wireless internet

[gibs]

Ok, here's the deal. I bout a D-Link wireless router (DI-624) and a D-Link wireless card (DWL-G650) for my laptop this past summer. I hooked up the router to our existing computer at home, installed the card on my laptop, and everything was fine and dandy. Then I moved up to school in the fall and brought the wireless geer with me. I hooked it up at my house there and my roommates all bought the wireless card I had and installed in on there computers. So all in all we have 5 computers connected to the wireless router. The problem is the thing hardly works now. It will go through some short periods where it works great, some periods where it doesn't work at all, and then some periods where it will work for a little bit, go out, work for a little bit, go out...etc. The frustrating thing is that it worked perfectly while I had it over the summer at my home, and the person I talked to at Best Buy said it would not matter how many computers were connected to it, it would still work fine. So my question to all of you is have any of you had this same problem or any similar problem and what are some things I can do to fix it? Also, what brand do you have and how does it work for you, and what do you think is the best one to have? And one last question, say I find out that a different brand of router is much better than the D-Link. Can I get a new router, say a Netgear, and have it still work with my D-Link wireless card? Because I doubt all of my roommates would like to spend the money on a new card. Thanks in advance for the help. It is frusterating having your connection go out 30 minutes into a session, like it was doing the last week I was at school.

[Nick-Zack]

Call Linksys at 800 326-7114. I have called them several times and they are pretty competent at getting things fixed quickly.

[Soviet Exile]

Wireless phone interference is a possible culprit.

[GrannyMae]

Wireless phone interference is a possible culprit.

what does this mean?

i'm about to travel somewhere where i have to use dial-up on my laptop. i've packed a phone cord because i assumed i need a wire for this. i can do wireless dial-up?

[vetman81]

[ QUOTE ]

Wireless phone interference is a possible culprit.

what does this mean?


[/ QUOTE ]

Most cordless phones use the same frequency as the wireless router, which can create interference with the signal from the router. I have a cordless and I dont seem to notice any problems with my wireless connection.

As far as dialup goes, I dont really know anything about it. Sorry.

[vetman81]

Hey gibs,

I just switched from Linksys to Netgear and it works 100% better, but I only have one computer connecting via wireless. I dont have any interference problems with my phones, but I do sometimes get interference from the neighbor's wireless connection. I dont know if that would be a problem in your situation but it may be.

Also, when I switched I was told that the card would still work, but only at the speed of the card. I dont know if that is correct or not, just what I was told on another forum.

[TonyS0pran0]

Any of your friends downloading large files maybe? College, porn.........

[mosuavea]

Who is your provider? Have you tried hooking the modem directly to a computer through a Network Card and CAT5 cable? I would do that first before I deemed the router as the culprit. Could possibly have nothing to do with the router and everything to do with the service or the connection.

[TobDog]

Granny, thats funy!

You should use the phone cord to plug into the phone and dial up to your ISP, get a local # too for where you are staying.

Original question, the wireless phone might be problem, you might also want to look into other routers(I have a Linksys, its great, tell them I sent you and Ill get a kickback(just kidding of course) but something I noticed, my house is all wireless, I am concerned with security, your settings are changable, check you settings, and plug in your computer(use the network cable for this, and do the settings) then set your settings so that the computer must be plugged in to change any of the settings, you should also be able to set a password, if you dont want everyone within 100 feet of your box downloading porn and illegally downloding music and movies from your ISP, set a password, tell your 'share' friends, but it keeps others out of your settings too.

You might want to go around the room where your router is and see if you get a signal on some places and not others, for some reason, my notebook in my house doesnt work in my downstairs bathroom and next to my other computer, which is also wireless(go figure). Also, if you are in the same room as your router, you can always plug into the back of your router and get the full signal thru the cable and not the wireless which would give you the full signal whenever you are there next to the router(oh and wear a foil helmet to keep the radio waves from frying your brain too!) just kidding.


later

tobdog

[RollaJ]

[ QUOTE ]
Call Linksys at 800 326-7114. I have called them several times and they are pretty competent at getting things fixed quickly.

[/ QUOTE ]

It may be worth a shot.


I think however that you might be better off calling D-Link.


It may be your schools internet that is the culprit. If the router worked at home it should work there, and I wouldnt expect a slowdown with under 20 users. (Are you sure its encrypted and your whole dorm isnt "stealing" your signal?) /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

BTW, I have the same Dlink set up with no problems, but yes the card would work with a different router

[gibs]

[ QUOTE ]
Any of your friends downloading large files maybe? College, porn.........

