Constant disconnects...please help.

We've been using the Linksys BEFW11S4 router for some time with no
problems. My wife connects her laptop wirelessly, and we have two
other PC's connected via cables.

Yesterday we started getting disconnected from the Internet every few
minutes. Sometimes it actually disconnectes, then reconnects. Other
times it just stops communicating with the Internet, and we have to
disconnect and reconnect ourselves.

We thought perhaps our ISP was having issues, but here's the kicker:
one of the PC's that is connected via a cable does not disconnect at
all. I'm typing this from that PC, and it's fine. So it's not the
ISP or our Internet connection.

The other wired PC and my wife's laptop keep disconnecting.

Please help!

PS The router has the latest firmware.

What OS on each comp?

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> We've been using the Linksys BEFW11S4 router for some time with no
> problems. My wife connects her laptop wirelessly, and we have two
> other PC's connected via cables.
>
> Yesterday we started getting disconnected from the Internet every few
> minutes. Sometimes it actually disconnectes, then reconnects. Other
> times it just stops communicating with the Internet, and we have to
> disconnect and reconnect ourselves.
>
> We thought perhaps our ISP was having issues, but here's the kicker:
> one of the PC's that is connected via a cable does not disconnect at
> all. I'm typing this from that PC, and it's fine. So it's not the
> ISP or our Internet connection.
>
> The other wired PC and my wife's laptop keep disconnecting.
>
> Please help!

On Mon, 17 May 2004 16:08:37 -0400, "John" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>What OS on each comp?


Sorry. The two desktops (which are both wired) are XP Home.
My wife's laptop (wireless) is Win 2000.

Also, I just noticed that on the desktop that keeps disconnecting, I
cannot access the Linksys router's 192.168.1.1 admin pages, which I
always could before.

On the PC that is NOT disconnecting, I can access the router just
fine.

I've tried powering down/up the router.

Seems to be a problem with the IP addresses then. Try troubleshooting
with the IPCONFIG command (in command line interface)

Have u checked the router's and disconnecting laptop's IP settings ?
When it disconnects does the network icon in the systemtray show
"disconnected" ?

Mark

--
Interested in Mesh Networks ?
check out : http://mark.cabiling.free.fr/mobilemesh/

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> On Mon, 17 May 2004 16:08:37 -0400, "John" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>>What OS on each comp?
>
>
>
> Sorry. The two desktops (which are both wired) are XP Home.
> My wife's laptop (wireless) is Win 2000.
>
> Also, I just noticed that on the desktop that keeps disconnecting, I
> cannot access the Linksys router's 192.168.1.1 admin pages, which I
> always could before.
>
> On the PC that is NOT disconnecting, I can access the router just
> fine.
>
> I've tried powering down/up the router.

Do you have Windows zero-config connection management enabled? If so, if you
are also using the connection management utility provided with the wifi
client, you will experience periodic disconnects. If this is the case,
disable Windows zero-config connection management.

Since you say all this was working until just recently, Windows zero-config
is probably not the cause (unless you recently did a restore on the Windows
wifi clients, or changed wifi config in some way). Another possibility is
that you now have a source of interference. Your wifi connection manager
should have a site survey window for "available networks". These are the
802.11 signals the client sees and recognizes as 802.11 networks. Your own
router's SSID should appear, along with any others in the vicinity. If you
see another router transmitting on the same channel as yours, then change
your router's channel. Try to move at least 5 channels away. If there are no
other routers, interference could come from things like 2.4 Ghz cordless
phones (but only if the phone is out of the cradle, and you're actually
using it), wireless video transmitters, very old and leaky microwave ovens
(but only while in use), and so on.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Mon, 17 May 2004 16:08:37 -0400, "John" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >What OS on each comp?
>
>
> Sorry. The two desktops (which are both wired) are XP Home.
> My wife's laptop (wireless) is Win 2000.
>
> Also, I just noticed that on the desktop that keeps disconnecting, I
> cannot access the Linksys router's 192.168.1.1 admin pages, which I
> always could before.
>
> On the PC that is NOT disconnecting, I can access the router just
> fine.
>
> I've tried powering down/up the router.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> We've been using the Linksys BEFW11S4 router for some time with no
> problems. My wife connects her laptop wirelessly, and we have two
> other PC's connected via cables.
>
> Yesterday we started getting disconnected from the Internet every few
> minutes. Sometimes it actually disconnectes, then reconnects. Other
> times it just stops communicating with the Internet, and we have to
> disconnect and reconnect ourselves.
>
> We thought perhaps our ISP was having issues, but here's the kicker:
> one of the PC's that is connected via a cable does not disconnect at
> all. I'm typing this from that PC, and it's fine. So it's not the
> ISP or our Internet connection.
>
> The other wired PC and my wife's laptop keep disconnecting.
>
> Please help!

First step in troubleshooting is to power down the modem for a few
minutes, then reboot the router when the modem has restarted. Reboot the
computers. Separate the router and the modem physically as much as the
cable will allow. Linksys products are very sensitive to interference
from other electronic devices - telephones (wired and wireless), the
modem, etc. If the router is plugged to anything other than a wall
outlet, move it to a wall outlet. Access the modem GUI and report the
data. The modem is accessed on 192.168.1.0 or 192.168.0.0 usually. It
is possible that the router is failing from the symptoms, but the signal
at the modem should be verified also.

Run from a command prompt on each computer:
ipconfig[space]/all[space]>c:\iplog.txt[enter] Open C:\iplog.txt with
notepad on each computer and report the results.

Q

Thanks for the replies.

This time I turned the router off for several minutes (instead of just
a couple seconds) as advised here.

That seems to have done the trick. I'm relieved that's all it was,
because I don't understand this stuff at all.

Thanks again!
Mitch