Wireless connectivity drops out intermittently on NX6125 notebook

[Anonymous]

Once or twice a week for the last 3 months the Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN in my NX6125 W2K notebook loses connectivity to my Linksys WRT54G v4.20.7 wireless router.

After a few minutes, it seems to fix itself.

Originally I thought this might be signal strength, but it isn't, honest! So 10 days ago I dutifully downloaded the latest driver (Broadcom Wireless LAN Driver version 6.00 A) and updated the BIOS whilst I was there. But the problem remains.

Looking at the W2K Event Log, all it says is: "Event 4202: the system detected that network adapter Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN - Packet Scheduler Miniport was disconnected from the network, and the adapter's network configuration has been released. If the network adapter was not disconnected, this may indicate that it has malfunctioned. Please contact your vendor for updated drivers."

Any input welcome! And thanks.

[Karsten Breivik_1 · Accepted solution]

Could perhaps be another access point close by using the same channel, causing a conflict. Could be that the access points cannot see each other, but that your laptop can see both access points.

Could perhaps be a problem in a very congested area.

It may be worth trying to use a different channel. You should be able to switch channel on the admin page of your access point.

You might also be interested in upgrading the firmware on the router with the latest version from Linksys.

Also, if you are interested, there is a very promising open source package called OpenWRT developed over the last few years which is a drop in replacement for the firmware in the access point. Have a peek at http://openwrt.org/ See the section "Documentation" -> "TableOfHardware" to see if your access point/router is supported.

[Russ_57]

Hi, I have had similar problems. I believe the other person is correct in suggesting that you may be getting interference from another access point. Some questions: Do you have any type of security configured on your AP, WEP, WAP, etc.? If not, that is the first thing you should do. Setup a secured SSID and tell your notebook to connect "only" to your SSID.
Just for grins, to verify the existence of other AP's download "NetStumbler", it's free, and check for other AP's in your area. I'll bet you find some. Cheers.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much Karsten and Russ for your signposting and guidance: you have delivered where hours of googling had failed.

Last night, armed with Netstumbler, I discovered three other networks in my suburban neighbourhood. Quite low strength signals, but broadcasting on different channels (1, 6 & 9). And then, wandering around, up popped an even weaker signal, right on 'my' channel 11.

So I'lll spend the next few days experimenting with different channels. To help me find the 'right' one, I found http://seth.mattinen.org/images/80211bchannels.gif

Thanks Russ for the reminder on security too. As a deterrence, I do have WEP, MAC address filtering and a non-default device admin/password, which I see is more than most of my neighbours!

[Mohieddin Kharnoub]

Hi

I would suggest you to use NetStumbler, then find an unused channel, if both 3 use channels 1,6 and 11, then look at the SNR colomn, avoide the channel which have the highest number, and select your channel similar to lowest SNR channel.

Good luck !!!