I have an IBM T42/WinXP-SP2 laptop with a "11 a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini
PCI Adapter". At work I am able to successfully connect to either of
the wireless routers all day. At home I have a Linksys (BEFW11S4V4)
wireless B router, and can connect to it wirelessly without issue from
my (WinXP) desktop or friend's laptop, but from my own laptop it cuts
out every 15 minutes or so, forcing me to reconnect manually.

It occurs regardless of how close to the router I am, and I can
connect to it via wired LAN cable without issue. I can also connect to
other nearby routers but again lose connection after a time.

I have performed a spybot sweep, and have even tried a PCM-CIA
wireless card encountering similar problems.

Oddly a neighbour has a router with SSID "VIRUS.TROJAN.KxC11", (a way
to discourage people connecting??).

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 17 Mar 2006 17:19 PST

smb1001...

If your router is more than a couple of years old, you should
try having it 'reprovisioned' by your ISP. This essentially
means getting on the phone with them and requesting same.
Then they will have you unplug everything, wait a bit, and
plug your router back in. While you're doing that, they will
also disconnect your router from their system. After you get
it back up, they will essentially re-interface it with their
system, as though it were brand new. This will eliminate all
the old data it has collected over the years and should
dramatically improve your connection, at least for awhile.

If your modem is old enough, they may tell you they have 
been instructed not to reprovision it, at which point it's
time for a new router. Even if they did reprovision it, it
probably wouldn't deliver the connectivity and speed of a
newer router.

I had them reprovision my old router, and it worked better
for awhile, but after awhile I took the chance and bought
a newer one, on intuition. My speed doubled, and all the
former connectivity problems disappeared!

I've never heard of SSID "VIRUS.TROJAN.KxC11", and a search
for the virus.trojan part turns up nothing. Sounds like an
intentional virus to infect interlopers on their private
network, but I've never heard of such a thing. Maybe they're
just telling people that to scare them away from accessing
their network.

Let me know where this takes you...

sublime1-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by crabcakes-ga on 17 Mar 2006 20:34 PST

Do you have a microwave or cordless phone that uses 2.4 gigahertz?
Microwaves and other electronic equipment can interfere. Often simply
changing the channel, by means of your router's home page security tab
will do the trick!

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Clarification of Question by smb1001-ga on 20 Mar 2006 09:51 PST

sublime1 -- thanks for the excellent comments, and I shall investigate
implementing them.

But crabcakes -- your suggestion turned out to be spot on, and
changing the channel has worked perfectly, so feel free to repost that
as the answer.

I agree that it's still mysterious that it only affected my laptop and
not my housemate's, but the fact that it still occurred when I tried a
PCM-CIA wireless card as well led me to believe that it isn't the
card. Perhaps my card is simply the most powerful of the three and is
picking up interference from a phone in my apartment block that the
others just can't see? And given it happened when I tried connecting
to another nearby router means I can only presume that they also may
be having connectivity problems with their own routers...

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 21 Mar 2006 21:52 PST

smb1001...

I've notified crabcakes-ga, and she'll be along in time to post
a formal answer. Her schedule is just a bit demanding at the
moment.

Hello Smb1001,

  I'm so glad changing the channel worked for you! I'll repost my
comment, along with some additional research for you.

Do you have a microwave or cordless phone that uses 2.4 gigahertz?
Microwaves and other electronic equipment can interfere. Often simply
changing the channel, by means of your router's home page security tab
will do the trick!


"Radio frequency (RF) interference causes wireless clients and access
points to hold off transmitting, which causes delay and lower
throughput. This resulting decrease in performance can make browsing
websites and downloading files sluggish. In cases where interfering
signals are strong enough, the wireless clients may not be able to
access the LAN at all for an indefinite period of time. This is rare,
but possible.

As a result, you need to be aware of potential sources of RF
interference, such as cordless phones, other WLANs -- and microwave
ovens. In this tutorial, well focus on interference that microwave
ovens create. Most microwaves emit signals that fall within the same
2.4GHz frequency band that 802.11b WLANs utilize. It's something to
think about when deploying."
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3116531

"Q: Why do WLANs operate on the 2.4 GHz Frequency range?
A: This frequency range has been set aside by the FCC, and is
generally labeled the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band. A
few years ago Apple and several other large corporations requested
that the FCC allow the development of wireless networks within this
frequency range. What we have today is a protocol and system that
allows for unlicensed use of radios within a prescribed power level.
The ISM band is populated by Industrial, Scientific and Medical
devices that are all low power devices."
http://www.traderock.com/WirelessLaptopsLAN.html

I'm glad you were able to solve your problem. I had the very same
problem... when my husband used the microwave oven, I had no wireless
signal! When it works right, isn't it great?

Regards, Crabcakes

both the comments above didn't read clearly since both of these
problems would affect all the computers not just your laptop. I had a
similiar problem with a ralink wireless card. This is a popular
chipset even if the card was not actually made my ralink. I found it
to be a driver issue. As windows kept updating the wireless driver it
became less and less stable. Firstly check what chipset your card has.
If you do not know then email wireless@miccysoft.co.uk with the card
make and I will find out. if it is a ralink goto
http://www.ralinktech.com/ and download a driver for your style of
card. then go to the network option, right click on the wireless link
and select properties. in the tab of driver uninstall the current
driver. Now install the downloaded driver and use that. If this fixes
your problem then just avoid any wireless driver updates from the
windows update site. These are usually manual updates anyway so its
easy to avoid.