Wireless Network Clusterfuck

Anonymous Robot

For the past year I've had three computers in my house connected via a wireless network. We've had no problems, until recently. The computers are only a few rooms apart, we've never had issues with lag, and we've never had disconnects.

A few months ago, we suddenly started having lag spikes up to 36,000 ping and then total disconnects that could last for hours. I had to manually reconnect my router and modem by means of unplugging it and plugging it back in after a period of waiting. This became more and more frequent, and I alerted my dad that we should probably get a new router. The one we were using then was an obscure Microsoft hub. So we went and got a Linksys that I hoped would be more compatible with out Linksys cards. It wasn't. Installation was unsuccessful, to say the least. At first my dad's computer refused to recognize that it had CD drives. I was able to fix this. Then the installation CD that came with the device said that I needed a Linksys router. I was unable to reconcile this, so I went to their website and was able to jerry-rig it by cloning my MAC address.

The problems persisted exactly as they had before. We were sure that it was the router causing problems, because when I plugged my dad directly into the cable modem, he was able to get signal. Distraught, we called the cable company anywhere. They ran some tests, said they didn't see any problems, but sent a guy to come and give us a new modem anyways.

Nothing was fixed. I took my sister off of our network, and things became more stable. However, we still suffer from lag spikes and disconnects occasionally. It makes playing online games an impossibility. I've really got no clue what's wrong, I've gutted just about every possibly problematic part of the network that I can think of. Now when I plug my dad into the modem, he sometimes still doesn't get any signal. I'm baffled.

Samphis

Does it happen when you are running a microwave oven or getting a phone call on a cordless phone? Because both of those things screw up my wireless G network.

Anonymous Robot

Shit- you might be right. I never thought about that. I'll keep an eye out.

Sarathai

Try going into your router's setup page, and changing the wireless channel from the defualt (probably 6) to 1. Channel 6 is quite crouded, being the default for pretty much every b/g wireless router. If you have neighbors with wireless, this will probably at least help. While there, make sure to change the username and/or password for the router's setup page if you haven't already. There are viruses that will infect the firmware on a router if you leave it at default.

If this doen't fix it, then go into the properties for your wireless card in device manager, and try setting the RTS threshold setting under the advanced tab to a smaller value. Something like 1056 or lower. This will make the packets sent over the air smaller, reducing the chance of them getting lost, and making it easier for your connection to recover when loss happens. It will also reduce your network's speed (but not ping) somewhat, making file transfers between computers somewhat slower. It shouldn't affect speed enough to matter for using the internet, though. This needs to be set on every computer on the wireless part of the network, or it won't have any real effect.

Also, this isn't related to your problem, but if you're not using WPA or WPA2 security, you should be. If your wireless is unencrypted, anyone who cares to can see anything you're doing over the network. WEP security is a joke. It can be broken in less than a minute now.

Anonymous Robot

Okay, well, the situation is a little more difficult than it would be otherwise, because of my father. Up until recently he has been extremely adamant about being the only one able to access his computer. He thinks I'm some sort of retarded virus contracting troll, when in fact he does a lot of damage to his system, unknowingly. In his attempts to discern the source of the problem, he has said the following mysterious things to me:

"Comcast says I'm sending spam e-mails."
"It keeps telling me that it can't recognize my IP."
"I deleted Internet Explorer and I think I fucked up Windows."
"The VirusScan says I have a virus but it can't get rid of it."

Now, I'm hoping that it's none of these issues, as they're probably too complex for me, but they're very strange and elusive problems.

I only just was allowed to change our router to WPA security. It was reccommended elsewhere that I may want to change my router from channel 6 to channel 1, as 6 is rather crowded and I may be getting interference from my neighbors.

No new structures were recently added to the area, to my knowledge.

I appreciate the help.

Ledneh

This might not be an option for you, but about a month and a half ago I got so fucking annoyed at exactly what you're describing that I threw my hands to the air, unscrewed the antennas and turned off the wireless radios, and went and got a netgear Ethernet-over-Power kit from Fry's

That was the best $80 I have ever spent bar none

Seriously, never again having to deal with what you're dealing with, in addition to not having to deal with wireless security, is worth its weight in pure fucking gold. I highly recommend it

HallowedFaith

"I deleted Internet Explorer and I think I fucked up Windows."

Heh.

f00fy

Someone has root on you, or a machine on your network is trashed with maleware (your sisters?).

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are running Windows. If you insist on keeping it, here is what you do to each of them that will touch your network:

Your computers:
1) format your HD
2) install Winblows
3) patch it
4) disable auto-patching
5) install Firefox
6) remove IE
7) disable Windows firewall
8) install a good firewall (great free one that is simple to use available here: zonelabs.com)
9) create a regular user account (and use it for your daily computer use)
10) reserve your admin account for installing/removing software/patching/etc.

Your router:
1) throw it away
2) get on ebay and find someone selling an older Linksys WRT54g - something like a V1.0 or maybe even a 2.0. (before they went tits up and cheaped out even more)
3) patch your router - use a real firmware (I preffer Satori)
4) think of an obscure username/pwd - don't use your dog or girlfriends name in 1337 with an "01" appended to it.
5) enable MAC filtering, so you can specify the ONLY devices allowed on your network.
6) turn on HTTPS for your router control panel.
7) disable remote control (this will ensure you have to be connected internally to the WAP/hub to config your router)

Your sister:
1) tell her to take it easy on the webcam sessions, it attracts the wrong crowd.

These are the very basic steps REQUIRED to increase you and your sister's odds of staying STD free.

f00fy

Tanas

f00fy wrote: »

Someone has root on you, or a machine on your network is trashed with maleware (your sisters?).

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are running Windows. If you insist on keeping it, here is what you do to each of them that will touch your network:

Your computers:
1) format your HD
2) install Winblows
3) patch it
4) disable auto-patching
5) install Firefox
6) remove IE
7) disable Windows firewall
8) install a good firewall (great free one that is simple to use available here: zonelabs.com)
9) create a regular user account (and use it for your daily computer use)
10) reserve your admin account for installing/removing software/patching/etc.

Your router:
1) throw it away
2) get on ebay and find someone selling an older Linksys WRT54g - something like a V1.0 or maybe even a 2.0. (before they went tits up and cheaped out even more)
3) patch your router - use a real firmware (I preffer Satori)
4) think of an obscure username/pwd - don't use your dog or girlfriends name in 1337 with an "01" appended to it.
5) enable MAC filtering, so you can specify the ONLY devices allowed on your network.
6) turn on HTTPS for your router control panel.
7) disable remote control (this will ensure you have to be connected internally to the WAP/hub to config your router)

Your sister:
1) tell her to take it easy on the webcam sessions, it attracts the wrong crowd.

These are the very basic steps REQUIRED to increase you and your sister's odds of staying STD free.

f00fy

Do not listen to this guy install Vista it will fix all of your problems.