Intermittent Wi-Fi Connection On Laptop

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Have you experienced dropping wi-fi connection on your laptop? This problem has just made me scratching my head for a while. All of a sudden, my connection is suddenly disconnecting from the internet, although the router is just  3  meters away from me and other devices, like the apple TV and the iPad seem like not affected with the problem. So it is obvious that the laptop is the problem.

Ruling out the problem

• What puzzles me is when I run the connection trouble shooting button(right click the signal icon, then click troubleshoot problems), it comes up with a DNS error, which in my opinion is not the case because the other devices can access the internet without the problem. 

• Checking the firewall did not show an obvious exclusion or blocked internet content, and the setting of blocked content is the same for every device because this is set at my ISP's. So if a device can go to a certain site, there should be no problem for other connected gadgets using the same wi-fi access.

• I've also tried to forget all remembered wi-fi access by right clicking the same signal button > open network and sharing>Manage wireless network>right clicking and removing (1)the access in question and reconnecting them again to no avail.

• Or it could be the wi-fi hardware of the laptop? If this is the case then I am convinced I have to buy another laptop or be contented to connect it with wire. As I am thinking about the inconvenience of wires and the tight budget I am experiencing at the moment, my wandering led me to the power options (right clicking the battery>power options) 

which is set to the recommended setting(balanced).

 I changed it to high performance and like magic, the wi-fi soreness is treated. No more DNS error, and dropping internet connection.

My Laptop Can Not Access Internet Using Wi-Fi

My laptop has a problem connecting into the internet via WiFi the other day. It can connect brieftly but after a second or two, the connection drops. Although access via wire is OK.

There are many things that can cause this problem and it  includes the internet connection, the device itself, or a specific software that has something to do with the Wi Fi feature. Here's the list of solutions I did in the past to restore internet connectivity but this time it seems like a new source is causing the problem.

Check internet connection.

If all of the devices that are connected into the internet have a problem in connecting to the internet, then there might be a problem with the router, the telephone line or the internet provider.

• Router.

Check the pilot lamps if there is a red, yellow or amber colour, see below picture. These warning colours usually tell something is not working. You need to check the internet light if it has these warning colours. Green, or white colour, depending on the brand of your router, usually telling everything is working fine.

• Telephone Line

If there is a warning light colour, then check if the telephone cable is connected properly. If the problem is just the connection, the internet light should change into green or white, depending on the model of your router.

• Internet Provider

If it is connected properly and the internet light is still red, then you can call your internet provider and ask them to check your internet connection.

Check the connected devices.

If all of the router's lights are OK, check if you can connect to the internet. This is to determine if a certain device is the problem.

• Use wired connection.

It is better to check internet access with a wired connection, like a laptop connected to the router with an RJ connector. If you can't connect into the internet using this method, call your internet provider.

Check WiFi connection

If you can connect to the internet using wired connection but can not connect using WiFi even with the correct security keys, try other WiFi devices if any can connect.

• Check the distance

You need to be at the same spot where you are checking the device that can not gain internet access. If the other devices can connect, try moving closer to the router.

• Clear cache

If it still can not gain internet access, turn off all WiFi devices except the one you are testing. Clear all the internet cache and try again.

• Restore registry (skip if you're not using registry cleaner)

If it still can not connect, and you have been using registry cleaner before you noticed the problem, try restoring the registry by double clicking the saved registry entry. Then restart your computer. You can skip this step if you are not using this.

• Check programs related to Wi-Fi

In my laptop, there is a program named Intel My WiFi Technology that is off on default. I can not remember ever turning it on or off. In fact I have not noticed this since I have my laptop. The network and sharing center and the WiFi button can be opened and working very well even if this is disabled. 

As any of the above solution that has worked in the past seemed not doing anything, I tried to access it by clicking the expand button at the systems tray(1), the status of the program(3) can be seen when the mouse is hovered over it's icon(2). Interesting to see that the WiFi button (4) looks OK and connected. Right click the icon and choose enable(5). I did not need to restart the computer and the internet access has  met it's  cure at last!