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. A couple of my roommates download lots of music, and I'm sure some porn as well. Is this messing up the router?

[TonyS0pran0]

Well if everyone is downloading huge files it could be bandwidth problems. What kind of connection do you have? Go to www.dslreports.com (http://www.dslreports.com) and do a bandwidth test.

[gibs]

[ QUOTE ]
It may be your schools internet that is the culprit. If the router worked at home it should work there, and I wouldnt expect a slowdown with under 20 users. (Are you sure its encrypted and your whole dorm isnt "stealing" your signal?)


[/ QUOTE ]
I live in a house off campus so we don't use the school's ISP (not sure who that is). We get ours from Cox cable which is the main provider in that area. There are about five other wireless networks in the area and I can actually connect on two of them. So we do have a password on ours.

[gibs]

I'm at home on Christmas break right now, so I'll have to get back to you on that. In the mean time could you explain the whole bandwidth deal to me. Thanks.

[smoore]

I'm convinced that all cheap wireless routers are crap. I've gone through two Linksys' in the time a friend has gone through three DLinks. Crap, crap, crap. Good luck with it but it's probably just dead /images/graemlins/frown.gif Once I got a Linksys to work for a little while longer by upgrading its firmware. On an unrelated note, the ethernet routing in one of my dead ones still works but not in the other. The one that doesn't route still works as a switch. Strange, very strange.

[TonyS0pran0]

Ok, when you sign with an ISP and they provide internet to you they allot you a certain amouont of bandwidth. Think of bandwidth as a pipe, so the wider or bigger it is the more information you can pump through it. I'm assuming you have cable or DSL or atleast I hope you do. If you have say five users on there pumping tons of information this way and that way you clog that pipe, which would explain slowdowns in your service.

[viennagreen]

First of all, it doesn't matter if there are other wireless networks in the area that are un-protected--- you need to encrypt your connection. There is no excuse not to do this-- it takes all of 3 minutes.

Make sure all of the people using your wireless connection download Ad-aware and Spybot and clean their systems of spyware regularly. Also-- all of you should have up-to-date anti-virus software, and download your windows updates regularly.

Turn on your D-link hardware firewall.

Find out what your bandwidth should be from your ISP and check it on dslreports.com

***
Running a proper network requires a little maintenance. For the most part though, it shouldn't require more than a few minutes of your time every week to keep things up and running properly.

[gibs]

[ QUOTE ]
First of all, it doesn't matter if there are other wireless networks in the area that are un-protected--- you need to encrypt your connection. There is no excuse not to do this-- it takes all of 3 minutes.


[/ QUOTE ]
It is protected. Reread my post, it says that since I can access other's wireless connections I thought It'd be a good idea to protect mine. One of my buddies that knows a lot about computers told me that everyone should have antivirus on their computer, but the problems continued to occur even after we cleaned up everyone's computers. Thanks for the ideas though.

[gibs]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm convinced that all cheap wireless routers are crap. I've gone through two Linksys' in the time a friend has gone through three DLinks. Crap, crap, crap.

[/ QUOTE ]
Are you saying that all wireless routers are cheap and therefore crap, or are there some better ones out there? All I have seen in the stores are d-link, linksys, and netgear. If there are some better ones out there I would be interested. Price doesn't matter, just want one that works.

[Lurshy]

I agree with this statement.

Some 900mhz Phone systems interefere with the wireless routers.

It is also improtant to have the router and wireless card from the same vendor. Inconsistant following of standards or use of different revisions of the standards leads to problems. Use Netgear cards with NetGear routers, use LKinksys with Linksys etc.

A friend of mine Had those types of issues. Replaced the 'delll' card with a motorola card (to match his router) and replaced a phone. Problem solved, unfortunately I don't know which item solved it, as both were done simultaneously.

[Lurshy]

Granny,

Pack the cord.

Unless you know there is a wireless hot spot at the hotel, you would not be able to use a wireless card. The wireless card is essentially a cordless ethernet connection to a router that then connects you to the internet via its own broadband connection.

A different way to do wireless, is to hook up a cable to the data port on a cell phone, but you are then using dial-up speeds and are paying for air time (which could be cheaper than hotel phone rates though),

HTH

[gibs]

[ QUOTE ]
I am concerned with security, your settings are changable, check you settings, and plug in your computer(use the network cable for this, and do the settings) then set your settings so that the computer must be plugged in to change any of the settings,

[/ QUOTE ]
Where exactly do I go to do this?