System connects to wireless network but not to the internet.

I am new to Windows 7 and to this forum! Howdy!

I have a brand new Dell Precision T1650 that I purchased about 2 months ago. It includes Windows 7, 16GB RAM, Intel Core i7 CPU at 3.7GHz, etc. So far I've only installed Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6 for processing photographs. I am running AVG (free) which I downloaded from the internet.

I also have a Dell XPS which is hard wired to the internet through Comcast cable. I have a D-Link DIR-655 wireless router for my home network.

I installed the following wireless card in my new Precision 1650 to access the internet:

TP-Link TL-WDN4800 450Mbps Wireless-N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter - 450Mbps, PCI Express x1, RP-SMA, Wireless-N, 3x 2dBi Antennas at TigerDirect.com

I am able to connect to the wireless network and access the internet on occasion (mainly in the mornings or early afternoon), but more often than not the internet connection is very spotty and in the evenings, I can access the wireless network but the internet will not load. I also have problems after the new system goes into sleep mode and I get back on it, I have to reconnect to the wireless network. It seems that it drops the network connection once it goes into sleep mode.

I have tried changing channels on the wireless router from 4 to 7 to 2 (the current channel), but it makes no difference.

I am frustrated. Any help you can offer is appreciated. Thanks very much! :)

I have the same router and with that 450Mbps PCI adaptor you should be seeing some really good wireless speeds but, you need to set the router up correctly in order to obtain those faster wireless speeds.

First you should install Xirrus WiFi inspector, post a screen shot of the results here so I can check out the wireless landscape in your area. You really can't guess at which channels to use, you need to look at the wireless connections in your area so you can make an informed decision on which channels to use.

After that we can make some adjustments in the router to obtain the best possible wireless speeds.

Wi-Fi Inspector | Xirrus

chev65 said:

First you should install Xirrus WiFi inspector, post a screen shot of the results here so I can check out the wireless landscape in your area. You really can't guess at which channels to use, you need to look at the wireless connections in your area so you can make an informed decision on which channels to use.

After that we can make some adjustments in the router to obtain the best possible wireless speeds.

Wi-Fi Inspector | Xirrus

Thanks. I'm at the office at the moment, but I will check that out tonight and post later today or tomorrow.

chev65 said:

I have the same router and with that 450Mbps PCI adaptor you should be seeing some really good wireless speeds but, you need to set the router up correctly in order to obtain those faster wireless speeds.

First you should install Xirrus WiFi inspector, post a screen shot of the results here so I can check out the wireless landscape in your area. You really can't guess at which channels to use, you need to look at the wireless connections in your area so you can make an informed decision on which channels to use.

After that we can make some adjustments in the router to obtain the best possible wireless speeds.

Wi-Fi Inspector | Xirrus

See below. I'm the first wireless network that starts 6j9....:

Yeah, tonight it actually connected pretty well, but that's definitely the exception to the rule.

jwbryson said:

Yeah, tonight it actually connected pretty well, but that's definitely the exception to the rule.

^^^^ This is a weird comment. It looked like somebody posted last night a comment that said "this is good" ahead of my response, but I don't see it today.

Anyhow, above you can see the screen shot of my wireless router.

jwbryson said:

chev65 said:

I have the same router and with that 450Mbps PCI adaptor you should be seeing some really good wireless speeds but, you need to set the router up correctly in order to obtain those faster wireless speeds.

First you should install Xirrus WiFi inspector, post a screen shot of the results here so I can check out the wireless landscape in your area. You really can't guess at which channels to use, you need to look at the wireless connections in your area so you can make an informed decision on which channels to use.

After that we can make some adjustments in the router to obtain the best possible wireless speeds.

Wi-Fi Inspector | Xirrus

See below. I'm the first wireless network that starts 6j9....:

I will assume that you want the best possible wireless speeds.

You will need to make some adjustments in the wireless settings on your DIR655 by typing 192.168.0.1 into the URL of your browser.

You will want to go into your routers set up page and choose Set up, then Wireless Settings, then down to the bottom of the page choose Manual Wireless Setup.

First go into the wireless settings and change the channel to 11, be sure and hit the save settings button at the top of the page after making these adjustments.

Second, there is an adjustment called Channel Width, choose the Auto 20-40Mhz setting which is for channel bonding, this will give you twice the bandwidth and therefore better wireless speeds.

Also for 802.11 mode choose the 802.11n Only setting which will give the best possible wireless speed.

You should also define the DNS servers you want to use by going to the Set Up tab, then choose Manual Internet Connection Set up. Go down to where it says Primary and Secondary DNS setup and type in two DNS servers, Google's DNS work well here at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 , save settings.

These adjustments will give you the best possible connection speeds and better performance but may not fix the exact problem you seem to be having.

As for the problem of connecting to the network but not the internet. This can be caused from many things. I will need to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine.

chev65 said:

jwbryson said:

chev65 said:

I have the same router and with that 450Mbps PCI adaptor you should be seeing some really good wireless speeds but, you need to set the router up correctly in order to obtain those faster wireless speeds.

First you should install Xirrus WiFi inspector, post a screen shot of the results here so I can check out the wireless landscape in your area. You really can't guess at which channels to use, you need to look at the wireless connections in your area so you can make an informed decision on which channels to use.

