Router problems?

[bodgit]

I,ve had my laptop for two years and untill recently had no problems with it. About two weeks ago I had a text from o2 saying
"there was a line fault that may affect broadband in your area and they were fixing it"
I had noticed it before then as connection kept dropping out. Now my laptop either connects first time ot takes several attempts to connect. It can be working fine then suddenly drop offline. The signal strength is 2-4 bars out of 5 and Im wondering is my router on the way out or is it stll o2 line causing the problem.
Thinking of going to Bt broadband now as it is getting on my nerves dropping out all the time. Anyone got Bt and is it as good as the tv adverts claim?

[U1timate PigDog]

Depending on where you live depends whether switching to bt would even make a difference, unless you live in a area where o2 have there own cable network your line will be using bt's cabling network anyway in which case it wont make a diffrence until bt have fixed the fault. (sometimes this can take time depending on where the fault is)

as for your router causing the problem, I would try the following first check that all phone lines have filters on and test they are working, try unplugging all phone line equipment apart from the main one that your router should be plugged in and see if the router works fine.

2nd if its is still failing I would reset the router to factory default reset up the router and test again.

If that fails then you could try a different router to prove if your router is causing the problem, obviously this would need setting up with your username and password aswell.

If it is still dropping out then you will need to contact your ISP (o2) to pursue the problem, do your best effort to ensure the problem isn't on the cabling in your house as if it is if a engineer comes out it could cost a £125 charge.

[MatJohnson]

Is the laptop taking 2 or 3 attempts to connect to wifi or the router is taking 2-3 attempts to connect to the internets?

Also check out plus net, they are rolling out FTTC so its 40 meg down, around 8 up which might be of interest to you.

[Cardnim]

Agree with all of the above.

Best test you can do now is see if the router is connecting ok itself.
I always think the best way to do this is to hard wire your computer straight to your router (you should have got an 'Ethernet' cable along with your O2 package when you joined, its in the box they send you - mine is a grey cable with yellow plugs.)
Put this into your router then your laptop then switch everything on. Are you online straight away?

[bodgit]

I,ve just checked all the filters and they are ok. hardwired to the router is fine too. My lad will bring a spare router up with him next time he comes home so will test that then.
As I said it was working fine anywhere in or outside of the house untill just before o2 messaged me to say there was a line fault. Since then its been crap. It can work all morning then suddenly drop out.

Sometimes I get cannot connect to router other times I get cannot find server. Seems to worse in the evenings after 6pm.

[Cardnim]

Well, if hardwired to your router is no problems, then it aint got nothing to do with the line outside your house.

It boils down to one of two things:
a - your wifi signal is being blocked/interfered with
b - your wifi hardware on either router or laptop is faulty.

Almost definately the first one.
My next thing to change would be your signal channel. You can do this via the control panel in your router (log in via your web browser when hard wired to the router itself)

Ive seen wifi issues when a neighbour gets their router and starts transmitting on the same channel. You should have a selection of 1 - 11 and almost always these routers come as default channel 1, so you end up with a whole street full of people on the same.
Pick a different channel and see if that helps.

Also, move any dead cats, lead anvils, blocks of metal, last night's chinese cartons and generally everything else off and/or away from the router so you give it a chance.

Good luck!

[MatJohnson]

pick either a non overlapping channel as well:

if its /n then 3 or 11
if its g/n then 1,5,9,13
if its b then 1,6,11,14

[Cardnim]

Never heard about overlapping channels before - whats that?

[bodgit]

My lad changed channel last time he came home so I will take a look at that later. Thanks to all for all the info Im useless with these things. It cost me £56 to replace the screen when it first happened as I did not realise how fragile they are when you thump them like the televisions in the old days .

[MatJohnson]

With the spektrum, some of the channels overlap the bandwidth, you have 2.4 ghz and have to share it so they split it into chunks, so 1-3, 2-4,3-5 (overviously, its not whole numbers) so you want the ones that don't overlap. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels for a diagram

[Cardnim]

Ahhh interesting, I didnt know that. Cheers for the info

One other point to consider, is if your router and wireless hardware in your computer is all N enabled then switch off B and G compatibility. This will also help improve your signal if others around you are using B and G.

[U1timate PigDog]

Following on from what Cardnim just said, you could also try switching between these types to see which offers you the most reliable connection.

[Cardnim]

@Bodgit - you get sorted m8?

[bodgit]

It worked ok for a few days but now its started losing contact again. About 90% of the time when windows diagnoses the problem its reads cannot find server. When I try to reconnect the web server 02 is not on the list it just shows the nieghbours servers.
I had a text from 02 on June 7th saying there was a line fault in my area that maight affect my broadband and they were trying to fix it and would text again when fixed but I've never got the second text so I guess its still faulty.

[bodgit]

Got another text from o2 this morning saying they were still fixing a line fault. Another text 45mins later saying they had sorted it and now my internet is working great again. No offer of discount though for the last few weeks of disruption.

[Cardnim]

Thats great news about finally getting it fixed m8.

...oh and Im sure you'll get a full refund from 02, must dash - got to feed my flying pigs.

[MatJohnson]

Were having issues with o2 at the mo. We use it in work (4 adsl load balanced) and they keep dropping out. Wonder if the kit they have used is on its way out

[bodgit]

Unbelievable no sooner have they texted me to say problem was sorted than after just an hour of internet it went again and another text to say they found another fault. Been offline for 5 hours. Time for a new server I think.