Connection Drops when other devices connect to home network

I'm at wits end, and if I had hair, I'd be pulling it out.

I'm running a home network with a new Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router. I have an external drive connected, and running WPA2-PSK (AES) security. My ISP is Shaw (Canada).

I'm running several devices off this network successfully.

-Win 7 hard wired
-PS3
-Wii
-Win XP Professional
-Win XP home
-three cell phones (two BB, android)
-Samsung Galaxy 10.1
-several ipods
-Win 7 wireless*

*this is the problem child. When the network is booted, connections are established with no problem. When other items enter the network (particularly the ipods), the Win 7 wireless loses connectivity. I get the little circle around the network icon, and 'limited connectivity', cycling through with "No Network Access". When crashed, ping gets no responses. No other devices have any issues connecting or staying connected.

I try turning off and on wireless on the computer, disconnecting and connecting to the network again, nothing works. The ONLY solution is to reboot the router and modem. This will gain me connectivity for a while, but often, as soon as another device enters the network, it crashes again. It's exceptionally frustrating.

I've tried to designate specific IP addresses via MAC addresses in the router settings. I've tried to disable the IPv6, nothing helps.

I've been reading and reading various guesses about what's happening. The latest try has me disabling "Computer Browser" from Services, but that also not helping.

Any advice, any thing else to look at, any other posts to point me to, anything is appreciated. I'm desperate for some stability. I'm not the most technological adept user, but I'm game to try to learn.

Anyone... anything???

Just to add a little more info.. I thought it was just when the ipods entered the network, but last night, a BB entered the network (pretty much everything else running smoothly) and it crashed the Win7 wireless again. Very frustrating.

please provide me any IP address, you get when its working, and the IP your device has when its not... curious if your getting APIPA, it sounds like a DHCP issue to me

When I connect, I get a valid IPv4 and a IPv6. When it crashes, ipconfig gives no IP address.

It does sound like a DHCP issue.

Is the Windows 7 device a laptop or a PC? Certain laptops may not like AES. Try setting a static IP address on the Windows 7 machine to see if it fixes the problem. If not, try changing the wireless security to TKIP (Take a backup of your routers config just in case).

List and Name all Anti-Virus, Security or Firewall Software installed.

Install and run Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector.
Double click the Xirrus Icon on your Desktop, Tap the Printscreen key on your keyboard, open up Paint then choose Edit from the Menu and select Paste, then SAVE it. Upload and attached it here, click on Go Advanced and locate Manage Attachments Tab and attached the file.

Post an ipconfig /all of the computer in question for review.
Note: For Vista and Windows 7, you have to open up the command prompt in an elevated command:
Click on the Start Menu search box area type cmd, right click on cmd see at the top, and click on Run as Administrator.

Click on Start => in run or search box type cmd press enter (run as Admin for Vista and 7). From the black screen, type the word ipconfig /all and press enter. Right click on the black screen or Command prompt then choose Select All and Paste the results onto your Post.

You may also attach the ipconfig /all output if the computer is unable to connect to the Internet then use an external USB flash drive to transfer the .txt file.
Click on Start => in run or search box type cmd, press enter. From the command prompt (black screen), Copy and Paste these ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt . Please attach the .txt file to be found in your Local Disk 'C' on your next post.


Dave

Dave Atkin said:

It does sound like a DHCP issue.

Is the Windows 7 device a laptop or a PC? Certain laptops may not like AES. Try setting a static IP address on the Windows 7 machine to see if it fixes the problem. If not, try changing the wireless security to TKIP (Take a backup of your routers config just in case).


Dave

Click to expand...

Starting at the top... I have, on my router, assigned specific IP addresses for each MAC address for each device on the network, including the Win 7 problem laptop. It does connect to it, but I have done nothing on the laptop itself to designate a specified IP. Is that what you are referring to, or do I need to do something on the laptop too? If so, please point me to instructions.

What are the laptop's specs (make/model/etc)?

Dell Insprion

Is there not some security issues with posting my ipconfig for the world to see?

ipconfig will show your internal IP Address not external so should be fine.

Remove the MAC filtering from the router temp so you can see if it is causing an issue.

Is the routers firmware up to date?


Dave

There are a ton of Inspirons out there...

the only one that might not be secure to share, would be your default gateway...
does your "valid ip's" your getting happen to start with 169. ?

you'll have this problem with so many devices on a home network router. netgear told me that a home router should handle up to 5 or 6 devices without issue.
I have a similar issue with a windows 7 laptop.

it seems to only want to use the same ip it had when you turned it off last and doesn't want to search or should I say "get a new one" when I turn it on. I have to do it manually.
netgear recommend I put it's ip as static and then set that ip address to that device only in the router's settings. but that actually made things worse. it would then instead take over the other ip addresses the other devices were using. netgear support said that shouldn't happen and they were out of ideas.

The MAC filtering was put in place in an attempt to try to fix this. I will disable it.

The router firmware is up to date. We bought a new one thinking our old router wasn't able to handle so many devices.

Here's the crashed ipconfg /all

removed

Click to expand...

Would it help to post an ipconfig /all when running?

You bought a new router? and still have same problems? id call your ISP and let them know, your modem, might have gone bad....I wouldnt normally say that, but i had similar issue's this past weekend, but my house modem was about 8 years old. They came and replaced it the next day, and i can handle probly around 20 hosts fine now.

if the case for sure is that you cant connect more than so many user's I still think its a DHCP issue, can you post your network range setup, etc... i see its a class C obviously but im curious if something might be off a little

bmcdevitt said:

if the case for sure is that you cant connect more than so many user's I still think its a DHCP issue, can you post your network range setup, etc... i see its a class C obviously but im curious if something might be off a little

Click to expand...

Happy to, no idea how or what you are looking for...

Check the DHCP scope on your router. make sure its not set for less devices than is on your network (i.e. it is giving out addresses at least 10 addresses from 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.11)

Did you try a static IP on the wireless? Can you connect with a cable with no problems?

When it crashes next check the IP addresses of your other devices to make sure there isnt a conflict.


Dave

DHCP scope is set from 2-242. I can connect wired no problem, but have to recreate the crash situation to see if wired will survive the scenario. Will do and report.

Testing today... when left hard-wired, it seemed to stay connected. It was a single shot test though.

I bought a new router today. a netgear N300 all of my issues went away.
you have a much better router than me but a lot more connected devices.

CaptPhil said:

Testing today... when left hard-wired, it seemed to stay connected. It was a single shot test though.

Click to expand...

Test may have been flawed, so disregard that.

Anyway, I ran an ipconfig /all both connected and crashed, looking for any differences between. (other than lease obtained/expired)

The differences:

Working:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, this bolded line is the only difference between the two. I have no idea what it means.