giving up on netgear wireless

I have two pc's at my house, both sharing the same cable internet
connection through a wireless netgear router. One pc plugs directly
into the router, while the other has a wireless NIC. All of a sudden,
about six months ago, my wireless connection became very unstable, and
since then, I have rarely had a connection for more than 30 seconds at
a time. I've talked to help support a number of times, they are able
to get it up for a brief period of time, but nothing special. I also
have a playstation 2 in the same room as my wireless pc that plugs
directly into my router by a 50' cat5 cable.

I became so sick of trying to fix my wireless connection, that I just
unplugged the PS2, and plugged that directly into my pc. But it is
pretty annoying to keep unplugging my pc and ps2 every time I want to
use one or the other. Is it possible to purchase something like a 2
port switch or something, that would allow me to plug the 50' cable
coming from my router into, and then have two other cables, one for my
pc and one for my ps2, coming out of that?

Thanks,
Nick

Doesn't your router already have extra Ethernet ports? Usually you can use
the router in switch mode. If not, cheap 4-port switches can be found at
Fry's or anywhere on the net.

What changed in your environment six months ago? Did neighbors add wifi
networks running on you channel? Did you buy a 2.4Ghz cordless phone, or
some other new device that broadcasts at 2.4Ghz? You may be giving up too
quickly. Something changed, and if you figure out what it was you can figure
out what to do about it.

"NickM" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> I have two pc's at my house, both sharing the same cable internet
> connection through a wireless netgear router. One pc plugs directly
> into the router, while the other has a wireless NIC. All of a sudden,
> about six months ago, my wireless connection became very unstable, and
> since then, I have rarely had a connection for more than 30 seconds at
> a time. I've talked to help support a number of times, they are able
> to get it up for a brief period of time, but nothing special. I also
> have a playstation 2 in the same room as my wireless pc that plugs
> directly into my router by a 50' cat5 cable.
>
> I became so sick of trying to fix my wireless connection, that I just
> unplugged the PS2, and plugged that directly into my pc. But it is
> pretty annoying to keep unplugging my pc and ps2 every time I want to
> use one or the other. Is it possible to purchase something like a 2
> port switch or something, that would allow me to plug the 50' cable
> coming from my router into, and then have two other cables, one for my
> pc and one for my ps2, coming out of that?
>
> Thanks,
> Nick

NickM wrote:
> I have two pc's at my house, both sharing the same cable internet
> connection through a wireless netgear router. One pc plugs directly
> into the router, while the other has a wireless NIC. All of a sudden,
> about six months ago, my wireless connection became very unstable, and
> since then, I have rarely had a connection for more than 30 seconds at
> a time. I've talked to help support a number of times, they are able
> to get it up for a brief period of time, but nothing special. I also
> have a playstation 2 in the same room as my wireless pc that plugs
> directly into my router by a 50' cat5 cable.
>
> I became so sick of trying to fix my wireless connection, that I just
> unplugged the PS2, and plugged that directly into my pc. But it is
> pretty annoying to keep unplugging my pc and ps2 every time I want to
> use one or the other. Is it possible to purchase something like a 2
> port switch or something, that would allow me to plug the 50' cable
> coming from my router into, and then have two other cables, one for my
> pc and one for my ps2, coming out of that?
>
> Thanks,
> Nick

This sounds like having 802.11x Authentication checked in the wireless
connection.

Q

Honestly, I can't think of anything in my household that has changed
in the past six months that would have this effect. I haven't
purchased any new phones recently. I live in a condo, with plenty of
neighbors around me, so it's quite possible that a neighbor recently
made a change that is having an effect on me. I've been on the phone
with netgear tech support too many times, and no one has found a
permanent solution. One of the techs seems to think it's my router,
but it's out of warranty.

Yes my router does have open ports in it, but this would require me to
run another 50' cat5 cable from the router to my room. The problem
with this is that it has to run downstairs, through a closet, and
across a hall way. The cable goes right across my hallway on the
floor. It's obvious that it's there, and it can get in the way some
times, so I want to have as little cables as possible running across
the hallway.

So my main question is just whether or not i can run the 50' cable
coming from one of the ports in my router into some cheap 4 port
switch, and then have two cables coming out of the switch. One cable
for my computer, and one for my ps2. I'm not very educated when it
comes to networking, I'm still just trying to figure out the basics.

