constantly getting disconnected

[rbmerritt6]

Hi, hope someone here can help. I've used wireless as my main internet access in the same house for about 3 years now. Even though the router is in the basement and I'm up on the second floor, the connection has always been fine. Suddenly now I am constantly getting disconnected every 5 minutes or so and everytime it has to reconnect i get the "Acquiring Network Address" message. Then it will reconnect for another couple of minutes or so. Recently we finished some walls in the basement, including insulation and drywall, but it was in a room next to the router, and my computer is pretty much a straight shot up from the router. Nothing with the configuration of my computer or the router or anything has taken place recently. I've tried resetting the router. When I am down on the first floor closer to the router it doesn't disconnect as often, but still does occasionally. Can anyone PLEASE help me? This is more annoying than you would believe.

Service Provider: Digis
Modem: HighGainAntennas
Model: R7UPOE
Router: Linksys
Model: WRT300N V1

[johnwill]

Did you try changing the channel on the router? Also, since you're above it, try orienting the antennas horizontally, since the signal propagation is perpendicular to the antenna.

[rbmerritt6]

k i flipped the antennas horizontally and that seems to have helped a little bit, but i still disconnected every few minutes. I'm not sure how to change the channel on the router, I looked at the router and didn't see anything obvious...

[johnwill]

You need to use the web based setup to reconfigure anything on the router.

Start, Run, CMD /k ipconfig

The Default Gateway address is the base address of the router, put that into the IE address bar.

[rbmerritt6]

ok, I haven't done that ^ yet, but here's what I have done. I went down and picked up a Signal Re-Router (extend the range of the wireless in my house), and I coulnd't get it to set up properly, kept failing. I took my dad's laptop, which is on the same wireless my laptop is, and i would use my laptop until the wireless failed, and then quickly check my dad's and his was fine, still connecting and downloading. So that tells me something is wrong with my laptop, however at my University I am able to connect to their wireless and stay connected the whole time with no problems. What gives?

[stray~johnny]

Have you scanned your computer with up-to-date spyware software?

I would suggest resetting your winsock and TCP/IP stack

check for updated drivers for your network card on the manufacturers website.

[rbmerritt6]

yeah i've scanned it with ad-aware and spybot all updated. how do i reset the winsock and tcp/ip stack?

[stray~johnny]

Type the following in command prompt:

netsh int ip reset reset.log

netsh winsock reset catalog

Reboot the machine.

[rbmerritt6]

do i need to wait to do that until i am on my home network?

[johnwill]

You can reset the stack anytime. OTOH, since you have connectivity, and this seems to be a wireless issue, I can't imagine that doing any good.

[rbmerritt6]

ok i reset the stack and the winsock and still keeps disconnecting. I'll try chaning the channel on the router now. will that effect anything on my father's computer since he's on the network as well?

[johnwill]

Just changing the channel might make him have to search for networks again, but it won't stop him from connecting.

[rbmerritt6]

ok, i tried doing it earlier but i need a username and password, and i'm not sure what they are and he probably doesn't remember, so does changing the channel really have a possibility of working?

[johnwill]

I suggest you need to find out how to access the router or reset it to factory defaults and reconfigure. You're eliminating one of the primary solutions to wireless connectivity issues if you can't change the channels.

[rbmerritt6]

allright my old man can't remember what he set the username and password to and i've tried everything i could think of that he would use. There's a reset switch on the router itself, would that do the same thing? Cause I tried hitting that and it didn't change anything.

[johnwill]

Well, for most routers (since you didn't tell us what you have) require you hold the reset for 10-15 seconds to do a factory reset. Then you can use the default name/password to connect with a wired connection and configure the router.

I'd also consider writing down the information.