Signal strength on Laptop decreases

[cojack]

A friend of mine with a Dell Inspiron 6400 running on xp has a problem with her WLAN. Whenever she connects her laptop wirelessly, the signal strength is great. As she uses it, the signal strength gets weaker and weaker until she can no longer connect. She then has to bring her laptop closer to her router so she can connect via ethernet cable. This sounds to me like a failing WLAN card. What do you think? A professional that worked on her laptop in New Jersey said it is due to a program that she needs from Dell called Dell Network Assistant. I investigated that software and it seems that all that does is helps you connect to you network.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Not sure if this means you have a dying wireless card or not, but there are a few questions I would like to ask.

How far away is the laptop when connected wirelessly and how many walls are between it and the router (and if the walls are plaster or concrete).
When did this problem start?
What is the signal strength when connected?

[patio]

There also could be other Users in her area piggybacking on her signal...
How is her security setup ? ?

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Ah yes, is the wireless signal encrypted? (Does it need a password?)

[cojack]

OK, the network was unsecured and there were several networks in the neighborhood that could have been piggybacking off her network so I secured it. She had a cordless phone next to her laptop so we removed it. The walls are drywall and the laptop is about 50' away from the router.  Not sure if the wireless signal is encrypted but you do need a password. Signal strength runs between 24 and 35 Mbps. Her problem was that the strength would get so low she could not connect. Problem started just before Thanksgiving. Her daughter added SKPE to the laptop and made "some" changes??? She doesn't remember what changes. Before that, the signal would be around 48Mbps consistently.

[patio]

What has me puzzled is she is at full strength at start and it decreases over time if i understand correctly...
Which is starting to sound more like hardware:
Theory 1. As the laptop gets hotter after running and being connected the WLAN card because of thermal expansion it is making a slowly degraded physical connection.
Not sure of a remedy here but i'll give it some thought and do some digging.
Theory 2. The wireless router is experiencing the same thing. For this relocate the router and/or raise it up on something to get some airflow going. Have her turn it off when not in use which may extend the life of the unit.
I know the combo modem/routers i used to get under DSL contracts in the past got extremely hot ( the cheap ones ) and this would cause issues but this hasn't happened since i purchased my own unit.

Out of ideas for now ...
Any improvements with the changes you have made yet ? ?

[Dead_reckon]

I've had similar issues with various computers on my brothers Westell Versalink wireless router/DSL modem/ethernet hub combo, had them with my fathers Westell Versalink also. Not sure why, but a lot of wireless routers randomly overheat, also not sure why certain cards don't like to work with them. I've seen similar problems with a Linksys wireless router/ethernet hub my brother had before he got the Westell.

It seems that all wireless networking hardware I've encountered has issues like this, and frankly, there is no simple fix other than running an ethernet cable. Did that when I lived at my fathers 'cause the wireless had a high latency while gaming and frequently dropped signal. I'm currently on wireless now though, the Netgear router I'm connected too seems fine. Whereas other routers may intermittently drop the signal. For the record, I don't know the model number of ether versalink routers, or the linksys router my bro had. But I do know there both different models, and I'm still encountering high latency. Wireless isn't a gamers friend. Wireless networks seem to be buggy in some cases, in others, there flawless. If your network ends up being the former type, you may go insane before you find hardware that actually works together.

[cojack]

She was running on a Netgear router so I installed a Belkin router I had. So, the routers have been physically swapped out. I was wondering the same thing about the physical WLAN circuitry. I think the WLAN is a express card inside the laptop which can be shaken loose. They do move this laptop between rooms but that was only because they had trouble connecting wirelessly. Otherwise, it will stay in their office. This is a cable modem and everything seems to work great via ethernet. I'll check the WLAN card to be sure it's seated properly.

[patio]

I was under the impression it was an external card...
But Best of Luck and check the Laptop manual for screw placements on dissassembling...not for the faint of heart on most laptops.   

[cojack]

The WLAN is internal and can be accessed pretty easy by opening a compartment on the bottom. I may have confused you by saying I was going to try a PCMIA WLAN card I had to see if I got the same results. Unfortunately, the Inspiron 6400 doesn't accept PCMIA cards only express cards so I couldn't do it.

[patio]

OK.
Then just pay attention to the Best of Luck part of my post...

[Dead_reckon]

Also, be sure to hook the antenna wires back up in the right order if you remove the card or change it. If you don't, it likely will not work at all. Usually the dells have the Wireless card located under a service panel, like you said, my Inspiron is the same. Though, it has room for two other types of wireless cards, I could install three wireless cards if i wanted too, but that would be near useless for anything other than uber bandwidth leeching.