Old problems never die: WinXP WLAN disconnections

Hi,
I'm having ongoing issues with WinXP SP2 dropping my home WLAN connections.
Depending on the client NIC, it can happen anywhere from a few times a day
to every few minutes, and only under WinXP. I've left the Orinoco card
attached, running under Linux, for days without issue.

I've got 4 different client NICs: Sony Vaio laptop with built-in Centrino
PRO/Wireless 2200BG NIC, Microsoft MN-720 802.11g PC Card, D-Link DWL-650+
11b PC Card, and Lucent Orinoco Gold 11b PC Card. And I recently upgraded
my AP
from a Linksys WAP11 v1.1 to a Motorola WR850G.

With the old WAP11, the Centrino and D-Link NICs would occasionally drop the
connection and then immediately recover it. The Orinoco seemed to be better
and wouldn't drop it; I didn't have the MN-720 at the time so that was not
tested with the WAP11.

Now that I have the WR850G, I get a high rate of disconnects. The Centrino
NIC is ridiculous, dropping the connection (and immediately recovering)
about every 2-5 minutes. Things get progressively better with the D-Link
and Orinoco, and the Microsoft adapter is the best, probably because it has
a Broadcom chipset in it which is most compatible with the Broadcom chip in
the WR850G. The MN-720 will only drop the connection 1-2 times per day.

I'm mostly interested in solving the Centrino issues, as that laptop is my
main machine. In pursuit of a solution for it, I downloaded two updated
drivers from Intel's site (an 8.x and a 9.x), and none helped. I've left it
with driver v9.0.1.9 for now.

Other interesting facts:
* I've tried disabling WZC after establishing a connection, but this seems
to have no effect for me.
* The profile for my home network is properly setup, with the proper WEP
and authentication settings. And yes, 802.1x is disabled.
* If you leave up the Wireless Network Connection status window, you will
see the speed progressively drop from 54mbps to 2 or 1mbps before it
disconnects, even though signal strength is high!
* We have 5.8Ghz phones in the house (although I can't say what my
neighbors have).
* I do live in a high-density area, and there are about 10 or so other
wireless networks nearby. However, I'm careful to select channels to
minimize interference. I try to re-scan my house every couple of months.

There are so many factors that can go into why wireless connections drop
that I realize it is hard to diagnose. But surely someone else has
encountered these issues. And there has to be a fix, or I don't think M$
will be doing themselves any favors by leaving this situation alone.

TIA,
Jonathan

"Jonathan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e5KdnctvPoiMuEHcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
> I'm having ongoing issues with WinXP SP2 dropping my home WLAN
connections.
> Depending on the client NIC, it can happen anywhere from a few times
a day
> to every few minutes, and only under WinXP. I've left the Orinoco
card
> attached, running under Linux, for days without issue.
>
> I've got 4 different client NICs: Sony Vaio laptop with built-in
Centrino
> PRO/Wireless 2200BG NIC, Microsoft MN-720 802.11g PC Card, D-Link
DWL-650+
> 11b PC Card, and Lucent Orinoco Gold 11b PC Card. And I recently
upgraded
> my AP
> from a Linksys WAP11 v1.1 to a Motorola WR850G.
>
> With the old WAP11, the Centrino and D-Link NICs would occasionally
drop the
> connection and then immediately recover it. The Orinoco seemed to
be better
> and wouldn't drop it; I didn't have the MN-720 at the time so that
was not
> tested with the WAP11.
>
> Now that I have the WR850G, I get a high rate of disconnects. The
Centrino
> NIC is ridiculous, dropping the connection (and immediately
recovering)
> about every 2-5 minutes. Things get progressively better with the
D-Link
> and Orinoco, and the Microsoft adapter is the best, probably because
it has
> a Broadcom chipset in it which is most compatible with the Broadcom
chip in
> the WR850G. The MN-720 will only drop the connection 1-2 times per
day.
>
> I'm mostly interested in solving the Centrino issues, as that laptop
is my
> main machine. In pursuit of a solution for it, I downloaded two
updated
> drivers from Intel's site (an 8.x and a 9.x), and none helped. I've
left it
> with driver v9.0.1.9 for now.
>
> Other interesting facts:
> * I've tried disabling WZC after establishing a connection, but
this seems
> to have no effect for me.
> * The profile for my home network is properly setup, with the
proper WEP
> and authentication settings. And yes, 802.1x is disabled.
> * If you leave up the Wireless Network Connection status window,
you will
> see the speed progressively drop from 54mbps to 2 or 1mbps before it
> disconnects, even though signal strength is high!

Signal strength can be high and the BER can be high. Usually the only
reason the connection speed
drops is because of one of these two. If you show great strength then
that leaves errors as a suspect.
I have a centrino 2200 bg with a linksys wap54g and it has never
dropped. (fingers crossed).
I have a suspicion,,, not confirmed but, I think there are timing
issues causing alot of disconnect problems,
especially between devices and chips of different manufacturers.


> * We have 5.8Ghz phones in the house (although I can't say what my
> neighbors have).



