Router Causes Random Wireless Network Disconnects

Hey guys,

I am desperate for your help. In my 15 years of using the Internet, I never had to consult a forum directly, I always found my answer googling the problem. Not this time though.

Even though there are thousands of problems and answers regarding random disconnects from wireless networks, none of them helped me out, here is why:

Due to my job I am on the go all the time and have therefore in the past without any issues quickly connected to something like 15 wireless networks. Everything always worked as one would expect.
Now I am at a new place and I keep getting disconnected from the wireless network. This happens after 2 mins, 15 mins, even 3h after connecting. Usually I dont have to use the Troubleshooting, wireless will just reconnect by itself within a matter of seconds. However, constant disconnects annoy me and I need to get rid of this.
Since I never had this issue for 2 yrs with the exact same hardware and software configuration, I am thinking the problem must be on the router's side. Since I dont consider myself a newb in this regard, I feel save to say that all router configurations look okay, I didnt see anything odd that could cause this.
I am hesitant to change settings on my machine that I found when googling, because I was always able to connect without any problems to any wireless network. It seems just this one at my new place causes issues.

Can anyone help?

Config:

- Win 7 64 bit Home Premium on Asus Laptop with Atheros AR9285 wireless adapter
- Drivers up to date
- Router: Speedport W 723V
- Dynamic IP assigned by router
- No results on Malware, Virus etc. scans (used MalwareAntibytes, TrendMicro Online Scanner for search)
- using LinuxMint 64 bit on Virtualbox, starting/exiting numerous times a day
- Router sitting right next to me, so always perfect signal
- hijackthis doesnt find any suspicious processes

Hi murphy347,

Welcome to SevenForums.

The only thing that comes to my mind is that your present location is much more susceptible to Radio Frequency Interference.

Did you try changing the channel in the Wireless Settings of your router? ( There are 13 ) Atleast one should prove to be better.

Thanks for your fast reply. The channel was set to "Auto" so I doubt that's the cause. I still changed it to a specific channel now, will see how it goes and let you know..

In the US there are only 11 channels to choose from. The Auto channel setting often times won't be good enough.

While guessing at which channel to use might seem good enough, in crowded areas you really need to know which channels aren't being used in your area.

The Xirrus WiFi inspector is good for finding out which channels are in use near you.
Wi-Fi Inspector | Xirrus

thanks a lot for your replies. even though there is only 1 very weak signal of another wireless network in my area, i still changed the channel to 3 (i think channel 11 is the most commonly used) and I only had 2 disconnects after about 6h of continous online time. i am considering this as problem solved :)
thanks for your help!

Glad that the problem is resolved to a great extent by changing the channel.

It is very difficult to predict when bursts of radio frequency interference occur, unless one monitors continuously. Similarly its origin. It can in fact emanate from a strong source miles away. A random check is not going to help in anyway.

Slowly you can experiment with other channels too on a weekly basis with a proper log kept. This will help you decide on the best channel for your location.

Awesome thanks jumanji. For the last 3 days I am much happier with the connection as it only keeps disconnecting after 3-5h, it only does it for just a few seconds too and then connects again by itself. Most of the time I dont even notice until some app disconnected but the wifi has already done the reconnect again.. I will play around with some channels and see if I can get it even better.