Simple Fix For Internet Connectivity

There's nothing more annoying than an internet connection not working. Like the annoyance of a power cut in an early evening or TV signal is off when a favourite program is on,  what makes it really annoying is it coincides when you're doing something important or real urgent. Although the interruption is not permanent, sometimes it is enough to ruin your day waiting for the service to resume.

I really do not know the real reason behind it as to what causes the problem but there are situations that I noticed to contribute to the non connectivity. And maybe you experience the same situations, too.

1. Am I Connected or Disconnected?

One situation is when the power of the laptop is low. The connectivity button icon looks like it still connected but when you open up a page, it says "check internet connection", the page does not load and the usual animation of blinking lights between the two computer screen icons is static.


 

 What happens when the laptop is low in power is it tends to conserve the remaining battery and in effect, wireless connectivity is affected, thus losing internet conectivity. The icon might not change or shows an X for no connection symbol.

To avoid this problem, you can change the power saving option so that the laptop will not turn off the wi-fi signal when it is low in power. 

 

Click >Start>type in Device Manager>click the + at the Network Adaptors>right click Wireless Adaptor> click Properties> Power Management>untick Allow computer to turn off the device to save power>click OK

 



2. Can't Acceess Particular Sites

 

Sometimes, even when you are sure and have no doubt that your laptop is connected to your router, you can not open up a particular web page, but has no problem accessing other sites. It seems like  it got stuck particularly at that page. Like when you are logging in into a social network but it seems like it's forever loading the page. The social network profile update doesn't seem to be happening, or downloads and uploads seem not going anywhere.

The simple solution for this is to empty the cache of the browser.

During web surfing, the computer saves a copy of the webpages you visit in the browser's cache for later use. This makes pages load faster as the computer fetches data within the cache and not from the site. But when the copy of the site is already outdated and the data that were stored are no longer available, the computer makes an "unreachable" call and comes back with an error message.

To empty the cache in internet explorer, click tools>internet explorer options> under browsing history, click delete> tick Temporary Internet Files>click delete.

In Google Chrome, type in chrome://chrome/settings/clearBrowserData at the address bar and tick empty the cache>click Clear Browsing Data.

3. One of My Devices Can Not Access the Internet

There are also times that the router restricts a device to get an internet connection. Whilst everyone is enjoying the internet with their devices, it seems like my laptop or smartphone can not get an internet  signal, even when it says, it is connected to local and internet access.

What I do to fix this is to disconnect then reconnect again to my router. If this does not work, click diagnose and repair. The computer usually fix any connection problem.

Another solution for this problem is to forget and re add the network.


Goto control panel> network and sharing center > click manage wireless networks> highlight your wireles network> click remove

Once you've removed your network, reconnect to it by right clicking at the wi-fi connection icon (previous screen shot 2 above)> connect to network, you need to re-enter your network key.

4. Router not working, or the lights on the router do not blink.

 

When all of a sudden, all of your connected devices can not access the internet, you noticed your router stops blinking and it's internet lights turns amber rather than the usual green(or blue on other brands), there might be a problem with your connection! But before calling your internet service provider you can do the following.

 

 

 

Turn off your router and wait for sometime before turning it on. If there is no on or off button, you can just remove the mains plug from it. If the colour of the internet light turns out to be normal, then you can try to see if it can give you internet connection.

 

 

If the internet button is green but not blinking and you can not access any web page, then it is worth disconnecting and reconnecting your filter. This is a small device, that splits the telephone socket into two, one for your telephone and one for the router. check your other cables connected to the router as well for breakage. If you are using a long extension cable from the main telephone socket into the filter and router, try connecting without the long extension cable.

 

You can also reset your router into it's factory default, but be sure to re enter your internet security key on it's web interface.

 

 

If you've checked all of these and still your router's internet button is not greenish in colour or intermittently turning from green to amber, then you should call your internet service provider for assistance. It might be just a case of transient signal failure from their side!

 

 



Advance IP Scanner

Have you secured your wifi network yet?

I am still surprised that some friends have not  secured their wifi settings. Their reason is they do not know how to get into their router settings. Others are afraid to fiddle with their wi-fi settings that they thought they  might mess up and cause interruption to their internet service. Others do not know their default router address and default router log in and password. They even say that using the existing default gateway when typing ipconfig on a command prompt does not bring up the router's log in page. I find this comment rather weird as I have not experienced before.  I always arrive at my router's log in page using my default gateway address. So it might be a technical problem with their device, or my friend's lacking in technical ability.

