Windows 7: Wireless Internet keeps fluctuating.

Hi, so for about an entire day now my internet connection has been going on and off at random intervals and I don't know why.

With no warning, my internet connection with die, even though it says that I'm perfectly connected and the signal quality is super high. Sometimes it goes dead for only about 10 seconds and at other times it'll be gone for about 5-10 minutes. And even when the internet is working, the speed is sometimes very slow.



My laptop is about ~2-3 years old and I'm connected to the network wirelessly. When checking the two computers owned by my Mum and sister, their connection was perfectly fine (then again, they're actually plugged in with a cord).

Looking at the Wireless Network Connection Status, this is what it says:

IPv4 Connectivity: Internet
IPv6 Connectivity: No Internet access
Media State: Enabled
Speed: 65.0 Mbps

Unfortunately I don't know what model or whatever I'm using for our wireless connection and I don't know how to find out. Because I fail at everything. :'D

If you need any other information, let me know and tell me how I can acquire the information you need (because as stated above, I failed at everything).

Hi there,

Well seeing as your Mum and Sister are plugged in with a cord it could possibly be a few things.

The Wireless antenna on the router could be faulty.
The Wireless card on your laptop could be faulty.
Or very unlikely you could have a virus that could be doing this.

Find of wireless card name:
1) Select Start on your computer
2) Type “Device Manager” in the “search” field
3) In the following list, select the “+” button next to “Network Adapters”
4) You'll see your wireless card details, for example: “Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN”. If you can give us the name in the next reply .

Thanks,

Thanks for replying ^_^

Although now my connection is working fine again for no reason. I think my laptop just wanted to make a fool out of me. *facepalm*

Also when I went to check which wireless card I had, it gave me three. I'm ... not sure what is what, so here's just what it says:

-Atheros AR8152/8158 PC1-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.2)
-Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter
-Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter

-Atheros AR8152/8158 PC1-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.2) This is the port you plug a ethernet cable into
-Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter This is your wireless card
-Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter This is just a virtual wireless card

Suggest using Xirrus to find which channels your neighbors are using so you can change the channels to an area where there isn't any overlapping signals.

Wi-Fi Inspector | Xirrus

I had this exact issue with an old Netgear router. Can you confirm if other wireless devices suffer from this as well?

I ended up having to update the firmware on the router and that solved the issue. It's rare for an antenna or some physical part of the router to fail.