Wireless Woes

Post by **DiscoDave** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:52 pm

Hi there everyone

I have a Dell Latitude D620 laptop with some very annoying wireless problems...

For example I have tried with two networks - One at my flat and one back home, both showing similar problems so i've identified its not a problem relating to network/router configuration.

With both of these networks i can connect to them and receive an IP no problem. but my internet browsing and msn will behave irraticly ie pages sometimes wont load, i sometimes wont receive messages, i can only sometimes connect to my VPN client etc.

If i try and ping my gateway ie router I notice I will receive packet loss. If i use my wired adaptor then its fine.

Pinging my router for example will sometimes result in times of 3ms-700ms with packet loss in the reigon of 15%-70%

I've gone through the usual routine of updating drivers and re-installing the card but with no luck. My wireless network card is a Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG.

If anyone has any ideas i would appreciate it

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 9:19 pm

how's your spyware.

Post by **DiscoDave** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 9:44 pm

Just did a full scan and it did clean about 86 objects but the problem is still persisting

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 9:56 pm

close IE or whatever browser you use and do a netstat -b at the command prompt. take a look at what connections and/or listening ports are currently going. no need to paste it here for obvious reasons, but see if there's something in there that shouldn't be. you should recognize everything, and those you don't you should google.

Post by **DiscoDave** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:06 pm

netstat -b doesn't return anything unusual

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:46 am

mebbe borrow a buddy's wireless usb nic or a pcmcia card from a buddy.

Post by **DiscoDave** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 7:55 am

...that doesn't really help me fix the problem.

Post by **^misantropia^** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 9:57 am

Might be a problem with the MTU being set incorrectly. Real Men fix that by editing the registry directly but, alternatively, you could download the TCP/IP optimizer from http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php and have it determine the MTU value for you.

Post by **^misantropia^** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:02 am

...and, come to think of it, suchlike behavior is sometimes caused by XP's wireless zeroconf. Disable it and see if things become a bit smoother.

Start

Run

"services.msc" [OK]

Right-click "Wireless zero configuration"

Stop

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 1:11 pm

DiscoDave wrote:...that doesn't really help me fix the problem.

um, yeah actually it would let you know that it's most likely your built-in NIC.

Post by **DiscoDave** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 4:49 pm

+JuggerNaut+ wrote:
DiscoDave wrote:...that doesn't really help me fix the problem.
um, yeah actually it would let you know that it's most likely your built-in NIC.

Ok sorry it was just how you phrased it sounded like a quick fix.

Well I cant try another nic at the moment but to be honest all signs are pointing to the onboard nic as the same problem has happened with two networks.

I've rollbacked the drivers for now and it seems to be stable, but I remember this only happened for a short while

Post by **DiscoDave** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:39 pm

Ok no longer stable...

This is really beginning to annoy me now

I have run the MTU tester which has set 1500 as my max but during the test it will timeout pinging the server....

Post by **^misantropia^** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:54 pm

Start Run "services.msc" [OK] Right-click "Wireless zero configuration" Stop

Post by **DiscoDave** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:34 pm

Its already off

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:20 pm

what kind of encryption are you running?

Post by **DiscoDave** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:05 am

At my flat - 128bit WPA
At home - 128bit WEP

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:18 am

same brand/model router at both locations? did this happen just recently? maybe after an MS update? do you like bagels?

Post by **DiscoDave** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:04 pm

Yes both routers are Belkin at the moment but I did have a another brand of router before with the same problem.

Its probably happened since about a month ago, when ive been travelling to south africa with this laptop.

Not a big fan of bagels.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:47 pm

have you tryed changing your channel??

how meny other wireless networks are in range of yours?

is there anything that can giv off Crosstalk to your network? ( power lines, etc )

Post by **Doombrain** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:03 am

get a 3rd party wifi nic in first and check that runs OK

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:32 pm