Wireless Connection Drops when other wireless network is available

I have been using a Netgear wireless access point with my Dell Latitude for a
couple of years now without any troubles. Today, our wireless connection
keeps dropping. When I look at the available wireless networks, there are
now multiple options when there used to be only one. Apparently one of my
neighbors now has a wireless network. When I try to reconnect to my own
network after being dropped, it wouldn't connect. I discoverd that my
network authentication setting had changed from 'shared' to 'open'. I
switched it back and was able to connect. A few minutes later, the
connection dropped again. Sure enough, the authentication setting had
switched to 'open' again. Any idea why this is happening? -- or why the
availability of another network would cause my connection to drop?

Hi there,

Not too sure on the authentication side of things, but having a Netgear box
myself I would recommend upgrading the firmware first you haven’t already, it
has solved alot of issues with dropped connections and encryption, this could
solve the very bug your speaking of.

Then I would take a look at the channel your wireless device is broadcasting
on, as you may or may not know, wireless frequencies work or a range of
channels depending on what part of the world you’re in will determine how
many channel you have.

Off the top of my head I think its 10 channels for the US, 12 for Europe and
13 for Asia??? Could be wrong, but anyway your box will be using one of them
and without getting in to too much technical stuff about frequencies, it
basically spreads its self over more than one channel, say its set to channel
4, it will use 3,5 and maybe even 2 and 6 (don’t quote me on that) but you
can see a problem arising if 2 devices are broadcasting on channels close to
each other.

So when there is more than one wireless device broadcasting its frequency
they can sometimes interfere which each other, causing loss of connections
and dropped packets, etc, etc (the nature of wireless!) So if you change the
channel to one that is not in the same range as the other wireless devices
(Using the netgear connection software will tell you what channel all the
devices are on) you may find the connection drops might stop, if not improve
at least.

Hope this helps and is not insulting your level of technical expertise, but
its best to start with the simple stuff first!

Regards,

Stuart

"BarbW427" wrote:

> I have been using a Netgear wireless access point with my Dell Latitude for a
> couple of years now without any troubles. Today, our wireless connection
> keeps dropping. When I look at the available wireless networks, there are
> now multiple options when there used to be only one. Apparently one of my
> neighbors now has a wireless network. When I try to reconnect to my own
> network after being dropped, it wouldn't connect. I discoverd that my
> network authentication setting had changed from 'shared' to 'open'. I
> switched it back and was able to connect. A few minutes later, the
> connection dropped again. Sure enough, the authentication setting had
> switched to 'open' again. Any idea why this is happening? -- or why the
> availability of another network would cause my connection to drop?

BarbW427 wrote:
>
> I have been using a Netgear wireless access point with my Dell Latitude for a
> couple of years now without any troubles. Today, our wireless connection
> keeps dropping. When I look at the available wireless networks, there are
> now multiple options when there used to be only one. Apparently one of my
> neighbors now has a wireless network. When I try to reconnect to my own
> network after being dropped, it wouldn't connect. I discoverd that my
> network authentication setting had changed from 'shared' to 'open'. I
> switched it back and was able to connect. A few minutes later, the
> connection dropped again. Sure enough, the authentication setting had
> switched to 'open' again. Any idea why this is happening? -- or why the
> availability of another network would cause my connection to drop?


BarbW427:

I used to see my neighbors Netgear wireless setup on my laptop when I sat on
my deck. Since I switched my channel from 6 to 1, I don't see him any more...
and I assume he doesn't see me.

Scott