, if it isn't perfect, you'll get constant dropouts.

It can be hard to tell is a power supply has gone but if it's overly hot to the touch or making a buzzing noise, that's a clear sign it's gone.

[Goldenballs]

check the powersupply. Routers are almost always supplied with horrible quality power units that fail after a year or so. Routers are very picky about their supply, if it isn't perfect, you'll get constant dropouts.

It can be hard to tell is a power supply has gone but if it's overly hot to the touch or making a buzzing noise, that's a clear sign it's gone.

The plug does get quite hot, so that's another possibility.

I don't want to jinx it, but changing the channel seems to have done the trick!

[k0pp0]

I updated the drivers on my laptop the other day for the network card driver - made a huge difference to the wireless download speed. To be honest it's the first thing I'd suggest anyway..

[Goldenballs]

I updated the drivers on my laptop the other day for the network card driver - made a huge difference to the wireless download speed. To be honest it's the first thing I'd suggest anyway..

How do I do that? I looked on the Buffallo website but there's no mention of new drivers to download for my model.

[Goldenballs]

Tried playing COD4 today and kept getting 'Connection Interrupted' Very, very annoying. Maybe my internet just can't cope with online gaming?

[gunrock]

Wired is best for online gaming. With a quality cat5e or better cable, you'll have no issues. Cheap as chips, too!

I know it's inconvenient, but a 30m cable is what I use in for gaming. I just run it out to the router and when I'm done, I just disconnect it and put it away, so the wife and daughter don't break their necks on it.

[PeterM]

I and many others experienced periodic lag spikes (every few minutes, lasting a couple of seconds each). For me, it turned out to be Windows Zero Configuration which causes it.

There was once a program called Wireless FiXP which disabled WZC when it's not needed (that is, when you're already connected) but it seems to have disappeared from the web.

I wrote a replacement batch file, which can be found here:

http://aaiiee.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/periodic-lag-spikes-and-a-wireless-fixp-replacement/

My advice would be to first try temporarily disabling the WZC service. If that stops the issues, run the batch file before you want to play online.

Works for me!

[Goldenballs]

Just to check I'm doing this correctly, as I'm a total noob with this kind of thing.

I clicked 'Run' and typed in 'services.msc' scrolled down to WLAN AutoConfig and clicked stop this service. My laptop then disconnected from the internet.

Is that right?

[PeterM]

For me, the service is called "Wireless Zero Configuration".

[Goldenballs]

For me, the service is called "Wireless Zero Configuration".

I haven't got that one, but according to Wiki it could be called either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Zero_Configuration

[PeterM]

Hmm, maybe the behaviour is different in Vista.

In XP, stopping the WZC service doesn't disconnect an existing connection, but Windows won't reconnect if the connection is lost after the service was stopped.

[Goldenballs]

Hmm, maybe the behaviour is different in Vista.

In XP, stopping the WZC service doesn't disconnect an existing connection, but Windows won't reconnect if the connection is lost after the service was stopped.

Ah, right. It seems to disconnect me each time. I'll try getting a cable to see if having a wired connection helps. Thanks for your help.

Something like this should do the trick?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/16461