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Spotty wireless access to second PC

I live in Ashburn, Virginia, and my family and our street got FiOS in (I believe) August of 2007. It's worked very well (for the most part), but recently I've begun to encounter an issue. In our home we have multiple devices wirelessly connected to the router. The main home computer is connected directly to the Verizon ActionTec router which is located in the same room. There is a laptop and some game consoles all connected wirelessly and they mostly work well.

The issue comes from the second PC in the home, which is located on the second floor and is wirelessly connected to the router. The wireless connection to this PC is excellent at best and nonexistant at worst. Sometimes it works great and sometimes the connection is dropped entirely. The most common problem is that the connection will slow down to a snail's pace, and pages will not load but the Internet connection will still exist at extremely slow speeds.

I believe the issue stems from the fact that there are two routers operating in our house. The second is a Linksys WRT54G router, which sits right on top of the Verizon ActionTec one. Both routers are transmitting seperate wireless connections. Whenever one connection stops working, I connect to the other one, which works for a few minutes before failing. Then I go back to the first connection, which works for a while before going down, at which point I switch to the second--rinse and repeat all day long. For the most part, the Linksys router's connection is more stable than the ActionTec's connection; that is, it lasts longer before going down and requiring me to switch connections.

It's rather inconvenient to have to switch connections every few hours, especially since it happens suddenly and randomly. Additionally, online gaming on this PC is impossible because the wireless can't keep a stable connection for more than a few seconds no matter which router's connection I'm using. I was wondering if anyone had any solutions to this issue.

Message Edited by BDS_UHS on 07-14-2009 11:23 AM

Comments

agent

There are a few things you can try with that, the first being to change the channel in the Actiontech router by signing into the router settings and change the wireless channel (preferably with the hardwired computer), to sign into the router settings use (192.168.1.1) in the address bar, once you get to that website it will ask for a user name and password (which will be [Username - admin, Password- password1] if you have not changed that since installation) and get into the wireless settings on the top, and access the basic security settings on the left hand side afterwards, the channel selection should be the 3rd one down on the list, change that to (6 or 11) [recomended by verizon tech support] and see if that allows you to connect better..

--Try that first and let me know what happens with it afterwards--

BDS_UHS

Alright, I changed the channel to "6" instead of "Automatic." I'll see if that works, though I won't be able to tell unless the problem happens again. I should also note that I'm using the Linksys router's connection and not the ActionTec's, because the Linksys one works better and for longer periods of time. Thanks regardless.

Message Edited by BDS_UHS on 07-14-2009 11:37 AM

BrianMcD

Have you tried disabling the wireless section of the Actiontec and only using the Linksys ?

spacedebris

another question for you is what kind of wireless adaptor are you using on the second computer. is it a USB style or a PCI style?

agent

Hey. Where you able to get that second computer up and working there with my suggestion, let me know if so, thanks.

BDS_UHS

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have worked.

spacedebris

Well....two routers both with the same issue. multiple wireless systems that work for the most part, just one computer that is having the issue....eliminating the interfearance from the other router doesnt help. Changing channels doesnt help. Sounds to me like it is either...something near the pc that is causing interfearance (i.e, a 2.4Ghz cordless phone) or a glitch in the computers wireless.

Have you tried updating the wireless adaptors drivers? May also want to try re-seating the PCI adaptor..

Is this Vista? If so try turning off the wireless auto tuning level in vista...

To turn off the connection tuning, open a command window with elevated privileges; this is done by going to the start menu and typing cmd, but instead of hitting Enter to launch the command window, Control + Shift + Enter.

Once the command window opens, type the following and hit Enter:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable

After the command prompt comes back, you need to reboot for these changes to take effect.

BDS_UHS

Okay, I updated the driver to the wireless adapter, turned off autotuning on Vista, nothing has worked. I'm starting to think this is just an issue with the crappy wireless adapters Dell puts in their computers as I've tried everything.

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