Laptop Problem

Post by **DiscoDave** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:14 pm

My friend has recently bought a new laptop, a dell inspiron 1300.

She is currently connected to a wireless network which has no encryption (don't start)

Her internet access is quite dodgey - Some sites wont load, msn drops out in intervals and I have to consantly refresh sites to get them to load.

The signal strength is strong and everyone else is fine in the network. Ive reset her IE settings and have turned all the firewalls off. Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong?

Ta

David

Post by **Underpants?** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:30 pm

what utility is she using to connect with?
It's a common problem if she's got, let's say for example linksys' connection manager and windows wireless settings both configured to see a signal drop unrelentlessly.
You see, they compete against one another feebly losing control, first one then the next, like a couple of drily caustic British mods of a gaming forum. The end result is total failure and sometimes, it's quite funny.
If you find this is the case, drop one or the other utility (I recommend keeping the windows wireless settings, if it's linksys).

Post by **DiscoDave** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:07 pm

Im not sure what utility it uses, but its a dell. The only way i was trying to configre was through the windows wireless settings

Post by **Underpants?** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:40 pm

commonly, dell uses a broadcomm utility to control their internal wireless cards. Uncheck the "let windows control wireless settings" option and configure it with the other one, if that's the case.

Post by **Underpants?** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:47 pm

you'll be able to see it as a green signal strength meter in the taskbar notification area.

Post by **DiscoDave** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:56 pm

I do remember seeing the green signal bar meter at the taskbar area but when i click on that opens the windows wireless management. Do you know the specific name for this broadcomm utility? (if thats not it)

Post by **Underpants?** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:25 am

..hm. davido, lemme ass you a queschin, mang--first, is it an actiontec dsl modem she's connecting thru and secondly, does ie say something in the message bar like "connecting to 1.0.0.0?" when it pisses on the connection?

Post by **DiscoDave** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:34 am

I'll have to check when im over there later but I doubt its a actiontec dsl modem as she's on NTL cable broadband.

Post by **Underpants?** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:01 pm

if so, rmove the primary (router IP address) from the list and set the ISP DNS servers statically.