Help with Internet Connection

Noxy

So, I am having a bit of a problem with my internet connection. I'm pretty sure that my router and cable modem are fine because everything else in the apartment is connecting without issues. My PC, however, is not wanting to agree. While playing games I am disconnected fairly often and am starting to grow suspicious of my wireless adapter. The adapter is an Asus card that plugs into the motherboard. If not the card, I am worried that the PC's position in the corner is causing most of my issues. It probably shouldn't be the problem, but I suppose it could be.

So, I figure I could try a new card (not excited about this option) or switch to a new adapter (ideally USB that I could attach to the front of my tower). The problem with the USB adapter is that I have two dogs that could easily jump up and knock it around. I've noticed that laptop adapters are very small and don't stick out far. How effective would one of those be on a tower PC?

Any facts, opinions or other ideas? I appreciate any help you all can offer. This is driving me crazy.

Oh, also, sometimes when I am being disconnected I fiddle with the antenna on the card and it gives temporary reprieve. I don't know if that is relevant. I can't get the card to sit any more than it already is in the motherboard. That was one of my first concerns.

Jebus314

What sort of signal strength is your card reporting? When your signal drops can you still access the router? Have you moved other wireless devices over to where the desktop is and checked if they could still get a signal?

A few things that could help. You can try switching your wireless to a different channel, in case something by your pc is interfering. That might alleviate something. Maybe. If all of your wireless devices fail in that corner you could try moving your router, or loading something like dd-wrt on it and boosting the signal (not all routers have this option, but some do). If for some reason you are getting duplicate ip addresses this could also lead to similar problems. So if you set up your desktop to have a static ip, which is common for gaming, then you might double check that your dhcp server is not assigning the same ip address to another device.

Noxy

The signal strength is almost always excellent. I just switched it from auto to channel 5 and that didn't seem to help. I could try a different channel I suppose. I'd have to try other devices here but I am not convinced the corner is the issue. I don't see anything here that would interfere with the signal and my router should be able to reach this far without any issues.

How can I check for duplicate ip addresses? Also, how can I set my desktop to a static ip, I'm not sure if this has been done or not.

Thanks for your help so far. Really appreciate it.

Jebus314

Setting a static ip address wont help with this type of an issue as far as I know. It's just that a lot of online games require you to port forward, which requires a static ip. If you aren't using one then it's unlikely you have a duplicate address problem. But your router should have a page where it lists currently connected devices and their ip addresses. If one of your devices is missing, but you're sure it's connected, then it might be worth looking into. It might even just show two devices with the same address. Unlikely that this is the issue if you haven't set up any static ip's though.

I would try other devices in the corner as it would be a bummer to buy a new shiny wireless card just to find out that you're still having issues. That being said, it does sound like you just have a bad card though. Also be sure and check if you can access the router when your lose connectivity. Sometimes DNS issues can cause similar problems, although I wouldn't think it would effect something like an online game where you should be continuously connected to the same ip.

Lastly, it's always a good idea to google your particular wireless adapter and see if there are people having similar issues.

Essee

When you're looking for what channel to set your wireless to in order to avoid interference, you'll want to try running something like Vistumbler to see what channels are actually in use nearby, and then change your channel to something as far away from them as possible. You ideally want to be like 2 channels away from whatever is broadcasting closest you, but at any rate not being on the same channel as the strongest nearby signals is a really good plan to keep wireless consistent, especially in an apartment environment.

Regarding USB wireless adapters: to be honest, I can't actually remember any time someone said "I'm using a USB wireless adapter and it's working fine" on the internet. They're often hilariously awful. I would stick with some sort of wireless card if you need wireless for your desktop as opposed to just using a really long ethernet cable (which you can get for surprisingly cheap prices by ordering from Monoprice). I mean you're just in an apartment, right? Would it be that ugly/unwieldy to just run a cable, assuming you can get one on the cheap (which you probably won't be able to from any brick-and-mortar stores that I know of, by the way)? Seems like less of a hassle if you still have wireless issues after switching channels to one you're certain isn't packed with people. I've definitely made use of wireless in an apartment before, but then I didn't have any issues with the connection dropping. Ever.

Noxy

I'll try some of this stuff and see where I am at.

