Wireless freezes sometimes

[kimiraikkonen]

I have Broadcom BCM4318 wi-fi adapter in my notebook (Acer Aspire),
but sometimes, although my router's lights are active, suddenly, the
transfer between notebook and router stops and Wireless Zero
Configuration (wi-fi indicator led on TASKBAR) stops with no data
transfer. I mean connection freezes....

UNTIL i reactive the connection via disable/enable or repair function.

What are the reasons of this wi-fi freeze problem? Even i cannot reach
to 192.168.1.1. I don't think it is fault of my router because i can
re-supply my connection with a healthy data transfer WITHOUT reseting
or rebootin my router, i only disable/enable or repair WZC.

I have XP home SP2.

What do you suggest?

Thank you...

 

[Guest]

Open a command prompt and run:

NETSTAT /ano

Find out if the connection still exists when it 'freezes'. I would try to
determine what the break is, like perhaps the actual radio signal is being
blocked, or something else is causing interference.

 

[kimiraikkonen]

Open a command prompt and run:

NETSTAT /ano

Find out if the connection still exists when it 'freezes'. I would try to
determine what the break is, like perhaps the actual radio signal is being
blocked, or something else is causing interference.
--
Mark L. Ferguson










- Show quoted text -

Hi, thanks, when this freeze happens, after doing netstat /ano, what
should i check for? What is the data i should investigate?

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Are there any other wireless networks operating nearby? I had a similar
problem to that which you describe and found that another wireless network
was being picked up by my machine which was operating on the same channel as
my own. Changed channels and all was ok.

 

[kimiraikkonen]

Are there any other wireless networks operating nearby? I had a similar
problem to that which you describe and found that another wireless network
was being picked up by my machine which was operating on the same channel as
my own. Changed channels and all was ok.







- Show quoted text -

Hi, yes there are much many connections nearby my building and
strongly they're using channel 11 fo 802b/g. (G is the most common)

The only solution is to click ''repair'' to wireless icon in the
taskbar of Wireless Zero Configuretion (Default wi-fi tool of WinXP
Home SP2).

I mean i can solve that freeze WTIHOUT touching my router. Not router
related.

What are the possible reasons and is there any suggestions such as
using other 3rd party Wi-fi utilities like Broadcom's?

Thanks...

 

[frodo]

many things can interfere w/ wireless reception, the worst offender is a
cordless phone on the 2.4GHz band. Some of these phones are so cheap that
they transmit ACROSS the band even when not in use (in the cradle or not).
Even choosing a diff channel won't make much diff, these cheap-o's bleed
all over the whole band regardless of the channel they're set to.

The better ones only interfere when they are actually in use, and then
only on the selected channel. My neighbor got one of these cheap-o's and
the day it was installed my network went to hell. Fortunately we're
friends and I noticed it right away (the new phone was a b-day present, I
saw it being opened). 2 weeks later I bought them a replacement phone on
the 5.8 band ($30) - no issues now.

Also, a microwave oven operating in the house can ruin reception for
the few minutes that it's running.

the fact that a "repair" operation fixes things confirms this diagnosis -
if the reception is so poor that the end-point and the access-point get
out-of-sync with each other then they will never reestablish comm w/ each
other even when the interferrence goes away - you must do a repair to
resync the encryption keys. This is most common when one end "hears"
the other but the other doesn't hear any responses - ie, your pc can hear
the access-point just fine (it shows up in the list) but it can't hear you
(you can almost never get sync'd). Watch the counts of sent/recieved
packets; sent goes up but received just sits there - the AP can't hear
you due to the interference.

So, if it's in your control, move the phone base-station away from the
access point (opposit ends of the house is best); get a new phone not in
the 2.4 band; hang the phone back in its cradle whenever not in-use
(better phones shutdown the xmitr when the phone is docked).

Also, look around (google) for a simple template to make a tin-foil
parabolic reflector to put on your antenna (either/both ends). It can
actually help:

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

I use this one, it upped my reception by 2 bars. 30 minutes to make,
another 30 to tinker and point it sucessfully. Pretty simple. There are
others, google around.

But, w/ major interferrence it just won't make a lot of diff, cure the
real problem if you can.

One more thing: some laptop adapters will "turn down the xmitr power" to
save the laptop's battery. go into "properties" for your addapter and see
if there is a power management mode that you can change to CAM
(Constantly Awake Mode).

 

[kimiraikkonen]

many things can interfere w/ wireless reception, the worst offender is a
cordless phone on the 2.4GHz band. Some of these phones are so cheap that
they transmit ACROSS the band even when not in use (in the cradle or not).
Even choosing a diff channel won't make much diff, these cheap-o's bleed
all over the whole band regardless of the channel they're set to.