Not getting into the router's innards means not knowing which devices are attached to it wirelessly. And if an unknown device is attached without you knowing, then that device is stealing some of your traffic and causing slowdown on your connection. This is the reason why you need to get into your router's wireless settings and secure it as much as possible.

But if you can not really get into your router's wireless setting for some reasons and want to know whose or what devices are connected into your wireless router without logging into your router's setting, then this application is recommendable.

Advance IP Scanner

This application can help determine, which devices are connected into your wi-fi without logging into the router's home page. Download the application from

http://www.advancedipscanner.com

The interface is very simple and easy to follow.

Once launched, you can just start scanning by pressing the green arrow. The IP addresses to be scanned are already pre configured.

What does it do?

1. Shows the connected devices.

The program scans your network and shows all the connected devices, whether it is yours or your neighbours.

2. Determines the default gateway address

 It even identifies the router's gateway ip address and translate in into a readable address instead of numbers. This means you can type in www.routerlogin.com instead of the usual http://192.168.0.1.  This time the scanner has seen six active devices connected into the wi-fi.

3. Shows the MAC addresses of each the connected devices

You can identify the devices that are not yours by simply checking their names and if the name looks suspicious, by their Mac Addresses. To know how to get your MAC address of your devices please see previous post at

http://prakticality.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/why-you-need-to-know-your-mac-address.html

If you recognise them all, then there is no device leeching on your wifi.

4. File sharing medium

The shared folders on a connected computer can also be shown and browsed using the application.

5. Shutdown connected devices.

On connected computers, you can also remotely shut them down, wake them up or do a file transfer as long as you have radmin running on both of the computers. Video on how to do this at the end of this post.

This application is very useful indeed, and can be a great help to the faint heart to determine if they are sharing their wifi connection without their knowledge.

How To Improve Wi-Fi Connections

Wireless fidelity  is my preferred connection for home internet. The reason is it's flexibility, simplicity and portability. Another reason is almost all new addition of  internet capable devices  are already wi-fi enabled, which is a good news. This means freedom from wires and you can internet power your devices anywhere around the house for as far as your router wi-fi  signal can beam it's signal.

But there is also a bad news, especially when you are near to a neighbour who has a wi-fi router transmitting signal with the same channel as your router is transmitting. Why is it a bad news?

Have you experienced a drop in your network's throughput? Or a significant delay in loading web pages or files which are not that of much data? Or session disruptions like no internet connections from your ISP but your friend's internet with the same ISP company has no problem with the service?

Chances are the channel your router is broadcasting it's signal is at the same channel with that of your neighbour's, which is making a bottleneck or overlapping signals that can cause disruptions like disconnections, no internet access, not able to maintain connection.

So how would you know which channel is your router's signal is broadcasting compared to your neighbour's?

For this task, you need to download a free program, inSSIDer wi-fi scanner, that can tell the channel of the router's signal around you. Download and install this application from

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/download/

Then open up the application and you will see the nearby routers and which channel they are broadcasting. Interestingly, most of my neighbours, broadcast to channel 3 just like mine!

If the results is like the screen shot above and you have a problem with your connection, then it is worth a try to change the channel of your wi-fi signal broadcast.

Go to your router's default gateway, for belkin it is http://192.168.0.1 . If not sure, click start and at the search window type cmd, then press enter, then at the command prompt type in ipconfig, then press enter. The resulting number under default getway is your router's address. Open a browser and type in http:// plus the default getway number to get inside your router's configuration.

Then log in with your router's log in credentials (for netgear, the default user name is admin and password is password) and change the channel under wireless settings. This time I have choosen channel 11.

Going back to inSSIDer application, here is the result. You can clearly see the overlap of Hollow1 and Hollowfield5 at channel 3 and a lot of wi-fi's at channel 1, and my router alone at channel 11.

You need to re connect and type in the security key to all your wi-fi devices after change of channel. You may need to forget or delete the wireless access and re discover it again on other devices that can not reconnect to internet  after change of channel.