Intermittent Limited or no connectivity

[kaitykaity]

I'm using an XP machine, a Dell Inspiron E1505 connected to a
wireless networkin an RV park.

I have decent signal, two bars.

The wireless network sometimes knocks me off and I get the
"limited or no connectivity message" and it won't let me back
on.

The network administrator is insisting that there's something
wrong with my computer. It's a two-month old machine and
I haven't installed anything new to the machine.

A week or so ago, his Linksys repeater went belly up and he
had to get another one.

Would there be something in his setup that would be causing
this problem?

TIA

[PostCode]

Well, yes and no. It could be a pure protocol infrastructure issue. I've have situations myself in which I was not able to connect to a particular network simply because my network card would no associate.

Your does associate but that doesn't mean his network is completely reliable either. Going with that information you have given, You might try playing with the laptop closer top the repeater and see how this works, perhaps an area like the communal lounge or such? Also, possibly, an update to the device drivers might help. However, since you are associating, this probably wouldn't help much.

Other than that, I can think of only one other solution. A PCMCIA card with an external antenna or at least a card with a high gain antenna such as:

Hawking Hi-gain Wireless-g PC Card (http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?productID=9762)

For more information check here:

[HWC54D] Hi-Gain Wireless-G Laptop Card (http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=19&FamID=33&ProdID=219)


Hope this helps.

[kaitykaity]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

I'm living in an RV park in a 5th wheel trailer, 35 footer. I work from home transcribing audio and I need the Internet for research, downloading audio, uploading completed transcripts and so forth. Moving closer to the repeater isn't an option.

I have an external PCMCIA card I can try. It's an older DLINK, but I'll give it a shot.

Is there anything in his system that I can ask him to check? I think he has DSL then the router then the repeater to increase the signal for the whole park.

Thanks again!

[PostCode]

Sounds like the guy I know from where I used to live. His system was built very similar but was actually pretty dang reliable.

No, not move, but is there a way you could test it closer? A way to determine if the signal itself isn't the issue? With high bandwidth some wireless systems will drop you out with x number of TCP/IP errors. To many packets failures and the system can just go kaput.

I'll do some thinking on this and a little research to and see if I can drum up some more possibilities. Maybe some others have some suggestions too?

[kaitykaity]

Thanks.

I ran a Winsock and TCP/IP repair utility and installed a Netgear
external USB network adapter and so far so good, low signal but
I'm back online.

When I did ipconfig /release and /renew, I got the error cannot
contact DCHP. I think that's what I fixed.

[PostCode]

The DHCP server is what assigns the IP address to connecting clients. Not sure if that would cause an issue as you did associate with the other network card. Perhaps it simply had an issue with working with that particular model router/access point though. Hard to tell. Glad to hear you back up though.

[kaitykaity]

The DHCP server is what assigns the IP address to connecting clients. Not sure if that would cause an issue as you did associate with the other network card. Perhaps it simply had an issue with working with that particular model router/access point though. Hard to tell. Glad to hear you back up though.

For a short time. And then it went down again. It stays
connected for about four minutes or so and then it blinks
off again -- which is better than what I had before.

I managed to find a fix for SP2 as well.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=17d997d2-5034-4bbb-b74d-ad8430a1f7c8&DisplayLang=en

Programs that connect to IP addresses in the loopback address range may not work as expected and you may receive an error message indicating you cannot establish a connection. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

I also did netsh int ip reset reset.log.

I'm throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this thing.