Thanks for the reply,
Nick


"gary" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<tOOxb.376$(E-Mail Removed) gy.com>...
> Doesn't your router already have extra Ethernet ports? Usually you can use
> the router in switch mode. If not, cheap 4-port switches can be found at
> Fry's or anywhere on the net.
>
> What changed in your environment six months ago? Did neighbors add wifi
> networks running on you channel? Did you buy a 2.4Ghz cordless phone, or
> some other new device that broadcasts at 2.4Ghz? You may be giving up too
> quickly. Something changed, and if you figure out what it was you can figure
> out what to do about it.
>
> "NickM" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> > I have two pc's at my house, both sharing the same cable internet
> > connection through a wireless netgear router. One pc plugs directly
> > into the router, while the other has a wireless NIC. All of a sudden,
> > about six months ago, my wireless connection became very unstable, and
> > since then, I have rarely had a connection for more than 30 seconds at
> > a time. I've talked to help support a number of times, they are able
> > to get it up for a brief period of time, but nothing special. I also
> > have a playstation 2 in the same room as my wireless pc that plugs
> > directly into my router by a 50' cat5 cable.
> >
> > I became so sick of trying to fix my wireless connection, that I just
> > unplugged the PS2, and plugged that directly into my pc. But it is
> > pretty annoying to keep unplugging my pc and ps2 every time I want to
> > use one or the other. Is it possible to purchase something like a 2
> > port switch or something, that would allow me to plug the 50' cable
> > coming from my router into, and then have two other cables, one for my
> > pc and one for my ps2, coming out of that?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Nick

"Quaoar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<DZCdnRmKrOgOeFqiRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>...
> NickM wrote:
> > I have two pc's at my house, both sharing the same cable internet
> > connection through a wireless netgear router. One pc plugs directly
> > into the router, while the other has a wireless NIC. All of a sudden,
> > about six months ago, my wireless connection became very unstable, and
> > since then, I have rarely had a connection for more than 30 seconds at
> > a time. I've talked to help support a number of times, they are able
> > to get it up for a brief period of time, but nothing special. I also
> > have a playstation 2 in the same room as my wireless pc that plugs
> > directly into my router by a 50' cat5 cable.
> >
> > I became so sick of trying to fix my wireless connection, that I just
> > unplugged the PS2, and plugged that directly into my pc. But it is
> > pretty annoying to keep unplugging my pc and ps2 every time I want to
> > use one or the other. Is it possible to purchase something like a 2
> > port switch or something, that would allow me to plug the 50' cable
> > coming from my router into, and then have two other cables, one for my
> > pc and one for my ps2, coming out of that?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Nick
>
> This sounds like having 802.11x Authentication checked in the wireless
> connection.
>
> Q


Are you saying that it should or it should not be checked? I just
looked at my configuration utility, and it is set to Infrastructure
mode. I changed it to 802.11 Authentication, and then my little
connection icon down the bottom of the screen changed from red (as it
has been forever it seems) to green. However, I was unable to connect
to the internet. So I changed it back, and then my icon changed
back to red. However, after a couple restarts, and after playing with
settings again my wireless connection is up. There isn't really any
one setting that I changed though, I simply toggled a couple of
buttons, but in the end restored them to exactly what they originally
were. This is what seems to always happen when I call tech support.
We get it back up for say 10-15 minutes or so, but then all of a
sudden it is very unstable, and eventually just doesn't work at all.
Does this sound like a problem with my wireless router, my internal
adapter, or the wireless card?

Thanks,
Nick

And after posting my last message a couple of hours ago, I left my
computer up and running, and I left the ping utility working while I
went christmas shopping. I returned two hours later, to see what I
had expected. The wireless connection sent a couple thousand packets,
but lost 20% of them. It is very very random how this works. After
looking at the past couple hundred packets sent, this is something
what it looks like. I'll use R for reply, and T for timed out:
RRRRRTRRTTTRTTRTTTTTTTTTRTTRRTRRRRRTRTRTRTRTRRRTTT RRTTRRTTTRRRRRTTTRRR.
I have no idea what is going on. Right now it continues to randomy
time out and reply, but I'm going to guess that, just like before, in
another few hours all I'm going to get is time outs.


