My wireless icon has a red cross and signal drops intermittently

[Confused]

I have just re-installed Windows XP with SP2 on my IBM Thinkpad T61.
Everything seems to work fine apart from wireless. When I boot machine on,
the wireless logo comes up and I get connection. After about 10 minutes, I
get a red cross appear across the wireless icon.. strangely enough the
wireless connection continues to be ok for a short while longer (about 10-15
minutes). At this point, I get a message that my wirless signal has been
lost. I then have to reconnect which seems to take forever. However, once I
do manage to reconnect my wireless the red cross is still visible and the
wireless listing shows my network as "no connected", even though it is. Are
you confused or baffeled.. so am I..

Any help to sort this out greatly appreciated, as I am loosing more head of
hair by the day trying to figure this out.

I have tried everything I can think of..

- Downloaded all IBM drivers
- Downloaded Windows Xp update patches
- Prevented the wireless card from switching off to save power
- Changed channels on my router (now set to channel 12)
- Changed from 801a to 801 b/g etc

 

[R. McCarty]

What ( if any ) Security encryption is the Access Point using ?
(WEP, WPA WPA2 ). You really should be at Service Pack 3.
There is a patch for certain types of Wireless Security that uses
WPA_ that SP2 won't provide. Once you re-installed have you
applied all ( 78+ ) Microsoft Updates to the ThinkPad ?

Also is it possible you are not connected to the network you
believe you are. Strange as it seems I run into this problem all the
time. Many users leave the Wireless Router SSID set to the factor
default ( Linksys....) and end up joining the wrong Wireless Net.

 

[Confused]

Thanks. Am using WEP. I'll try and move up to SP3, and see how I get on.
Anything else you would suggest in the interim as a last try before I upgrade
the SP?.

 

[R. McCarty]

Just check the signal strength and see if it's marginal. Using Wireless
Zero Config a single bar is usually borderline. This might be unrelated
but I'd check your Wireless Router and see if any updated firmware
is available for it. Finally, you might want to get a tool that can check
all wireless signals in your area and see what channel each is transmitting
on.
NetStumbler is a good tool/utility:
http://www.netstumbler.com/

 

[Confused]

problem solve.. I took off authentication which was still ticked and no more
red cross on the wireless icon and my wireless stays on... thanks for the
suggestions. Just out of interest, what does the authentication do?

 

[R. McCarty]

It's called IEEE 802.1X - An international standard. You can do a
web search and find a lot of information, but it's an advanced network
topic that's basically a form or higher security.

 

[dob51276]

me too facing the same wireless issue,...

Hello confused !!
can you help me out with more details on the authentication setting to be done ?! Iam also facing the same issue with my IBM thinkpad and searching for the settings you had indicated earlier. Thanks in advance ,..