Connection Choices Disappear

[Craig]

Greetings. My computer becomes disconnected from the internet about
once a day. I have a Pavillion 554y with Windows XP Pro. I have
three PCI slots: one is faulty, one has the DVD decoder, and the other
one has my Wireless PCI card. I have DSL through SBC, that connects
to my D-Link 524(g) wireless router, and then my wireless PCI adapter
(a D-Link one that uses the b-standard) picks up that signal; it's the
only computer on this wireless network. I have a work-around which
involves turning off the DSL modem, turning it back on after 2
minutes, reboot my computer, and that's it. This works 100% of the
time, however, I don't want a work-around. I have noticed that when
my computer is not able to connect to the internet that my wireless
PCI card is recognized in Device Manager, and it is working just fine,
but when I view my network connections I have nothing listed. I
should have an AOL dial-up connection showing, as well as a SC Telcom
dial-up connection, a DSL Broadband connection, and finally my
Wireless Network connection, but all of these are not present when the
internet is down. After I do the work-around, I check my network
connections they all have returned. My computer is not using any sort
of Standby, power-down, hybernation modes, but I will check these
settings again, and I will check to see if the wireless card is set to
power down after so long. I do use Zone Alarm, the free version, and
I have Norton running as well. I looked at the Event Viewer, but the
only thing causing any problems is DCOM, and it doesn't look related.
Is a service stopping on me? I use to have my DSL modem physically
sitting on top of my wireless router, but I have since placed the
modem beside the router due to the heat that has built up between the
top of the router and the bottom of the modem; it gets quite warm.
Could that be it? Any suggestions are welcomed. Thank you, in
advance, and have a great day!

 

[Craig]

Thank you for your quick response. It went down on me again. The
connection only lasted 14 hours this time. I went into Device
Manager, found my wireless adapter, went to the advance settings and
there was an option for Power Save. It was set to Not Present, so I
changed it to Disabled. I couldn't find a Keep Alive setting on the
wireless router, or anything resembling such a setting (this is a
D-Link DI-524 AirPlus G wireless router), so I think I've done all
that you asked. Here's something I noticed. Remember how I explained
that there isn't anything showing up for my connections? Well, I
decided to uninstall my wireless PCI card, and then re-scan for
hardware changes. Well, not only did it detect my wireless lan card
and reinstall it, but all of those connections returned. I still had
to my work-around, but I thought that was interesting. So, did that
confirm the idea that my computer is power-saving my lan card, does
that prove something else, or does that prove nothing at all?
Finally, upon rediscovering my possible connection devices, it labeled
my wireless lan card with the same label it always does except that it
put a 4 at the end, like this was the fourth one or something.
Before, there was a 3 at the end, and of course when I first installed
it there wasn't any number at the end of its name. What does that
mean? Thank you again for your help and suggestions! Have a great
weekend!