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Dropped connections with USB WIFI card (ALFA AWUS036H), how to fix?
Hi, Like the title says... I've been having connectivity problems. I am using Windows 7 Home premium SP1 (x86). I can connect fine and after a (seemingly random) amount of time the connection will drop (at least according to windows). I can also easily reconnect without a problem, but it will not pick back up the connection automatically, which is a problem because I use programs that need to access the internet and Often leave large files to download while I'm sleeping or not home. So If I'm not sitting at my computer to manually reconnect, then whatever i'm trying to accomplish doesn't get done.
I'm using the ALFA AWUS036H USB wifi adapter. I had previously been running windows XP and this same thing would happen (though, much less often) but when it happened in XP it would automatically reconnect in a few seconds. I downloaded the drivers from ALFA's website incase the ones on disk were not up to date, and I tried both of them (they have a "normal" and "power control driver" option) and the problem remains. Also, I've never used an external wifi adapter before so I'm not sure if its supposed to work this way, but there are 2 "signal strength meters" in the system tray the standard windows one that you can click on and see available networks or go to windows "network and sharing center" and then there is the ALFA one that you can click on and it takes you to the ALFA wireless LAN utility, where you can also get a list of available networks.
If anyone knows how to fix this, I would really really appreciate the help. also below I'm going to post step by step of whats going on with pics so its pefectly clear.
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According to windows there is a problem with the connection, however according to the ALFA wireless LAN utility, the connection is fine (green bars means good connection, red bars means no connection)
When clicking on the Windows "signal strength indicator" in the system tray, it shows 1 of 2 different problems (notice the differences that I've highlighted with red boxes). No matter which one happens I can NOT access the internet.
Despite the "problems" shown above, the ALFA wireless LAN utility shows that its still connected (while windows is showing a connection problem)
To reconnect I switch to the "profile" tab (which is just a list of neworks that i've previously connected to) and double click on the network. In this case it will be Enotria Public.... the same one that (according to the ALFA wireless LAN utility) I'm already connected too
After clicking on the network, the ALFA wireless LAN utility "signal indicator" in the system tray will briefly turn red (signaling NO connection) while it "reconnects". Then it will turn back to green, and Windows network manager/signal indicator (whatever you call it) will proceed to reconnect as well. After this happens, all is good and I'm reconnected and can access the internet.
And here is Windows showing everything is all good....
And here is ALFA wireless LAN utility showing everything is all good....
One last thing that really throws me off. As you can see in pics above the ALFA wireless LAN utility is always connected, and it never drops the connection but even so, the internet will not work when Windows drops the connection. However, When reconnecting I can access the internet BEFORE Windows reconnects. (I still have to reconnect as described above, but after I do so I can access the internet before windows FINISHES reconnecting) The tab shown in this picture was a web page that I loaded BEFORE Windows ever reconnected, and it is a page that I have NEVER viewed before, so its not just loading it from cache.
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.... lol. 