"Quaoar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<DZCdnRmKrOgOeFqiRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>...
> NickM wrote:
> > I have two pc's at my house, both sharing the same cable internet
> > connection through a wireless netgear router. One pc plugs directly
> > into the router, while the other has a wireless NIC. All of a sudden,
> > about six months ago, my wireless connection became very unstable, and
> > since then, I have rarely had a connection for more than 30 seconds at
> > a time. I've talked to help support a number of times, they are able
> > to get it up for a brief period of time, but nothing special. I also
> > have a playstation 2 in the same room as my wireless pc that plugs
> > directly into my router by a 50' cat5 cable.
> >
> > I became so sick of trying to fix my wireless connection, that I just
> > unplugged the PS2, and plugged that directly into my pc. But it is
> > pretty annoying to keep unplugging my pc and ps2 every time I want to
> > use one or the other. Is it possible to purchase something like a 2
> > port switch or something, that would allow me to plug the 50' cable
> > coming from my router into, and then have two other cables, one for my
> > pc and one for my ps2, coming out of that?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Nick
>
> This sounds like having 802.11x Authentication checked in the wireless
> connection.
>
> Q

As expected, not much longer after posting my last message. My pings
resulted in just plain Time Outs. The weird thing is that the utility
icon in the bottom right of my computer was still green, and when I
mouse overed it, it said that it had a good connection. When I double
clicked it to bring up the utility window, I could see the stats bar
fluctuate from between 70 and 100%, which would make me think I still
had a decent connection. As soon as I closed the utility window, the
icon went red and I totally lost any trace of a signal. I've notided
this happen before. Every time I close that utility, I seem to lose
my connection. Sometimes for just a brief second, other times
forever.

"Quaoar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<DZCdnRmKrOgOeFqiRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>...
> NickM wrote:
> > I have two pc's at my house, both sharing the same cable internet
> > connection through a wireless netgear router. One pc plugs directly
> > into the router, while the other has a wireless NIC. All of a sudden,
> > about six months ago, my wireless connection became very unstable, and
> > since then, I have rarely had a connection for more than 30 seconds at
> > a time. I've talked to help support a number of times, they are able
> > to get it up for a brief period of time, but nothing special. I also
> > have a playstation 2 in the same room as my wireless pc that plugs
> > directly into my router by a 50' cat5 cable.
> >
> > I became so sick of trying to fix my wireless connection, that I just
> > unplugged the PS2, and plugged that directly into my pc. But it is
> > pretty annoying to keep unplugging my pc and ps2 every time I want to
> > use one or the other. Is it possible to purchase something like a 2
> > port switch or something, that would allow me to plug the 50' cable
> > coming from my router into, and then have two other cables, one for my
> > pc and one for my ps2, coming out of that?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Nick
>
> This sounds like having 802.11x Authentication checked in the wireless
> connection.
>
> Q

Not surprised to hear your problems with Netgear stuff, mine didn't work,
not even the software would load or uninstall. After wasting days I just
returned it !

I suggest you check if the wifi utility gobbles up memory while it is
running and try to run without it.
Or try to find another wifi utility software that will work with your
Netgear.
Regards,
Martin

On 29 Nov 2003 10:14:07 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (NickM) wrote:

>And after posting my last message a couple of hours ago, I left my
>computer up and running, and I left the ping utility working while I
>went christmas shopping. I returned two hours later, to see what I
>had expected. The wireless connection sent a couple thousand packets,
>but lost 20% of them. It is very very random how this works. After
>looking at the past couple hundred packets sent, this is something
>what it looks like. I'll use R for reply, and T for timed out:
>RRRRRTRRTTTRTTRTTTTTTTTTRTTRRTRRRRRTRTRTRTRTRRRTT TRRTTRRTTTRRRRRTTTRRR.
> I have no idea what is going on. Right now it continues to randomy
>time out and reply, but I'm going to guess that, just like before, in
>another few hours all I'm going to get is time outs.


I have the same experience as you. I use a Netgear 824M gateway/ADSL
modem and a NETGEAR NIC. My signal indicator goes from 0 to 5 and back
again with no appearent reason. I get ping timeouts even from the
wired host (a Windows 98 PC), so I guess it it is not the wireless
system per se.

Another symptom is dropped TCP packets coming from outside. I don't
know if this is normal or not, by I get one every minute or so, when
using one of the PC:s for web surfing.

Per.

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 09:15:23 +0100, Per Stromgren
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>Another symptom is dropped TCP packets coming from outside. I don't
>know if this is normal or not, by I get one every minute or so, when
>using one of the PC:s for web surfing.

Ehrm... I looked that up in the manual, and found out that this is the
machine's way of telling me that it throwed the packets away on
purpose. "Dropped" seem to me like it happened by accident.

Sorry about that.

"Mom, I dropped those snowballs through the window!"

Per.