> * I do live in a high-density area, and there are about 10 or so
other
> wireless networks nearby. However, I'm careful to select channels
to
> minimize interference. I try to re-scan my house every couple of
months.
>
> There are so many factors that can go into why wireless connections
drop
> that I realize it is hard to diagnose. But surely someone else has
> encountered these issues. And there has to be a fix, or I don't
think M$
> will be doing themselves any favors by leaving this situation alone.
>
> TIA,
> Jonathan

Jonathan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> * If you leave up the Wireless Network Connection status window, you will
> see the speed progressively drop from 54mbps to 2 or 1mbps before it
> disconnects, even though signal strength is high!

There is a Wireless "Quality of Service" service in Windows XP that has
been rumored to knock the speed down if errors are encountered, but it
never goes back up... ultimately leaving you with zero speed.

I disabled the QoS service in the service panel, Set the reserved portion
to 0 in the group policies, and uninstalled the QoS from my card's network
properties. The Earthlink page suggests reducing the bandwidth to zero,
says nothing about the service panel, and says to enable the NIC (which I
didn't do).
<http://support.earthlink.net/mu/1/psc/img/walkthroughs/windows_XP/6800.psc.html>
Further.net suggests just removing it from the NIC:
<http://forums.furthurnet.org/viewtopic.php?p=995&sid=69055b9e626a90c2c3db542470 49f12e>


--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I disabled the QoS service in the service panel, Set the reserved portion

Ultimately, that didn't work. I moved the SMC7004WFW to a place where it
only connects with Win2000 clients, and put a Netgear WGR614v4 in the
previous location. Life is good. No disconnects at all.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

Airhead wrote:
> "Jonathan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:e5KdnctvPoiMuEHcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>> I'm having ongoing issues with WinXP SP2 dropping my home WLAN
>> connections.

Problem with XP/SP2 & Wireless networks.. It doesn't actually drop the
connect, it just drops the visual indicators of a connect (like stuff in
explorer or search).. Links on the desktop and progs that use another
machine are not effected.. only the visual indicators.

No fix that I know of, but it's been driving many of us nuts for weeks.

"Peter Pan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Airhead wrote:
> > "Jonathan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:e5KdnctvPoiMuEHcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> Hi,
> >> I'm having ongoing issues with WinXP SP2 dropping my home WLAN
> >> connections.
>
> Problem with XP/SP2 & Wireless networks.. It doesn't actually drop the
> connect, it just drops the visual indicators of a connect (like stuff in
> explorer or search).. Links on the desktop and progs that use another
> machine are not effected.. only the visual indicators.
>
> No fix that I know of, but it's been driving many of us nuts for weeks.

Actually, my case could be different from yours, but I am getting actual
disconnects. I use SSH to remotely login to several Unix servers, and
everytime one of these drops occurs, I lose every one of my SSH sessions.
Highly irritating!

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:crhki5$vml$(E-Mail Removed)...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> > I disabled the QoS service in the service panel, Set the reserved
portion
>
> Ultimately, that didn't work. I moved the SMC7004WFW to a place where it
> only connects with Win2000 clients, and put a Netgear WGR614v4 in the
> previous location. Life is good. No disconnects at all.
>
> --
> ---
> Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5
>

Well thanks for the QoS tip anyway. I will try it regardless, as it is
something I haven't explored yet.

thanks,
Jonathan

"Airhead" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:41dc4e80$0$22514$(E-Mail Removed) m...
>
> "Jonathan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:e5KdnctvPoiMuEHcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi,
> > I'm having ongoing issues with WinXP SP2 dropping my home WLAN
> connections.
> > Depending on the client NIC, it can happen anywhere from a few times
> a day
> > to every few minutes, and only under WinXP. I've left the Orinoco
> card
> > attached, running under Linux, for days without issue.
> >
> > I've got 4 different client NICs: Sony Vaio laptop with built-in
> Centrino
> > PRO/Wireless 2200BG NIC, Microsoft MN-720 802.11g PC Card, D-Link
> DWL-650+
> > 11b PC Card, and Lucent Orinoco Gold 11b PC Card. And I recently
> upgraded
> > my AP
> > from a Linksys WAP11 v1.1 to a Motorola WR850G.
> >
> > With the old WAP11, the Centrino and D-Link NICs would occasionally
> drop the
> > connection and then immediately recover it. The Orinoco seemed to
> be better
> > and wouldn't drop it; I didn't have the MN-720 at the time so that
> was not
> > tested with the WAP11.
> >
> > Now that I have the WR850G, I get a high rate of disconnects. The
> Centrino
> > NIC is ridiculous, dropping the connection (and immediately
> recovering)
> > about every 2-5 minutes. Things get progressively better with the
> D-Link
> > and Orinoco, and the Microsoft adapter is the best, probably because
> it has
> > a Broadcom chipset in it which is most compatible with the Broadcom
> chip in
> > the WR850G. The MN-720 will only drop the connection 1-2 times per
> day.
> >
> > I'm mostly interested in solving the Centrino issues, as that laptop
> is my
> > main machine. In pursuit of a solution for it, I downloaded two
> updated
> > drivers from Intel's site (an 8.x and a 9.x), and none helped. I've
> left it
> > with driver v9.0.1.9 for now.
> >
> > Other interesting facts:
> > * I've tried disabling WZC after establishing a connection, but
> this seems
> > to have no effect for me.
> > * The profile for my home network is properly setup, with the
> proper WEP
> > and authentication settings. And yes, 802.1x is disabled.
> > * If you leave up the Wireless Network Connection status window,
> you will
> > see the speed progressively drop from 54mbps to 2 or 1mbps before it
> > disconnects, even though signal strength is high!
>
> Signal strength can be high and the BER can be high. Usually the only
> reason the connection speed
> drops is because of one of these two. If you show great strength then
> that leaves errors as a suspect.
> I have a centrino 2200 bg with a linksys wap54g and it has never
> dropped. (fingers crossed).
> I have a suspicion,,, not confirmed but, I think there are timing
> issues causing alot of disconnect problems,
> especially between devices and chips of different manufacturers.

