Wireless Internet connection lost after a few seconds

Hello,

my wife has a strange problem with her HP ProBook 4330s laptop (running Windows 7 Professional). We recently got a new Linksys E3000 wifi router which started the problems.

The laptop can see the wireless networks (there are two wireless networks since it's a 2.4GHz/5GHz dual band router) and even connect to any of the two networks. It also gets an IP address from the DHCP server and the Internet connection starts working for a very short period (5-10 seconds). Then the connection is lost and though it occasionally returns, the computer is unable to access Internet most of the time. Apparently, it doesn't even get to the gateway. If I ping to the router's IP address there's no response, except for during the first few seconds after establishing the connection:

--- CONSOLE --->
C:\Users\Martina>ping -n 1000 10.0.1.1

Příkaz PING na 10.0.1.1 - 32 bajtů dat:
Odpověď od 10.0.1.1: bajty=32 čas=1ms TTL=64
Odpověď od 10.0.1.1: bajty=32 čas=2ms TTL=64
Odpověď od 10.0.1.1: bajty=32 čas=24ms TTL=64
Odpověď od 10.0.1.1: bajty=32 čas=1ms TTL=64
Odpověď od 10.0.1.1: bajty=32 čas=1ms TTL=64
Odpověď od 10.0.1.1: bajty=32 čas=1ms TTL=64
Vypršel časový limit žádosti.
Vypršel časový limit žádosti.
<--- CONSOLE ---

Apologies for the Czech locale, but I guess you get the idea (the last two lines are something like "no response from host").

This behavior is absolutely consistent and can be observed each time one connects to the Linksys router from this laptop. Nothing I have tried has helped. The list includes: rebooting the laptop, rebooting the router, disabling one of the two wireless networks on the router, trying out various encryption settings (open, wep, wpa2), changing channels, disabling/enabling b/g/n modes, disabling firewall on the laptop, disabling ESET antivirus, reinstalling the wireless adapter driver, ... I could go on. I've been struggling with this for three nights and I'm getting desperate.

There are three other laptops (one Mac, two Windows PCs) connecting to the router without any problems. Strangely enough, the laptop only has this problem with the new Linksys router. It can connect to Internet via our old Airport Express wifi router without any problems. It can also connect to Internet via the Linksys router with an ethernet cable.

One thing I have discovered is that rebooting the laptop in a safe mode with network enabled FIXES THE PROBLEM! However, when I boot back to the normal mode (even when disabling all startup items and all services, except for those needed for networking), the problem is back.

Any ideas?

Thank you,
Jan

The wireless networks are managed directly by Windows. There's no other app for this.
Jan

If everything works in safe mode, chances are it's a driver problem.

Check the Linksys website for any driver updates or firmware updates.

Linksys E3000

Failing that, it is possible there is a problem with the Linksys router. Have you considered asking for a replacement while it's under warranty?

I'm pretty sure the problem is not in the router, or at least not in this particular piece. I experienced exactly the same trouble with Linksys E2000 which I returned last week. (The two routers are very similar in many ways.)

I too think it might have to do with the wireless adapter driver, but I have already tried reinstalling it (after an attempt to update it and Windows claiming it's up to date), which didn't help. There's no driver available from the Linksys website, which however does not surprise me. I mean, it would be ridiculous if a wireless router required specific drivers for connecting network adapters. Not that I know much about wi-fi, but I assume the communication protocol must be standardized pretty well. I can't imagine a restaurant with a wi-fi which would distribute to its guests CDs with drivers for wireless adapters, so that they could connect.

Thanks for your responses, guys, anyway.

Jan

I am facing exact same problem with HP ProBook 4330s. Is your problem resolved? I am looking for a solution desparately. Its been more than one week that I am facing this isse.