LOL "how-to" not "who-to" Ooops! hehe
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When I let Windows XP configure my wireless network settings it disconnects from my network and tries to connect to my neighbor's.
My laptop is running Windows XP and I run a wireless network in my apartment.
My problem is that my computer keeps on trying to connect to a network besides mine.
I have my network set at the top of the preferred networks list on the wireless connection manager. My neighbor's network isn't on my preferred networks list. I have also checked under advanced to make sure that my computer is not set to connect to non-preferred networks.
However, every 5 minutes or so I lose connection to my network and windows tells me that there is more than one network available and wants me to choose which one to connect to.
Is there anyway to tell windows to never connect to a specific network?
Or can I do something to make it so that windows actually uses my preferred networks list? (So far it has never seemed to work)
I really don't like losing my wireless connection every 5 minutes, so if anybody could give me some ideas on how to fix it I would greatly appreciate it.
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Answers
Is your AP set to broadcast its SSID? Mine wasn't, so I had a problem similar to yours as described in this MSKB article:
http://support.microsoft.c
I highly recommend the following article as background for anyone who has problems or curiousity about how Windows XP handles its wireless configurations:
http://www.microsoft.com/t
If you're having this problem even though your AP is broadcasting SSID, and you've made sure that the SSID in your Preferred networks definitely matches your AP's SSID, and you're sure your neighbor is using a different SSID than yours, then I'm not sure what might be causing it.
I had given up on the Wireless Zero Configuration service built in to XP and ended up disabling it and using the Win98/ME utility provided with the adapter. (That also got rid of my 'hiccups', where my wireless adapter would stop passing traffic for 2-3 seconds every minute while it presumably scanned for available networks.)
In order to disable Wireless Zero Configuration, go to: Control Panel ---> Performance and Maintenance ---> Administrative Tools ---> Services. Click on Wireless Zero Configuration; change the "Startup Type" drop box to "Manual" and stop the service.
If you disable your WZC service, you'll want to load the utility provided with your wireless card, which can get tricky under Windows XP. (I downloaded three different versions of the Linksys wireless utility that I could not get working under XP, before I found out that the version that came on the CD in the box worked fine ;)
If possible uncheck the box in XP's wireless configuration screen that allows windows to configure the wireless connection and then go to device manager for your wireless adapter properties and check for an SSID/ESSID property and hardcode your network name there. Usually it will allow you to set the other properties such as channel and preamble type etc. Make sure the channel matches your router and the preamble type matches the configuration of your router. If you don't know what it is you can set it to auto. Or if there is a software application to configure your adapter load it and search for similar properties. Unfortunately XP will jump alot but if your adapter has this functionality this could help.
What type of wireless adapter is it? There maybe an updated driver version that could help as well.
I had this problem before and found it to be that my router had special enhanced transfer rates that it defaults to, but cause intermittent connectivity when used with a different company's wireless card (in my case, the built-in card in my laptop). Make sure the router's transfer rates, and preamble types are all set to settings compatible with your networking card.
PS, dont look to locking your SSID into windows. Windows doesn't look for other networks until it looses the connection to the one you've chosen. It will default to your choice of network until it is no longer available, even after you turn off your computer and restart.
The problem is not the other networks in your area, it's an intermittent signal from your router.
Hey i had recently bought a SMC wireless pcmcia card for my laptop, and had to face the same problem. My connection would get broken every 5 mins and a message stating "two or more connections available " would appear on the lower right corner of my screen. I tried all sorts of stuff to configure the prefered list and stuff but failed miserably.
I rushed to the store and had my card replaced by a netgear pcmcia wireless card. But soon found out that the problem usually occurs due to incompatibility of drivers. Usually the drivers for some cards like Netgear, SMC ,etc have not gotten the Microsoft certification and thus havent passed Microsoft testing. IT is the windowsXP's "wireless connection manager" that keeps poking its nose in the middle and disrupts the connection.
So the solution to this problem is to diable the "wireless connections manager" prior to installing the third party software to establish a connection.. this software is usually provided to you in your driver disk. Once u manage to do that your card should work perfectly fine.
I figured this out while installing the netgear card which prompts you the option to disable the windowsXP wireless connection manager while installing the third party software itself.
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by: codeforgerPosted on 2003-08-24 at 00:10:27ID: 9211228
1) Specify a unique "network name" on your Wireless Access Point. The exact "who-to" will depend on your WAP config software.
2) On the computer witht he wireless NIC change your settings for "Network Name" to match the one on the WAP. It's probably set to ANY right now which tells it to connect to ANY it can find. :-) Again the exact "how-to" will depend on your wireless NIC configuration software.
CodeForger