You got some good suggestions. I put in a "wireless" network in Jan of this
year, and took me a few weeks before things were stable, and one of the
problems was exactly what you have, strong signal strength (excellent), but
no internet surfing.
Before you go crazy and read up enough to take a "licensing" exam, check out
a few things first:
- When I got strong signal, I noticed the "data transfer rate" going down
from 54mps to 48mps, then down, down to 11mps, then get a message its
disconnected, and the reconnected. I go to Network Connections, click on
"status of network connection", and sometimes, there's no "packets sent" or
"received".
- What I do first is take the machine with the problem, set it up next to
the router, and connect direct with a cable. In my case, all the machines
worked OK and I was 90% or more sure its a problem with the router
configuatation, TCP/IP setups with within the machines etc.
- I then disconnected the cable and have the PC tested for wireless
connectivity by placing it less than 2 feet away from the router. This test
would eliminate issues of obstructions etc.
- I also called my ISP, and the first problem was the choice of the router.
AOL told me the Belkin was not certified to work with the AOL service, but
there is a list of them that does. Changed over to a Linkysy and the setup
was a snap.
- Then I called Linksys, when I had the exact same problem as you, and they
told me they want me to setup the router from scratch with them first, so hit
the reset button, and reconfige it from scratch:
-- Set up and broadcast SSID, enable DHCP, DNS
-- Do not turn on enccryption, firewalls, MAC filters etc.
I was surprised all the problems I had went away, and when it recurred 2
weeks later, hit the reset button, and the problem was solved again. I have
since read somewhere that problems within the router, flushing data in its
cache could be the cause. I haven't checked further since my system was
stable since February.
- I also checked into issues of movng the router to the center of the house,
getting larger attennae for the router, and connecting an antennae to the Lan
card on a desktop. The later step I did, and improved reception quite a bit,
and I bought one for $8.95 off e-bay. The other desktop has a portable
receiver plugged into a USB port, and I found one day the receiver knocked
over and fallen to the ground still connected when "dat transfer rate"
dropped. It went went back up to 54mps when I picked it up off the gorund.
I read many comments on people like you asking why the "signal is strong",
but the internet is not connected.
Transferrring data is like giving a messenger a package to deliver across
town. You check the traffic report, and its reports "no congestion" (good
signal strength). Yet the package is not delivered because the destination
address is wrong or cannot be deciphered. AOL told me that my problem had to
do with the router knowing where to send data, to which PC, and the protocol
they used is not applicable to all routers.
One other regret.
I spent weeks, perhaps six to ten full days of work or more, getting the
wireless network up. And because I have a spool of bulk ethernet cable
already, and if I went out and got a bunch of RJ14 jacks (eight of them), I
could've wired up the place in ONE day running cables from the study to the
living room/dining room area when the other 3 PC's are, with the help of a
freind for about $100.00. And I would have 100mps going through the 100/10
ethernet ports with 100% security shutting off the wireless.
The only benefit to the current settup is I can surf the WEB from a laptop
anywhere, and I can move the PC's (unlikely), and move to another house (not
likely any time soon) and set up the network in a snap.
Thinking about tt, when I finally get the one day to spare, I'm going to run
the cables and have the network "wired" also.
"Foolish Aunt" wrote:
> Questions: If the NIC was faulty, would it still be able to identify the
> "Available Wireless Networks" and show the strength of the (potential)
> connection?
>
> I don't think it ever "powers down" - there's no on/off - it's an internal
> card (on the desktop).
>
> Firewall: I've tried completely disabling the windows firewall: no effect.
> I completely uninstalled McAfee - since the last thing I did before losing
> the connection altogether had been to install McAfee (online - w/Comcast) and
> run virus-scan. It was connected until completing the job - somehow lost the
> connection and I haven't been able to re-establish it since.
>
> Interference: if something was interfering, why would it show such a strong
> (potential) connection?
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