Can't stay connected to school WiFi

I've been having a lot of trouble lately with my netbook and my university's WiFi network.

Long story short, there are three networks available: one is an unencrypted "guest" network that anyone can connect to. The second is also unencrypted, but presents you with a webpage where you must enter your student account credentials before having full access, and the third is WPA encrypted, and you must enter your credentials before connecting.

I can connect to all of them, but I can't seem to stay connected for more than a minute or two at a time. According to Windows I have all 5 bars of signal strength, but on the two unencrypted networks I just keep disconnected after no more than 5 minutes. On the WPA network, it will disconnect and then prompt me for my username and password again.

Nobody else here seems to be having these issues, and I can't figure it out. This is a relatively fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premiums x64, with the most up to date drivers from Asus. I don't have these issues on any other wireless network, whether it's a public coffee shop network or tethered WiFi from my Android phone.

 

Check IP lease time in connection properties once you're connected to one of those networks- see when it expires.
Also- just for the sake of it- check roaming settings for your Wi-Fi card (advanced tab in device manager). It's possible - although not very likely- that your netbook may be switching between different Access Points (there are most likely many APs with the same SSID to cover the ground).

If that's the case you should change roaming setting to "conservative".

And the usual suspects- make sure that the driver is the most recent (not most recent from Asus but the most recent you can get from any place) and that in Windows power-management Wi-Fi is set to no-power-saving for the profile you're using (the latter can be switched on again when/if you rule that out as a cause of the problem)

 

If your adapter is an atheros card, the drivers can be hard to find, but they are out there.You can get the drivers for the AR5B95/AR9285 from the G73 driver page here: http://www.asusrog.com/forums/showthread.php?1150-G73-Series-Driver-and-Application-Reference. If your Asus was manufactured in the past year, there's a good chance this is your adapter.

 

@d/l - where do I check the IP lease time? I checked the roaming setting, and it's currently "low"; the options are "low", "middle", "high" and "disable". In any case, this happens even when I'm sitting in one spot, whether in the study lounge or in a classroom. WiFi power management is set to "Maximum Performance" on both battery and plugged in.

@tijo - it's a Realtek RTL8191SE. The netbook is an Eee PC 1201N, purchased in January of 2010.

Like I say, the connection itself is fine when it stays connected. I have full bars, and 54.0Mbps, which I believe is right for 802.11g.

 

Open a command prompt and type ipconfig /all. You can see when the lease was issued and when it will expire for your adapter. Well, now i understand why it's not an Atheros, it's an eee not a notebook. I think that realtek chip is integrated. Anyways, you should be able to get the drivers easily enough.

 

Realtek drivers are available on their website- the most recent for your device seems to be from March 2011- give it a try (can't direct-link though).

Roaming might be an issue even when you're in one place when coverage overlaps (and it usually does) and signal strength changes a bit. You may give "disable" a try although just to rule roaming out- your current setting should be enough.