Problems with laptop & wifi

[Spikes]

Well, I've been having these problems for a while now, but here we go:

I've got a Studio 1555 laptop and the wifi works fine at my dads, never a problem. But at my moms house there is always troubles, constantly cuts out on me. Always get the "looking up google.com" in firefox and what not...then a few seconds later the wifi icon on the tray will say Limited access. Sometimes I can just wait it out, other times I have to get on someone elses wifi, even sometimes I have to restart the comp because if I try to connect to a wifi it'll say Cannot connect to "XXX". Very annoying, and I'm not sure what the problem is. Like I said, I have no issues at my dad's house. Also, it's not the internet cutting out because I can be surfing on the desktop while I'm having trouble with my laptop.

I run Windows 7 64 bit on my laptop, the router is a Netgear WGR614 v5. My ISP is Time Warner Cable/Road Runner with a Motorola SBV5220 SURFboard Modem.

Any help is much appreciated!!

[ZetaNine]

while it's not the internet cutting out..........can in be your wifi card searching for a better connection?  is your dad's home set as your default network?  sounds like your wifi card wants to stray

[Spikes]

Checked my settings and it's not set to search for more preferred, just when this particular one is in range, to connect to it.
Just had another problem with it...I will explain exactly how it happened.
Was on the computer for 30 mins or so normally surfing, then it cut out for a split second (the yellow triangle appeared on the wifi meter) and a page didn't load. But it seemed to fix itself, for a couple more minutes...then I had the trouble where it wouldn't connect at all, it had my network in range but had a problem connecting. Restarted, and it worked fine for another few minutes, before it died again...but other nights it'll work for hours straight. I get fine signal in my room (3-4 bars). Haven't got a clue.

I've cycled the router countless times...it's WPA secured.

[Denholm]

The only time I encountered this issue was with my Virtual machine. The machine was using a bridged connection to my Linux WLAN connection. For some reason Windows didn't like it and simply wouldn't use the connection unless there was a 100% signal strength. Other than that, I've never experienced such an issue, so I can't suggest much else.

[bbosen]

I'll hazard a guess....

Since you are confident of good WiFi at your dad's house but not at your mom's house, I'd postulate that there is some difference in the way the two WiFi routers are set up. It seems evident that your laptop "likes" the way your dad's WiFi router negotiates connections. Perhaps the converse is also true: your laptop doesn't "like" the way your mom's WiFi router negotiates connections. For example, let's suppose that you dad has set up his WiFi router for easy connections (DHCP address negotiation, no MAC filtering) but your Mom's is set up for static IP addresses or has MAC filtering active. In that case, when you're at your mom's house, your WiFi may not even be using her WiFi at all; you might be connecting with one or more of her neighbors, and suffering from a much weaker signal.

As I said, it's just a guess, but you might check it out. The best way to do that is to use a PC with a wired connection at your mom's house to fire up a browser and log on to the WiFi router, then using prominent menus to figure out how she's got WiFi negotiations set up.


Regards,



-Peabody-

Well, I've been having these problems for a while now, but here we go:

I've got a Studio 1555 laptop and the wifi works fine at my dads, never a problem. But at my moms house there is always troubles, constantly cuts out on me. Always get the "looking up google.com" in firefox and what not...then a few seconds later the wifi icon on the tray will say Limited access. Sometimes I can just wait it out, other times I have to get on someone elses wifi, even sometimes I have to restart the comp because if I try to connect to a wifi it'll say Cannot connect to "XXX". Very annoying, and I'm not sure what the problem is. Like I said, I have no issues at my dad's house. Also, it's not the internet cutting out because I can be surfing on the desktop while I'm having trouble with my laptop.

I run Windows 7 64 bit on my laptop, the router is a Netgear WGR614 v5. My ISP is Time Warner Cable/Road Runner with a Motorola SBV5220 SURFboard Modem.

Any help is much appreciated!!

[Spikes]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll record the settings at my dad's house today...it only connects to other networks when I tell it to, so there isn't a conflict there. The only thing noticeably different is that my dad's is WPA2, and this is WPA. I'll have to check all of the other filters, maybe it could be the channel?