shawngilbert
asked on
Help with wireless installation
I have a customer who I recently installed a wireless network for.
The main PC and router sit on the bottom-level of a split-level home.
His son's PC is upstairs, though in very close proximity (across the hall) to his office.
He purchased a Netgear router and adapter. I will tell you upfront, that I am not very familiar with Netgear.
It seems that when I go over there, I change some configurations and get the network working for him. As little as a few hours to a day or two later, the network quits working.
I have tried moving the antenna, changing channels, changing security, etc.
The last message I received from him stated that he was receiving the following error.
"This connection has little or no connectivity. You might not be able to access the Internet or some network resources.
This problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address to the computer."
I thought that perhaps the problem was that there was enough of a network hiccup that the wireless PC could not update its DHCP lease information. So, I sent him instructions on setting it to a static address, but I am told that it still is not working.
So I am presuming that the problem lies with something I am missing with the Netgear configuration. Thus, I am seeking Netgear-specific wireless experts to help me troubleshoot and rectify this problem.
Both systems are running XP Home, SP2. I have tried using both Netgear- and XP- managed wireless configuration. The signal strength averages about 84%. When it was set to an automatic channel, it would use 11, then continually scan for another channel and drop the connection while doing so, until it returned to 11. I was able to force it to 2 and it worked for me, while I was there.
If you need further detail, please do ask.
Thank you in advance for your time and support.
Shawn
The main PC and router sit on the bottom-level of a split-level home.
His son's PC is upstairs, though in very close proximity (across the hall) to his office.
He purchased a Netgear router and adapter. I will tell you upfront, that I am not very familiar with Netgear.
It seems that when I go over there, I change some configurations and get the network working for him. As little as a few hours to a day or two later, the network quits working.
I have tried moving the antenna, changing channels, changing security, etc.
The last message I received from him stated that he was receiving the following error.
"This connection has little or no connectivity. You might not be able to access the Internet or some network resources.
This problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address to the computer."
I thought that perhaps the problem was that there was enough of a network hiccup that the wireless PC could not update its DHCP lease information. So, I sent him instructions on setting it to a static address, but I am told that it still is not working.
So I am presuming that the problem lies with something I am missing with the Netgear configuration. Thus, I am seeking Netgear-specific wireless experts to help me troubleshoot and rectify this problem.
Both systems are running XP Home, SP2. I have tried using both Netgear- and XP- managed wireless configuration. The signal strength averages about 84%. When it was set to an automatic channel, it would use 11, then continually scan for another channel and drop the connection while doing so, until it returned to 11. I was able to force it to 2 and it worked for me, while I was there.
If you need further detail, please do ask.
Thank you in advance for your time and support.
Shawn
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Only way to coexsist is if they are on different floors of the house. It seems it does not cause any issues (but again it depends on phone, router). The best thing would be to say get new 5.8 ghz phones :)
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Have you restarted the router? Is DHCP server still turned on?
ASKER
DHCP is still on, on the router. The main PC still retrieves a lease from it, but his son's PC does not.
You have posted many good suggestions here. I do not know why I did not think about firmware, since I had to recently apply a new firmware to his son's PC. I will certainly give that a try!
Additionally, he mentioned that he has had some problems with his phone setup. He has had a 2.4G phone for the past 2 years and any time he gets near his computer, it causes poor reception on the phone.
Apparently he has went through a couple of different brand 5.8G phones, but still experienced the same problem.
So, he is going to replace the cordless downstairs, near the router/modem, with a corded phone and replace the upstairs cordless with another 5.8G model.
I will post more after I return over there, probably tomorrow.
Thank you very much.
You have posted many good suggestions here. I do not know why I did not think about firmware, since I had to recently apply a new firmware to his son's PC. I will certainly give that a try!
Additionally, he mentioned that he has had some problems with his phone setup. He has had a 2.4G phone for the past 2 years and any time he gets near his computer, it causes poor reception on the phone.
Apparently he has went through a couple of different brand 5.8G phones, but still experienced the same problem.
So, he is going to replace the cordless downstairs, near the router/modem, with a corded phone and replace the upstairs cordless with another 5.8G model.
I will post more after I return over there, probably tomorrow.
Thank you very much.
Hope all these suggestions help......wireless can be such a pain sometimes!
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ASKER
cwillu - can you further elablorate on what you posted? That might be of some value. How does one determine if the handset transmits on 2.4, and how would be switch to a 802.11a or ag equipment?
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ASKER
Customer has not called since. So rather than leave this open, I will grant points to the suggestions that probably would have helped. Thank you for your time.
Thanks Shawn,
--Rob
--Rob
ASKER
And I have already asked him to remove it, at least temporarily, but I have not heard back whether this was done yet or not.
It would be nice if that were it, but what does he do if it is? Does he buy new phones or is there a method to have them coexist?