Wireless Card Issues

I don't know if this should be under Hardware or Networking. Networking appears to get more hits, so I am posting it here.

I've got a Dell D630 laptop with the Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card B/G wireless card.

Sometimes it will connect to our wireless router, sometimes it does not. Whether it connects or not, our wireless access point appears in the list of available networks with a signal strength of "good".

I can try "repair" (which releases and renews the IP address), but this has never solved the problem.

In the same location, we also have two other PCs that connect wirelessly without problems. The signal strength says "low" on one and "excellent" on the other.

When I have this problem, sometimes shutting down the laptop and turning it back on will solve the problem, but not always.

A guaranteed way to fix the problem is to undock my laptop and physically carry it over to the router and connect it using an Ethernet cable. With the Ethernet connected, the wireless card suddenly ...corrects itself (?) and connects without problems.

I thought this was just a Windows XP (Professional with SP3) thing, but just this week I installed a new hard drive and used a clean install of Windows 7 - mostly because I heard Windows 7 has such a better time connecting. Windows 7 connects some of the time and does not connect other times, just like Windows XP.

I purchased a USB b/g wireless card, but it will not connect either when the internal wireless card does not connect. Otherwise, I would say the internal wireless card is defective and purchase another one.

Does anyone know how I can troubleshoot or fix this?

~Joe

jp2code said:

I don't know if this should be under Hardware or Networking. Networking appears to get more hits, so I am posting it here.

I've got a Dell D630 laptop with the Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card B/G wireless card.

Sometimes it will connect to our wireless router, sometimes it does not. Whether it connects or not, our wireless access point appears in the list of available networks with a signal strength of "good".

I can try "repair" (which releases and renews the IP address), but this has never solved the problem.

In the same location, we also have two other PCs that connect wirelessly without problems. The signal strength says "low" on one and "excellent" on the other.

When I have this problem, sometimes shutting down the laptop and turning it back on will solve the problem, but not always.

A guaranteed way to fix the problem is to undock my laptop and physically carry it over to the router and connect it using an Ethernet cable. With the Ethernet connected, the wireless card suddenly ...corrects itself (?) and connects without problems.

I thought this was just a Windows XP (Professional with SP3) thing, but just this week I installed a new hard drive and used a clean install of Windows 7 - mostly because I heard Windows 7 has such a better time connecting. Windows 7 connects some of the time and does not connect other times, just like Windows XP.

I purchased a USB b/g wireless card, but it will not connect either when the internal wireless card does not connect. Otherwise, I would say the internal wireless card is defective and purchase another one.

Does anyone know how I can troubleshoot or fix this?

~Joe

Joe

Are you using "homegroup"?? On mixed networks homegroup sometimes exhibits connectivity problems. You can verify if that is the problem yourself by setting up a new network connection using "workgroup" instead. If the problem disappears you can disable IPv6 and kill homegroup

Let us know if you need help.


Ken

jp2code said:

I don't know if this should be under Hardware or Networking. Networking appears to get more hits, so I am posting it here.

I've got a Dell D630 laptop with the Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card B/G wireless card.

Sometimes it will connect to our wireless router, sometimes it does not. Whether it connects or not, our wireless access point appears in the list of available networks with a signal strength of "good".

I can try "repair" (which releases and renews the IP address), but this has never solved the problem.

In the same location, we also have two other PCs that connect wirelessly without problems. The signal strength says "low" on one and "excellent" on the other.

When I have this problem, sometimes shutting down the laptop and turning it back on will solve the problem, but not always.

A guaranteed way to fix the problem is to undock my laptop and physically carry it over to the router and connect it using an Ethernet cable. With the Ethernet connected, the wireless card suddenly ...corrects itself (?) and connects without problems.

I thought this was just a Windows XP (Professional with SP3) thing, but just this week I installed a new hard drive and used a clean install of Windows 7 - mostly because I heard Windows 7 has such a better time connecting. Windows 7 connects some of the time and does not connect other times, just like Windows XP.

I purchased a USB b/g wireless card, but it will not connect either when the internal wireless card does not connect. Otherwise, I would say the internal wireless card is defective and purchase another one.

Does anyone know how I can troubleshoot or fix this?

~Joe

Hmm well seeing as how the exact same problem occurs on both xp and Win 7 I'd have to place the blame on the wireless signal from the router. The fact that other machines can connect but with different signal strength ranging from low to excellent also points to a router problem. You might try using a different security for the wireless settings, WPA-2 seems to work best with Win 7.

Installing new firmware or resetting the router sometimes will fix those sorts of problems also.