Hmmm. Is there some way to figure out if the BER is the cause? Would the
client be able to log the BER periodically so I could keep tabs on it, and
possibly spot patterns? I'm sure logging is not on by default though.

Jonathan wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm having ongoing issues with WinXP SP2 dropping my home WLAN
> connections. Depending on the client NIC, it can happen anywhere from
> a few times a day to every few minutes, and only under WinXP. I've
> left the Orinoco card attached, running under Linux, for days without
> issue.
>
> I've got 4 different client NICs: Sony Vaio laptop with built-in
> Centrino PRO/Wireless 2200BG NIC, Microsoft MN-720 802.11g PC Card,
> D-Link DWL-650+ 11b PC Card, and Lucent Orinoco Gold 11b PC Card.
> And I recently upgraded my AP
> from a Linksys WAP11 v1.1 to a Motorola WR850G.
>
> With the old WAP11, the Centrino and D-Link NICs would occasionally
> drop the connection and then immediately recover it. The Orinoco
> seemed to be better and wouldn't drop it; I didn't have the MN-720 at
> the time so that was not tested with the WAP11.
>
> Now that I have the WR850G, I get a high rate of disconnects. The
> Centrino NIC is ridiculous, dropping the connection (and immediately
> recovering) about every 2-5 minutes. Things get progressively better
> with the D-Link and Orinoco, and the Microsoft adapter is the best,
> probably because it has a Broadcom chipset in it which is most
> compatible with the Broadcom chip in the WR850G. The MN-720 will
> only drop the connection 1-2 times per day.
>
> I'm mostly interested in solving the Centrino issues, as that laptop
> is my main machine. In pursuit of a solution for it, I downloaded
> two updated drivers from Intel's site (an 8.x and a 9.x), and none
> helped. I've left it with driver v9.0.1.9 for now.
>
> Other interesting facts:
> * I've tried disabling WZC after establishing a connection, but this
> seems to have no effect for me.
> * The profile for my home network is properly setup, with the proper
> WEP and authentication settings. And yes, 802.1x is disabled.
> * If you leave up the Wireless Network Connection status window, you
> will see the speed progressively drop from 54mbps to 2 or 1mbps
> before it disconnects, even though signal strength is high!
> * We have 5.8Ghz phones in the house (although I can't say what my
> neighbors have).
> * I do live in a high-density area, and there are about 10 or so
> other wireless networks nearby. However, I'm careful to select
> channels to minimize interference. I try to re-scan my house every
> couple of months.
>
> There are so many factors that can go into why wireless connections
> drop that I realize it is hard to diagnose. But surely someone else
> has encountered these issues. And there has to be a fix, or I don't
> think M$ will be doing themselves any favors by leaving this
> situation alone.
>
> TIA,
> Jonathan

Broadcast SSID. You didn't mention if you do or not. It is reported to
solve problems like yours. There are two settings to review in the
computer wireless settings: make sure your connection is the only
preferred connection entry - even an usused entry can cause problems in
XP SP2 although I never saw a problem in SP1; uncheck Automatically
connect to non-preferred networks in the advanced properties. If you
use Shared key, try Open key in the router. Shared key is squirrely on
my -b system with the Intel mini-pci -b centrino wireless. Open key is
rock solid. You might also change the default channel to 1,2,3 or
11,10,9 and see if that helps.

Q

Jonathan wrote:
>
> Hmmm. Is there some way to figure out if the BER is the cause?
> Would the client be able to log the BER periodically so I could keep
> tabs on it, and possibly spot patterns? I'm sure logging is not on
> by default though.

You just gave me a thought to try about solving the problem I mentioned
earlier (network icons getting lost after a while but still working)..
Wonder if something equivalent to an internet "ping" (like I use on my
tethered cell data connection to keep it from going into dormant mode) would
do anything. The icons don't seem to go bye bye if a prog is in use.. (if i
keep explorer open in the background, the network drives stay, but if I
close it, they go bye bye after a while) anyone try something like that?

(I know old problems may never die, but I sure would like to kill this
sucker)