Wireless Modem - A Recent Problem.

[ameerat42]

Another glitch that I have recently encountered is this:

A Netgear 54 Mbit Wireless Modem.
It has four network cables plugged in of which max of 3 devices are ever used at once.
It also has WiFi active all the time.

If I connect either of the two laptops by cable I have Internet access.
But, if I use wireless on either of these laptops then I have to re-set the router.

My smartphone connects automatically, as do various other phones and tablets from visitors.

Both laptops are set to discover local networks and connect automatically when in range. - They don't.
I must first re-set the router, as said, then the laptops do their stuff.

If I switch either of the laptops off and later back on, it's the same procedure - reset router.

This was not the the case before. - And, I haven't been near another Wi-Fi network to check
the behaviour there. No changes have been made to the settings for ages.

The router is set to broadcast SSID.

Any ideas from anyone?

Ta.
Am.

[Tannin]

I have never heard of such a thing. I would

(1) restore the router to the factory defaults (refer to manual)
(2) plug in any required settings so that you can operate normally
(3) Test

If it fails again, it's cactus. Get a new router.

You may also like to look on the manufacturer's website to see if there is a firmware update available for it. I don't have too much faith in this suggestion though as it's hard to imagine a firmware fault as bad as this one.

As always with any wireless router, be 100% certain to set a STRONG wireless password. Don't think "word", think "novel".

[ameerat42]

Ta Tannin.
I will try all that.
I was thinking of another router, but I wanted to try to isolate any problem.
The niggling thing is that it works for the other devices, so I'm wondering if the
"problem" isn't in the the computers. Oh, and this was the case even before their
respective upgrades, Win 8.1 to Win 10, and Win 7 to Win 10.
(Hmm! That line sounded like a win-win-win-win, but no.)

[arthurking83]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing as Tony.

Had similar issues with one of the kids laptops using wireless(but via an AP, not directly to the router).
I had a spare USB wireless dongle thingy and used that to confirm/deny a laptop issue and problem was gone.
Updated the built in wireless radio driver on the laptop and nothing.
Turned out to be the onboard wireless connection software running in the background(some intel program). Removed that and just allowed Win(7) to do it's thing .. and bingo!

This was (what seemed) a zillion years ago now so the exact details are a bit vague .. but removing the Intel connection software completely did the trick.(it came pre installed on the laptop)

Another aspects to look into is if you have hard set the router with all the connection info for all the devices you always connect with.

That is, you want to statically set IP using the devices mac address in the router.

eg. Laptop 1 can have address 192.168.1.1(as one example) and using the mac adress of the wireless adapter(eg. e1:2b:ef:51:a1:f0).
This way those devices once connected and password verified, should always connect .. rather than allow the router to dynamically change IP addresses(and hence 'search' for the devices you know you want connected.
Depending on the exact model of your Netgear router(they can vary, but usually all similar), the process is actually easier than it sounds.
Easiest way is to connect it and then look for it under the attached devices tab in the Advanced page section of the configs. so make sure it's connected.
Then go to the Setup tab and look for the LAN Setup tab and look for the list of devices already set(if any). If none the list will be short.
Somewhere at the bottom of the page is a [Add] button, click it and fill in the NAME(only) in the device name box(to set it to something that makes sense)
Note that all the device details(mac address and IP address allocated) data should be already filled in, so the effort is fairly simple.
If you haven't already set up your network like that .. hopefully something like that helps if nothing else does.

[ameerat42]

Ta AK. I will look into it.

[Tannin]

Interesting! Arthur has seen an issue like this, so go with his advice first. Looks as though something in the Windows 10 networking system has stuffed up your router. I wouldn't have even thought that was possible. Learn something every day.

[ameerat42]

But it was like that before, in both previous OSs - as said above.

[MissionMan]

I had a similar issue with a firmware update that was dumped by windows onto my Surface Pro 3, so it may not be Windows 10 specific, but rather some crappy firmware that was dumped for a specific wifi component on your machine. we still haven't resolved our issue.

The short answer is that if we use our netgear 4G modems, wifi connects to the device for 5 seconds and then disconnects and the modem disappears out of wifi devices and will only reappear if you restart it. My Macbook Pro, iPhone etc all connect fine with the device.

[arthurking83]

Interesting! Arthur has seen an issue like this, so go with his advice first. ....

Yeah .. drove me nuts for a few weeks.
Not so much the issue, but the annoying .... "Daaaaad, the internet isn't working again" howls of protest from within the bowels of an unconnected dungeon!


(edit: this next bit has nothing to do with the issue at hand, just some network related other stuff)
Actually! Win 10 has improved my network a bit.

Kids have their laptops, but on entering highschool, they also got some tablet doodad, crappy pokey Dell something or other rubbishy junk. Problem is they run Win8(and 8.1).
They always struggled to connect to my home network.
I banned them due to the annoyance they proved to be(to me having to constantly connect them).
So kids were told to use USB sticks to transfer data from their laptops after doing what they had to connect for, and transferring data to the 8/8.1's via the USB sticks.

But with Win 10 now all devices are connected to the network and transferring data is just look for the shared space on the respective device and copy/paste.

The 8/8.1's always connected to the net .. just very flaky on a shared Win7 space .. and Win 7 would never stay connected to any of the 8/8.1's shared drives for some reason?

[farmmax]

I have a similar problem with my PC on the wireless network. Sometimes it works fine, other times I have to reset the router. Any other device connects to the network without a problem every time. I notice the PC is more likely to misbehave if the laptop has been connected to the network first. I just assumed it is an IP issue and keep meaning to find time to give the PC a static address. Presently it is set to dynamically get one.

[Tannin]

But it was like that before, in both previous OSs - as said above.

Sorry, I missed that. As you were then.

[arthurking83]

ps Am .. what model router thingy?

I've had many Netgear routers over the years .. maybe 5 or 6 in the last 10 years or so .. and now I dunno what to do with the old ones.

Some models have been notorious for flaky connections .. but I reckon it's more to do with a combo of a particular wireless radio on the client device and the particular model router.

And if it is a router problem, it's not always Netgear's lack of understanding of networking necessarily either. Netgear just build the boxes using various parts.
Parts from manufacturers such as Broadcom or Atheros(for the wireless radios, for example) and whatever .. Marvel or something like that for the CPU.
Sometimes you can find that a Broadcom radio device just doesn't want to connect properly to an Atheros device.

But other than my issue with the conenction/manager software, I haven't had issues like that.
I've had issues with a particular router being unstable, but a firmware update fixed that.

[ameerat42]

Netgear WGR614 V7 (a 54 Mbit wireless router).

- - - Updated - - -

Never had any real problems that I can recall. It replaced a similar Netgear non-W modem that was equally good.

[bricat]

I have had the same problem with lost connections. I thought it was when the router was updated by optus? Will follow this thread to see if a fix is available. W7 and W10 cheers Brian