why won't my Wireless Card connect to the Internet???

fugly

Distinguished
Mar 2, 2002
48
0
18,530
i am so frustrated cuz i am the ONLY roomate downstairs having this problem. all the other guys with labtops connect to the internet w/ out a problem.

i got a desktop and my wireless card is PLANET WL-8310. It would be connected to the internet, sometimes for a month or so at a time, then it would just go down, and it would work then not work again, one hour its on, next hour its down. i would spend hours trying to fix it but its almost as if its fixing/breaking on its own.

the router is D-Link and the landlord also got an extendor by the same brand. i even tried to connect a wire(tried regular and also crossover cable) from the extender to my built in network card and it wont connect, am i doing something wrong? or does the extender doesnt connect through LAN only wireless? if so, why is there a plug in the extender? also i tried to use Netgear wireless card when my PLANET card wasnt working and its the same problem w/ it. i think there is something wrong w/ the network or possibly with my computer, otherwise why do all the guys with labtops have internet work for them?

can somebody please help me out cuz im seriously thinking of moving out cuz of this stupid problem. im tired of calling my landlord cuz she is clueless and dont know jack. she even tried to set a password but the signal was so low that i assume extendor wasnt included in the setup so it didnt work for me at all. thats how clueless she is, didnt even know how to set it so the extender option is turned on.

its like there is an energy field in my room that wont allow me to connect to the internet at certain times or something and im sick of it.

MY PC: custom built in 2002-3

ASUS MB w/ 2 built in LAN cards
Athlon XP 2100+
1 Ghz Corsair XML
200GB Seagate
80GB Maxtor
ATI 9500pro vid card
NEC burner

and some other stuff...
 

SciFiMan

Distinguished
Apr 19, 2006
385
0
18,790
Could be a lot of things. But since it seems to work for others there and not you, I have a couple questions.
1 - Where is your desktop in relation to the extender and router? How far, what is the building construction, and do you have anything in between such as elevators, furnace closet, etc. that would cause a blind spot at your location.
2 - Is your wireless card antenna right off the card? Can you try an extension antenna, or an upgrade such as a 7db to see if you can get more signal strength?
3 - What wireless adapters are the others using?
4 - What encryption type is being used? Is it steady or is somebody changing the key frequently and not telling you?
5 - Are you, the router, or extender near a cordless phone base or microwave? Do the other wireless users have problems when a cordless phone is in use?
6 - If you tried a wire and it didn't work, it wasn't set up correctly.
7 - Have you tried moving your desktop to the other side of the room, trying to get out of a blind spot?
 

fugly

Distinguished
Mar 2, 2002
48
0
18,530
1. Router is in garage, extender is a few feet away which is seperated by 2 walls. my pc is also underneath my desk so it blocks it as well. me and my roomates are all on the first floor, they all got labtops and all got internet and im the only one with internet going down all the time.

2. its an antena at the back of the card about a few inches long. strength is not a problem, most of the times i get 4 bars, rarely i get 3. i can upgrade but i dont see a point, i think its something else.

3. i dont know, they all got labtops so its one of those thin network wireless cards. but i tried a different card of a diff brand and same problem for me.

4. Nope... Data incription: Disabled, Network authentication: Shared

5. no, they are far from a microwave, no cordless phones, maybe our landlord has one upstairs. but i live in a bungalow (1 storie building) that's connected to the main house so i dont know if that could be a problem.

6. I tried to connect with a regular cable and a crossover cable from the back of my pc to the back of the extender, and it just wouldnt work. i guess extender is not meant to connect pc's to a network...

7. not into another room, just moviing it around. sometimes it works, other times it doesnt. i dont think it work to tell you the truth, the internet just goes on and off.

one thing i figured out is that if go to Properties>Wireless Networks and turn on "Use Windows to configure......", then when internet goes down, i switch it off, keep going on and off until it goes back up again. thats the only thing that keeps working, switching that damn thing.
 
G

Guest

Guest
The network port on the range extender is only for setup, you can't connect your PC to it. Have you updated the driver for your wireless NIC? Which program are you using to manage your wireless connection?

Grumpy
 

fugly

Distinguished
Mar 2, 2002
48
0
18,530
The network port on the range extender is only for setup, you can't connect your PC to it. Have you updated the driver for your wireless NIC? Which program are you using to manage your wireless connection?

Grumpy

yes, the driver is updated. the program to manage wireless connection is "PLANET WL-8310 Configuration Utility"...

is it a bad one to use?
 

chilli

Distinguished
Oct 30, 2006
79
0
18,630
does your wireless utility (be it the d-link one or the windows one) show the connection as "connected" ? Or is it refusing to connect to the router at all? If it is connecting to the router but not the 'net then maybe somethings up with your TCP/IP settings? Either that or the extender is not set up to relay the wireless correctly.

Would it be possible to take your computer to where someone elses working computer is connected and testing it from there? Or perhaps have one of your room mates come to where you are if he/she has a laptop. This would at least rule out the location being an issue.
 

fugly

Distinguished
Mar 2, 2002
48
0
18,530
does your wireless utility (be it the d-link one or the windows one) show the connection as "connected" ? Or is it refusing to connect to the router at all? If it is connecting to the router but not the 'net then maybe somethings up with your TCP/IP settings? Either that or the extender is not set up to relay the wireless correctly.

Would it be possible to take your computer to where someone elses working computer is connected and testing it from there? Or perhaps have one of your room mates come to where you are if he/she has a laptop. This would at least rule out the location being an issue.

i will try to make this happen but here is what happens when it goes down. It always says "connected", sometimes it doesnt say its unable to connect, that happened a few times. But for the most part when its "connected" its like this.

when i double click the monitor icon buttom right, it says:

Packets: Sent Received

when it doesnt work packets under Sent are really slow and Received just gets stuck on 1 or 10 or 20. thats only when i use my windows to automatically configure. but when i use my PLANET app to configure instead, its the other way around, packets under Sent get stuck and under Received they move really slow.