The better ones only interfere when they are actually in use, and then
only on the selected channel. My neighbor got one of these cheap-o's and
the day it was installed my network went to hell. Fortunately we're
friends and I noticed it right away (the new phone was a b-day present, I
saw it being opened). 2 weeks later I bought them a replacement phone on
the 5.8 band ($30) - no issues now.

Also, a microwave oven operating in the house can ruin reception for
the few minutes that it's running.

the fact that a "repair" operation fixes things confirms this diagnosis -
if the reception is so poor that the end-point and the access-point get
out-of-sync with each other then they will never reestablish comm w/ each
other even when the interferrence goes away - you must do a repair to
resync the encryption keys. This is most common when one end "hears"
the other but the other doesn't hear any responses - ie, your pc can hear
the access-point just fine (it shows up in the list) but it can't hear you
(you can almost never get sync'd). Watch the counts of sent/recieved
packets; sent goes up but received just sits there - the AP can't hear
you due to the interference.

So, if it's in your control, move the phone base-station away from the
access point (opposit ends of the house is best); get a new phone not in
the 2.4 band; hang the phone back in its cradle whenever not in-use
(better phones shutdown the xmitr when the phone is docked).

Also, look around (google) for a simple template to make a tin-foil
parabolic reflector to put on your antenna (either/both ends). It can
actually help:

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

I use this one, it upped my reception by 2 bars. 30 minutes to make,
another 30 to tinker and point it sucessfully. Pretty simple. There are
others, google around.

But, w/ major interferrence it just won't make a lot of diff, cure the
real problem if you can.

One more thing: some laptop adapters will "turn down the xmitr power" to
save the laptop's battery. go into "properties" for your addapter and see
if there is a power management mode that you can change to CAM
(Constantly Awake Mode).

Hi, this freeze happens although when no corldless phone is in use.

Here it is results when i do netstat /ano as suggested above:

When freeze happens:
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/4404/freezenetstatwg3.jpg

When wi-fi is normal after surfing some sites like Google:
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/4793/normalnetstatei4.jpg

What is the reason? W-fi receiver driver issue or hardware or signal
interfering?

Also i want to ask, after connecting successfully at start-up, i
sometimes get ''wireless network connection connected'' again and
again and ''tcpip'' enrty is logged in event viewer of Windows.

Thanks for the support...

 

[frodo]

Hi, this freeze happens although when no corldless phone is in use.

a "bad" phone doesn't have to be in-use. try unplugging (base-station
from ac line, batteries from handset) to ensure zero transmissions from
either, and retest. plus, it doesn't have to be the phone in your house,
it could be a neighbor's phone.

Here it is results when i do netstat /ano as suggested above:

When freeze happens:
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/4404/freezenetstatwg3.jpg

When wi-fi is normal after surfing some sites like Google:
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/4793/normalnetstatei4.jpg

What is the reason? W-fi receiver driver issue or hardware or signal
interfering?

I don't have any further insight, sorry. however, re: part 2:

Also i want to ask, after connecting successfully at start-up, i
sometimes get ''wireless network connection connected'' again and
again and ''tcpip'' enrty is logged in event viewer of Windows.
Thanks for the support...

That's just the way it is. It has to do w/ DHCP and XP silliness,
everyone it seems gets this strange behavoiur, unless they don't use XP's
built-in Wireless Zero Configuration service but use their adapter's
provided tool (linksys or dlink wireless manager). And Vista does pretty
much the same thing... dumb, and annoying, to be sure... you'd think that
after several years MS could have made wireless management work as well as
the third party people do...

good luck.

 

[kimiraikkonen]

a "bad" phone doesn't have to be in-use. try unplugging (base-station
from ac line, batteries from handset) to ensure zero transmissions from
either, and retest. plus, it doesn't have to be the phone in your house,
it could be a neighbor's phone.


I don't have any further insight, sorry. however, re: part 2:


That's just the way it is. It has to do w/ DHCP and XP silliness,
everyone it seems gets this strange behavoiur, unless they don't use XP's
built-inWirelessZero Configuration service but use their adapter's
provided tool (linksys or dlinkwirelessmanager). And Vista does pretty
much the same thing... dumb, and annoying, to be sure... you'd think that
after several years MS could have madewirelessmanagement work as well as
the third party people do...

good luck.

My Broadcom Network Adapter 802.11g's driver is 3.100.46.0 as default
came with my Acer notebook. After having freezing problems when
browsing the net or downloading with no chance to reach 192.168.1.1
also, i decided to update to a new driver also supports 802.11n, but
after updating successfully(although i can browse sites successfully),
the Wi-fi LED indicator which is built on to my notebook went CRAZY!!!
It lits randomly and irregularly after rolling back to old original
driver, Wi-fi LED went back to normal but i want to get rid of this
strange freeze problem.

The driver which is suited to my adapter but Wi-fi LED went crazy by
flashing irregularly and intermittently:
http://www.opendrivers.com/driver/2...5.5-windows-2000-xp-xp-x64-free-download.html

What do you think?

Thanks