Problems with dropouts on Linksys Wireless Networking

I have a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point and a WPC54G notebook
adaptor. The access point is mounted on the wall near the ceiling
around the center of my house. I often use the laptop at either end of
the house, around 20 feet from the access point. I am getting around
80-82% signal strength and quality seems high and it often reports a
54 Mps connection. The problem is dropouts. I get an average of a
dropout around every 4-5 mins. I know there is a option in Windows XP
to automatically connect to the default wireless connection and I have
that set up for my home connection but yet when it drops out it does
not automatically reconnect.
Is WinXP supposed to automatically reconnect to the default when it
fails? Am I doing something wrong that's causing it not to? Or is
there some utility that I can install to do this so I don't have to
manually reconnect to the network around every 4-5 mins.
As well, are these dropouts common? I never have used wireless before
so I'm not sure if this is normal or if I should try another channel
or some other settings.
As well, how well does the WSB24 signal booster work? I am fairly
happy with my range. Even in the basement I get around 72% and with a
brick house outside around 60-70%. My main concern is the dropouts.
Will the signal booster decrease them? As well, it appears the signal
booster is stacked on top of it. If it's hanging on a wall is it any
way to mount the two together?
What is the minimum signal level necessary to get a connection?

Ditto your problem, but all I did was try to go in the next room. It
says I'm connected at 54Mbps but I lose Internet access every few
minutes. I'm trying to play low bandwidth online games.. may have to
return the whole wireless attempt and be content with wired lan unless
there is a solution that works consistently?

MarkW <markwco(removenospam)@comcast.net> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>. ..
> I have a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point and a WPC54G notebook
> adaptor. The access point is mounted on the wall near the ceiling
> around the center of my house. I often use the laptop at either end of
> the house, around 20 feet from the access point. I am getting around
> 80-82% signal strength and quality seems high and it often reports a
> 54 Mps connection. The problem is dropouts. I get an average of a
> dropout around every 4-5 mins. I know there is a option in Windows XP
> to automatically connect to the default wireless connection and I have
> that set up for my home connection but yet when it drops out it does
> not automatically reconnect.
> Is WinXP supposed to automatically reconnect to the default when it
> fails? Am I doing something wrong that's causing it not to? Or is
> there some utility that I can install to do this so I don't have to
> manually reconnect to the network around every 4-5 mins.
> As well, are these dropouts common? I never have used wireless before
> so I'm not sure if this is normal or if I should try another channel
> or some other settings.
> As well, how well does the WSB24 signal booster work? I am fairly
> happy with my range. Even in the basement I get around 72% and with a
> brick house outside around 60-70%. My main concern is the dropouts.
> Will the signal booster decrease them? As well, it appears the signal
> booster is stacked on top of it. If it's hanging on a wall is it any
> way to mount the two together?
> What is the minimum signal level necessary to get a connection?

I'm having a very similar problem with my WRT54G router. I only have
1 computer using a wireless connection to this router and the rest of
my computers are wired in. About every 10-15 minutes the wireless
computer loses its Internet connection. When I go to one of my wired
computers, they have Internet -- no problems. The wireless computer
shows an active connection with the router but no Internet. This has
been extremely frustrating. A reboot usually brings the Internet
connection back but rebooting every 10-15 minutes is getting old
fast.

I read on another thread that there are updated drivers for the
Linksys 54g PCI card. I'm going to try that but I am very interested
to hear if someone else has experienced this problem and has a fix.
I will post back if I find updated drivers and they work.

I also have the same problem with the router only about 25 feet away from
the pc. I installed the newest firmware for the router
but have not been able to update the driver for the pci card yet. I will
try again in the am and advise.

"dgarner98" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm having a very similar problem with my WRT54G router. I only have
> 1 computer using a wireless connection to this router and the rest of
> my computers are wired in. About every 10-15 minutes the wireless
> computer loses its Internet connection. When I go to one of my wired
> computers, they have Internet -- no problems. The wireless computer
> shows an active connection with the router but no Internet. This has
> been extremely frustrating. A reboot usually brings the Internet
> connection back but rebooting every 10-15 minutes is getting old
> fast.
>
> I read on another thread that there are updated drivers for the
> Linksys 54g PCI card. I'm going to try that but I am very interested
> to hear if someone else has experienced this problem and has a fix.
> I will post back if I find updated drivers and they work.
>

Mark and all,

I have had numerous troubles trying to setup the Linksys G type
wireless routers for customers. The one Linksys B type I have
installed seems to work flawlessly.

If you are having issues with dropouts, first make sure the cable or
dsl modem and router are communicating consistently... hook up a
laptop to the four port switch on the router and type in the IP address
of the router into your browser and login to it. Check your WAN ip
settings
and jot them down. Try a release/renew to make sure the WAN IP can
renew without difficulty. It should take no more than five to ten
seconds for the WAN IP to re-bind. Try it a few times.

If you get abnormally long re-binding time, try shutting both units off
for ten minutes, then turn on the router, then the modem to try and
reset the MAC address in the modem's firmware (the MAC that it is
connecting to, that's is). If still same result on release/renew...
check the cable/dsl site or tech support to see what settings should be
in there. (BTW, If you have AOL for Broadband, Lord help you ! they
only support select routers, and the AOL client HAS TO BE ON in order
to get any IP connectivity at all, doesn't that suck). If still no
good, try making sure the modem to PC works fine DIRECTLY (try above
shutdown
and restart) to rule out a faulty broadband installation).

If you get past that hurdle, and you can browse for awhile without any
dropout on the WIRED portion of the router, then try using a known
working laptop or PC to test the wireless portion of the router. My
customers get "inconsistent" connections, the data rate would
fluctuate, connections would timeout, etc. Try changing the BROADCAST
CHANNEL of the router from default (six) to something else (like
eleven) to see if that clears it up. Also disable WEP.

If you still get the problem, the unit has a bad transmitter, return
the POS to swap it out with a working unit (good luck).

Steve
NJComputerGuys.com


> I have a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point and a WPC54G notebook
> adaptor. The access point is mounted on the wall near the ceiling
> around the center of my house. I often use the laptop at either end
of
> the house, around 20 feet from the access point. I am getting around
> 80-82% signal strength and quality seems high and it often reports a
> 54 Mps connection. The problem is dropouts. I get an average of a
> dropout around every 4-5 mins. I know there is a option in Windows
XP