Wireless Connection problem - constant drop outs (Intel Pro 3945ABG wireless NIC)

Hi guys I recently purchased a new HP Pavilion laptop which came with Vista Home Premium and I have been having constant drop outs and connection problems with my laptop and wireless billion modem/router (BIPAC-743GE). My connection strength is never above 60% - Always on Good connection, never goes up to Very Good or Excellent - my old Laptop which had Windows XP always had Very Good and Excellent connections. It also never had drop outs.

What I mean by 'drop outs', is that after a period of time being connected to the modem/router, my laptop will disconnect (not entirely) from the modem/router and I end up with a Limited Connection (Local Only). This happens after being connected for only 2 hours or so *the time varies every now and then* When I try to disconnect from the modem/router and try to reconnect, my laptop cannot find any wireless connections until I actually restart the laptop. Also, I am using the HP Wireless Assistant which came preinstalled.

Note: none of the other 2 computers (running XP) on the network that are using the same wireless/modem router - 1 is wired connection and the other one is wireless - drop out of have poor connections.

All of my drivers are up to date, I have disabled IPv6 and have manually configured my IP, Gateway and DNS settings in IPv4.

Would anyone have any clue what is up with this? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

I am having almost the EXACT same problem. I have a Dell laptop, but the same adapter and Vista Ultimate 32. I have never gone above "good" or 60% using the sidebar utility either. I sometimes can be connected for hours at a time before dropping, sometimes i will drop every few minutes. When it drops, sometimes it will not show any (mine or others in my area) connection for a minute or more, and it will return as "default" or "unnamed network". I updated the firmware of my router, tried another router, disabled ip6, reinstalled Vista, change router channel, and still i get the drops.



I noticed that also when my net cuts out on here, it cuts out on my XP laptop as well. The wired computer doesn't skip a beat though. This has been driving me nuts! This is the first time i've come across someone else with a similiar problem and wanted to chime in. I wish i could offer assistance, but just wanted to let you know what i tried to no avail. If you figure out what the problem is please post back.



Good luck.

 

I had a similar problem on my laptop using XP recently, i had to shut down windows firewall then it worked fine so now i use live one care without any problems. Dont know if its the same but you could try it. Post back letting others know, thanks.

 

Intel better respond about this cause I started a thread around a week ago with the same dang problem!

http://vistaforums.com/Forum/Topic3900-45-1.aspx

 

Found this, might be useful.

mmm, cant figure out how to change the url to read "THIS":unsure:

**fixed it for ya, VISTArocks.

 

That article doesn't really address a "fix" though. Since day one i changed my power settings, to include no power saving/not shutting down my wireless connection. For me, the problems happen at random times. I can't find any connection between power saving/dropped signal (ie: i don't drop while in sleep mode, lid closed, idling, and so on). Like i said, i've tried everything, searched the net, posted in several forums, and i can't find a solution to this problem. In fact, the OP is the only other person i've found with a similiar problem as me.

 

Ok, this is to both with this problem,

Is your router set to BROADCAST your SSID?

 

Yes, i have SSID broadcast enabled with WEP (64bit encryption).

 

Have you any other "wireless equipment" that could be interfering like a cordless phone ect. you could also try changing the channel that you broadcast on.

EDIT: sorry just noticed the "other" wireless laptop not having disconnections in your post. so we can assume the problems got to be on your new laptop.

 

To update that, i connected my other laptop with the same Intel 3945ABG internal card to the network and it would drop at the same time as the Vista laptop. I even swapped the mini-pci cards to confirm it wasn't the hardware itself. This laptop isn't new, i had been using it for months on the same router under XP without any drops, this is a clean install of Ultimate. When the connection drops on the laptops, it does not drop on my wired XP computer. No other devices present. As i said, problems only started after Vista, and even then are unpredictable. I have changed from the standard channel 6 (linksys) to channel 1 and 11 with no changes. I even bought another Linksys router to rule the router out. The fact i am losing wireless the only conclusion i could come up with was router, but who knows. I had been using a Linksys WRT54GS v.1 with firmware from 4/06 (latest) and confirmed it was compatible with Vista. Now i am using a WRT54G v6 with firmware released last week, i will update if i see any changes. What i can say is drops were far more frequent on my v.1 than on the current router i'm testing. Over the past few days i've seen less drops, but i'm still seeing only 60% strength and i'm sitting less than 10ft from the router with a direct view. I'm still seeing drops, which is obviously bothering me.



ugh, i don't know what else to try :ermm:

 

I can confirm they drop at the same time. My wife's laptop with an PCMCIA card also has been having drops since Vista.



Again, NO drops before Vista was installed onto my primary laptop.



Internet does not drop on my wired computer running XP. In fact, i easily get uptime of 5+ days before i reboot without a single drop.



Drops were very frequent on my v1.0 router, but still happening on this new v6.0 i bought for testing purposes. In hind sight since i was planning on returning it anyways, i should have bought another brand, meh.



Uptime on my laptop can be anywhere from 10 hours i've seen without a drop, to continuous drops every 1-2 minutes, until i reboot computer and recycle the router which even that doesn't always work. It will always eventually come back, but no rhyme or reason to it.



When it drops, i open the network list and the usual 3-4 networks i can see are not visible. Sometimes my network will be listed as "default" or "unnamed network" which i had never seen on XP.



Things i've tried:



latest firmware on both routers (confirmed they work with vista by linksys support)

reinstall Vista

latest 3945ABG drivers

let vista's default 3945ABG drivers do their thing

swapped internal cards with other laptop

disable ip6

change power schemes

tried 2 routers

changed router channels



Any other suggestions based on the info provided?



I've posted this problem on a few forums, no one has any suggestions...

 

Still looking but on searching, alot of unamed network problems seems to be related to using WEP and they have been changing to WPA instead due to constant disconnections.

could give that a try in the meantime.

LOL just found your other post on another forum! :w00t:

 

lol.....yeah, i posted it a few times.



WPA can't hurt, i'll give it a shot.



I'll be watching this thread, so if you (or anyone) has anything else to try i'm open to suggestions.

 

couple of quick questions, where are you and what broadband service do you have?

 

Well that didn't take long. WPA is not the problem, drops continue.

 

San Diego, CA



Cox Cable is my ISP (no complaints).

 

ok, so thats out then lol.

Im in england and some dropping connection are caused by too many fragmented packets. so have to change MTU settings on the router. by the way do the drops still occur when the vista machine is off?

reason Im asking is I cant figure how vista could be causing this.

 

Agreed, i don't understand how Vista can cause this either. Only reason i posted this in Vista forums was because it started right after i installed Vista.



I really don't use the other laptop much, so i have not tested to see if it drops without the Vista computer online. Since the drops are not predictable, i don't want to sit on the laptop all day waiting when it might not disconnect to begin with. With that said, you bring up a good point. I will shit this laptop down tonight, and leave that one on overnight and see if it has dropped by morning (something that would never happen before).



Tell me more about this MTU setting. Someone suggested it on the Linksys forums:



"Try this. Reduce the MTU to 1365, beacon to 50 and RTS and Fragmentation Threshold by 40 each"



And i asked what this did, and he did not reply. I am extremely happy with my connection via hardline, it is just the wireless that seems to be giving me problems.



Thanks.