Connection Loss After Second Laptop Attempts To Use Unsecured Network

[Aegis]

Greetings!

I've read several posts trying to identify my problem before I decided to post.  If the answer to this situation lies elsewhere, please explain the similarity.

My friend (yes, I pay him ) runs a wireless router off an Earthlink DSL modem.  He uses his Toshiba laptop and rarely loses connection.

If I try to access the internet via the wireless LAN, I generally am able to stay on for 3 to 5 minutes at a time.  The connection goes down, and kicks his laptop off, too.

I am rarely able to sustain connection for more than 3 - 5 minutes even when I'm the only user on my own Toshiba laptop (different model).

When he surfs by himself, he's generally fine, and experiences only the occasional loss of signal.  When I try to join, or try to surf by myself, I "take down" the network.   

I've used my laptop on other wireless LAN's with no problem. 

I tried with the built-in wireless card, and with an Ativa brand PC card.

I run XP Pro, and I think he has XP Home on his laptop.

The wireless router is old, and may be the .b standard.  It has parallel printer ports to support network printing.

I will urge him to secure the network once we solve this problem.

Any help or ideas is / are most appreciated.

Thanks.

[Deerpark]

What kind of signal strength is Windows reporting?

[Aegis]

The signal strength usually reports as Very Good, and sometimes Excellent.
As I think about it, I never see the signal degrade -- it just drops.  I will try to post more info on the router itself.

I thank you for the response and your interest, Deerpark.

[Deerpark]

Have you checked for drivers updates for your wireless NIC?

[Aegis]

Doh!   

No, I haven't -- let me do that later today!

I will check for both the internal wireless NIC and the Ativa card I have.

Thank you!

[mr_skipper24]

The problem is intermittent. the fixed for tha prolem is encrypt your network and change the wireless channel of the router 

[Aegis]

Interesting -- changing the channel...

I was going to try to see if I could access the router in the next few days, just to check the settings...been a while since I've messed with a router...

[mr_skipper24]

Yes, because by changing the channel of the wireless router the Frequency is also increase. you can also change the transmit rate of the router.

[Deerpark]

I agree changing the channel is something to try but it is not a universal fix. It will only have effect if the connection problem is because of interference with another wireless network.
When changing channel you should try one that is as far away from the one you're on now as possible. This should minimize the interference. If the router is running on channel 11 now try channel 1 instead for example.

[mr_skipper24]

That is correct. intermittent is the most common problem in wireless connection

[Aegis]

My friend does not experience connection loss all that often.  It is only when I try to use / access the network at the same time that the problems start (or if I try to use the network on my laptop alone.)

I've downloaded Atheros and Ativa drivers, and will install them tonight to see if that makes a difference, for starters.

[Aegis]

Okay, I downloaded and installed what I thought was a new driver for the Ativa pc card, but it may have only been a wireless utility (I need to check the driver version now, and forgot to do that last night).

I also downloaded what I think was a new driver for the built-in Atheros wireless. 

The connection still crashes after about three minutes.

As my feeble brain thinks more about this, it has to be the laptop itself.  I surfed, in the past, alongside my friend while he used his same Toshiba laptop, and I used an Averatec laptop (with the same Ativa card) at the time.

I will look at driver versions before I whine any more...

[Aegis]

I got the Atheros driver from the Toshiba site.  It is about six months newer than the original driver.  It seemed to install just fine, but there's no difference -- the network connection crashes after about three to five minutes.

[mr_skipper24]

change the RTS and Fragmentation threshold of the wireless card.
what is the standard of the wireless card on the notebook A/B/G or B/G or A/B/G/N

[Aegis]

Very cool.
I will check those tonight!
Thanks!

[Aegis]

Well, the cheap and inelegant fix so far is that it's a D-Link router running b standard, so I borrowed my friend's old b standard D-Link PCMCIA plugin wireless card, downloaded the driver, and run off that card...now we coexist on the network just fine...

I"m not completely satisfied with this.  My next step is to connect to the router via ethernet cable, and look at the software settings, as was earlier suggested...