losing internet connection -wireless

[legend_018]

I have a wap54G wirless access point. It's in the other room. On the same floor in the kitchen on the table I have a Dell Latitude D600 laptop.

I can see the wirless connection through the Intel(R) Proset/Wireless. That's the program it uses.
I run AVG and Microsoft Defender.

I am constantly lately rebooting and resetting the connection. It's always losing internet connection "although it still says it's connected to the wirless" and I can also see the signal strenth change from excellent to good sometimes. It's just becoming a hassle and even my husband was saying last night god you have to reboot/reset this thing all the time. It ALWAYS comes back up, find the wirless connection and connects with an excellent speed. Sometimes you can even just right click and disconnect and reconnect again.

Any ideas?

EDIT: can this be moved to networking and internet connections ??

[legend_018]

it's amazing. there is a hardware radio switch that is always on. If I turn it off it closes the connection down, than I just click on and it refinds the wirless connection and puts it back into excellent mode. this happens when it starts going down to very good and than down to good and it's a little on the slow side.

oh and I also walked away for about 20 minutes. came back - internet connection in firefox timing out. wirless says it's connected and it's at excellent but can't get to the internet. disconnected and reconnected - it refound the wireless and started working.

??? my good ness what a pain

[glc]

1. If that laptop has XP SP2. I'd recommend you change control of the wireless over to the builtin Windows utility instead of using Pro Set. You can do this by right clicking on the Pro Set icon in the tray and choose Use Microsoft Utility (or something like that).

2. How often do you power cycle the access point? You should do this periodically. It would also help to check the Linksys site for firmware updates.

[legend_018]

I tried changing control but it sits there on acquiring network address and never resolves. I tried rebooting as well. It finds the wireless device and connects but than says little or not connectivity and something about inquiring a hetwork address.

I had to switch back to the Intel ProSet Wireless Software?

[glc]

With the switchover, you have to view available wireless networks, highlight your network, and click Connect. If it has an encryption key, a box will open asking for the key, you have to fill it in twice. Once connected, it will remember.

If it's a WPA key, the passphrase you used in the AP will work, but if you have WEP, you have to use the actual key, the Windows utility does not understand a Linksys passphrase that's used to *generate* the key - use the Key 1 in the AP configuration. This should be a 10 or 20 digit hexadecimal key, depending on whether your WEP is 64 or 128 bit.

[legend_018]

the problem was an invalid password. they don't tell you that, they just keep trying to connect. I'm using WPA by the way

[Ob1]

Originally Posted by legend_018 the problem was an invalid password. they don't tell you that, they just keep trying to connect. I'm using WPA by the way

yep. one of the downfalls of wireless setup.........

[glc]

Encryption mismatches will allow association but will go no farther.