Unfortunately, running a cable is not really an option for me because of my wife and pets. I have two dogs that are pretty well trained but occasionally decide to chew on things they should not. Mostly the issue with a cable is that my wife would not want a cable running from where the router is to this room. In addition, I don't have another option for a modem/router location.

I'll mess with channels a bit using the Vistumbler and then try using something in the corner. I'm just not sure what to try. My wife's laptop might fit on top of my tower I suppose. She has GW2 so I could try playing on her computer for a while and see what happens.

Could firmware on the router be an issue?

EDIT: Tried accessing the router when I hit a dead pocket. Seemed to have trouble connecting to the control panel. Hard to judge because the pocket was short. I'll see if I can catch it again to repeat the results.

EDIT 2: Found that the sweet spot for my location is channel 8-9. I'll try that and see what happens. Most of the other channels seem shared. Aside from that I have a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz option on my router. Does that affect anything? Currently using 2.4GHz. I'm a networking noob, sorry.

Zxerol

5 GHz can help mitigate interference since it's a much less congested spectrum, but it generally has lower penetration and range than 2.4 GHz. It's probably moot anyway since the amount of wifi devices that can do 5 GHz is much less than those that do 2.4, and you may not be able to use it anyway.

Pantshandshake

Well, if all else fails, and you can't move the router or the tower to different spots, it might be time for my old favorite, the Powerline Adapter!

Noxy

Still trying some stuff... but Powerline Adapter? That's a thing? Looking at them now and have never heard of them before.

Great Scott

Sure, a powerline adapter could work. It's remotely possible that there will be too much interference and/or the circuits aren't closely connected between locations, but otherwise that it a decent plan.

Have you tried a different wireless adapter? Is this a new problem or did it just start happening?

Noxy

Honestly, it's kind of an old problem. I had a USB adapter that seemed to work fine but at some point It got bent. I moved shortly after and was having issues with that adapter before and after I moved. So... I got a new adapter that was not a USB.

Unfortunately, it is hard to test what the problem is. It is either my location or the adapter itself but I don't have another option available unless I choose to buy one. I'd like to test another adapter but money is tight so I would like to avoid buying more stuff than I will need to.

My internet can be completely fine for long periods and then completely give up on me with constant disconnects and pockets. However, when it disconnects, it does not show on the taskbar icon. It still shows full bars.

Great Scott

So there is an application that runs in the taskbar, but when that application crashes you lose wireless service? What happens when you try to re-open that app?

If you're not sure which running program it is, try running HijackThis! and PM me the resulting log. Also, what's the brand of your adapter?

Noxy

Actually, maybe I didn't phrase that correctly. The wireless icon in the taskbar still shows full bars when I am experiencing the pockets of no internet. This leads me to believe that the adapter can connect to the router but is having difficulty with communicating the actually internet to my tower or something.

The adapter is an Asus adapter. I figured that it would probably work best with an Asus router.

Great Scott

Next time it happens, open the Network and Sharing Center applet in Control Panel, then click "Change adapter settings" from the left menu. Once that window opens, right-click your wireless ASUS adapter and select "Status". Click the Details button and see what it says.

Alternatively, you could open a command prompt (type "cmd.exe" in the search box) and type "ipconfig /all" and check the results.

Specifically, identify if you have anything listed for DNS servers or a Gateway. You could try the Ping command from the command prompt as well, but I'm going to assume that wouldn't work.

Noxy

Alright so I managed to do some ipconfig commands during a pocket where things were not agreeing with me and the DNS and gateway were both home. 192.168.1.1

It shows my device as an ASUS PCE-N15 11n Wireless LAN PCI-E Card. Not sure if that helps.

Jebus314

I actually have no idea what the DNS servers are supposed to be set to, but if you have verified that you can access the router when the internet is down, there's a decent chance it is a DNS problem. You can verify that by either going to your router's setup page (if you have wireless connecting allowed, which you probably shouldn't), or by just pinging the router (which just means opening up cmd.exe and then typing "ping 192.168.1.1" without the quotes). If it is a DNS problem you can follow this to set your DNS servers to googles public DNS servers. Since it doesn't actually hurt anything to switch to google's public servers I might just do that right now and see if anything changes.