After that we can make some adjustments in the router to obtain the best possible wireless speeds.

Wi-Fi Inspector | Xirrus

See below. I'm the first wireless network that starts 6j9....:

I will assume that you want the best possible wireless speeds.

You will need to make some adjustments in the wireless settings on your DIR655 by typing 192.168.0.1 into the URL of your browser.

You will want to go into your routers set up page and choose Set up, then Wireless Settings, then down to the bottom of the page choose Manual Wireless Setup.

First go into the wireless settings and change the channel to 11, be sure and hit the save settings button at the top of the page after making these adjustments.

Second, there is an adjustment called Channel Width, choose the Auto 20-40Mhz setting which is for channel bonding, this will give you twice the bandwidth and therefore better wireless speeds.

Also for 802.11 mode choose the 802.11n Only setting which will give the best possible wireless speed.

These adjustments will give you the best possible connection speeds and better performance but may not fix the problem you seem to be having.

As for the problem of connecting to the network but not the internet. This can be caused from many things. I will need to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine.

Thanks. I will try this and let you know. For my personal information, what's special about Channel 11 and why would the router default to both 802.11g + 802.11n?

jwbryson said:

chev65 said:

jwbryson said:

See below. I'm the first wireless network that starts 6j9....:

I will assume that you want the best possible wireless speeds.

You will need to make some adjustments in the wireless settings on your DIR655 by typing 192.168.0.1 into the URL of your browser.

You will want to go into your routers set up page and choose Set up, then Wireless Settings, then down to the bottom of the page choose Manual Wireless Setup.

First go into the wireless settings and change the channel to 11, be sure and hit the save settings button at the top of the page after making these adjustments.

Second, there is an adjustment called Channel Width, choose the Auto 20-40Mhz setting which is for channel bonding, this will give you twice the bandwidth and therefore better wireless speeds.

Also for 802.11 mode choose the 802.11n Only setting which will give the best possible wireless speed.

These adjustments will give you the best possible connection speeds and better performance but may not fix the problem you seem to be having.

As for the problem of connecting to the network but not the internet. This can be caused from many things. I will need to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine.

Thanks. I will try this and let you know. For my personal information, what's special about Channel 11 and why would the router default to both 802.11g + 802.11n?

As it was you were using a channel that was right next to the one your neighbor is using, the bandwidth for these channels crosses over into the 4 surrounding channels and borrows the band width from them. Because of this, the further you are from your neighbors channels the more bandwidth will be available to you, using channel bonding increases the available bandwidth even more.

G and N are just default settings, there is no way to achieve true wireless n speeds when you are using mixed modes. Mixed modes are only to support wireless G or below clients.

If you are still having the connection problem, Type or copy each command one at a time into an elevated command prompt then hit "enter" after each one, then reboot your machine.


netsh winsock reset catalog (reset winsock entries)

netsh int ip reset reset.log hit (reset TCP/IP stack)

chev65 said:

jwbryson said:

chev65 said:

I will assume that you want the best possible wireless speeds.

You will need to make some adjustments in the wireless settings on your DIR655 by typing 192.168.0.1 into the URL of your browser.

You will want to go into your routers set up page and choose Set up, then Wireless Settings, then down to the bottom of the page choose Manual Wireless Setup.

First go into the wireless settings and change the channel to 11, be sure and hit the save settings button at the top of the page after making these adjustments.

Second, there is an adjustment called Channel Width, choose the Auto 20-40Mhz setting which is for channel bonding, this will give you twice the bandwidth and therefore better wireless speeds.

Also for 802.11 mode choose the 802.11n Only setting which will give the best possible wireless speed.

These adjustments will give you the best possible connection speeds and better performance but may not fix the problem you seem to be having.

As for the problem of connecting to the network but not the internet. This can be caused from many things. I will need to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine.

Thanks. I will try this and let you know. For my personal information, what's special about Channel 11 and why would the router default to both 802.11g + 802.11n?

As it was you were using a channel that was right next to the one your neighbor is using, the bandwidth for these channels crosses over into the 4 surrounding channels and borrows the band width from them. Because of this, the further you are from your neighbors channels the more bandwidth will be available to you, using channel bonding increases the available bandwidth even more.

G and N are just default settings, there is no way to achieve true wireless n speeds when you are using mixed modes. Mixed modes are only to support wireless G or below clients.

If you are still having the connection problem, Type or copy each command one at a time into an elevated command prompt then hit "enter" after each one, then reboot your machine.


netsh winsock reset catalog (reset winsock entries)

netsh int ip reset reset.log hit (reset TCP/IP stack)

I made all the changes you suggested to the router. The first thing I noticed was that my old computer which is hard wired to the internet via Comcast cable sped up a lot. This was a good thing but it only lasted for a day or so, and the it slowed back down. I've changed a few things back to where I started, but retained a couple of the suggested changes such as "wireless n only" and 20-40GHz. I am still having connectivity problems though. I can access the wireless network on the new box, but the connection to the internet is SLOWWWWWWWWWW and more often than not does not connect at all.

Next steps to fix this? Thanks!