Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, Steel, notfred

 
APWNH
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
Topic Author
Posts: 3200
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 9:10 pm
Location: Boston MA
Contact:

Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:38 pm

You know.. where the tray icon has a yellow triangle warning badge, and you can't connect to anything anymore. And I have to unplug the wireless adapter and plug it back in, then everything works again for 5 more minutes.

This issue also happens on my iphone 4 with the wifi connection, and I don't use my netbook very often but I always have issues with wifi on that, too.

What could be causing this sort of thing? I have got this switch connected to my Verizon Fios router, and I have this AP connected to the switch. I got this wireless adapter at Staples today because my motherboard's ethernet adapter went kaput. It's one wall away from the AP. I was hoping since this was the fanciest USB wifi adapter in the store it would at least work correctly until the PCI ethernet card I ordered gets here in the mail.

Not only is battlefield 3 laggy as all hell, it likes to disconnect itself every few minutes. However, it downloads files at my internet connection's max of 30Mbps just fine and web pages load just as fast as with a wired connection. How do I troubleshoot this?
Last edited by APWNH on Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
Ari Atari
Gerbil First Class
Posts: 145
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:00 pm
Location: Earth

Re: Wifi connections always end up in "limited connectivity"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:47 pm

Heh, my school network does a similar thing, if I don't use the internet (aka reading a text page) for a while I lose internet connection and go to limited connectivity. Replugging in is one of the fixes; another is to constantly ping something using a bat file. But in my case it is a wired connection and I have no idea what goes on inside the walls, so I guess this isn't very helpful.

Try running something like "ping www.google.com -t" in cmd and see if it disconnects while pinging.
 
APWNH
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
Topic Author
Posts: 3200
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 9:10 pm
Location: Boston MA
Contact:

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:49 pm

Well I was updating the TF2 files with Steam just now when the connection abruptly terminated, I was in the middle of downloading the game files so it can't be disconnecting from inactivity. I have no doubt whatsoever that running ping continuously to google will see it fail at the same time when the rest of the connection fails.

Anyways, I'm looking for tools that I can use to diagnose the issues that are causing the disconnections. Internet is better than no internet, but Internet without being interrupted every 5 minutes is much better than what I have now.
Last edited by APWNH on Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
Ari Atari
Gerbil First Class
Posts: 145
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:00 pm
Location: Earth

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:54 pm

Hmm... does it change if you move closer or farther away from the ap? (sorry if these are somewhat stupid, but I've found that trying random things works half the time)
 
just brew it!
Administrator
Posts: 54500
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:51 pm
Location: Somewhere, having a beer

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:56 pm

Have you tried checking Netgear's site for updated drivers?

Also try putting it on a USB extension cable (if it isn't on one already), to move it further away from the EMI emitted by the rest of the PC.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
APWNH
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
Topic Author
Posts: 3200
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 9:10 pm
Location: Boston MA
Contact:

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:08 pm

I just updated the driver to 2.0.0.1, but the control panel software it installed always closes itself when i open it. Or freezes.

It still only connects at 72Mbps (and it's slower than that most of the time), while my AP is supposed to support 150Mbps. (the netgear adapter claims 300) It seems like my AP is not using the 5Ghz band so maybe 72Mbps is the best I can get.

The AP is now 1 and a half feet from the adapter. Moving it away from the computer does not help the connection speed. And I really don't think that EMI should be causing the disconnecting.

It's just awfully disappointing, really. Let's see if it will disconnect itself in a few minutes.

Is it just that this AP and this adapter don't like to play nice?

Update: Yep, it disconnected again, like clockwork. I'm gonna try switching off the WPA2-PSK encryption.
 
Captain Ned
Global Moderator
Posts: 28704
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: Vermont, USA

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:20 pm

APWNH wrote:
Update: Yep, it disconnected again, like clockwork. I'm gonna try switching off the WPA2-PSK encryption.

I can't remember in what exact context, but there was another thread around here somewhere that implicated a combo of WPA2-PSK and smartphones as router-killers.

Or it could have been someplace else.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
APWNH
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
Topic Author
Posts: 3200
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 9:10 pm
Location: Boston MA
Contact:

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:22 pm

It does the same thing after I switched off the security. It's completely unsecured, and it still does this. I can get it to reconnect by "Repairing" the connection from the Network Connections panel but what that basically does is reset the entire device!
 
just brew it!
Administrator
Posts: 54500
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 10:51 pm
Location: Somewhere, having a beer

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:24 pm

Have you tried switching the AP to a different channel?

The bit about the control panel software crashing is troubling; that could be an indication that the software/drivers aren't mature.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
Captain Ned
Global Moderator
Posts: 28704
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: Vermont, USA

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:25 pm

I'd grab a WiFi analyzer app for your iPhone and see who else is spraying the community. Too many wireless APs in the same spot can get messy. I've got one for my Droid and I love nothing more than having a bank IT manager claiming no wireless devices on his network hang off my shoulder as I track it down by just following the signal strength.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
APWNH
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
Topic Author
Posts: 3200
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 9:10 pm
Location: Boston MA
Contact:

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:32 pm

I'm pretty convinced that this wifi adapter is cursed. I installed windows 7 on this computer 4 days ago... Let me try it on another machine and see if it does the same thing.
 
Flatland_Spider
Graphmaster Gerbil
Posts: 1324
Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:33 pm

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:15 am

Your WAP may be on it's way out. I had a similar situation with a Linksys WAP54G (I think that was the model) and a Buffalo router my wife had when we were dating. The Linksys WAP thankfully died, and I replaced the Buffalo router with a WRT54GL running the tomato firmware which coped with her apartment better. That it fails on heavy, sustained downloads suggests the WAP may be the problem.

Does your Verizon FiOS box not have wireless capability? Have you check for WAP firmware updates?

Try this:
1) Uninstall the buggy Netgear drivers.
2) Go to a some place like Panera or Starbucks that has Wifi access, and see if the problem follows the computer equipment.
3) Go to a friends house and see if the problem follows the adapter.
4) Bring the friend back to your place, and see if he has the same problem.
5) Analyze the data, and make decisions based on that.

APWNH wrote:
It still only connects at 72Mbps (and it's slower than that most of the time), while my AP is supposed to support 150Mbps. (the netgear adapter claims 300) It seems like my AP is not using the 5Ghz band so maybe 72Mbps is the best I can get.


72Mbps is really good. Yeah, you're not going to see the 150 Mbps. That speed is theoretical at worst or achieved in a perfect environment which doesn't exist outside of a lab with no packet overhead at best.

Edit: The WAP has a 10/100 Ethernet connect which will also bottleneck you if you're measuring speed to a machine connected via a wire.
 
APWNH
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
Topic Author
Posts: 3200
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 9:10 pm
Location: Boston MA
Contact:

Re: Wifi connections always end up with "no internet access"

Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:45 am

Using the netgear adapter on a different pc in the house to connect to the same AP sees it working just fine. I had it download drivers for it from windows update via it's Ethernet line then disconnected that to test. Stays connected to the trendnet AP.

The actual reason for getting the trendnet AP (which is 2 weeks old) is the old 802.11b Linksys wireless router's link has been intermittent.

My P7p55d pro (it used to be a p7p55d evo but when that died from psu death the mobo I got from RMA reports itself as a pro) seems to be the source of the most severe issues somehow.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On