DELL D630/4965AGN and D-Link DIR655 drops

The Dell Lattitude is a work laptop and runs CISCO VPN. With a newly bought D-Link N router I was getting dropped a lot - would see the laptop acquiring connection icon active for a couple seconds, while my VPN went down. At the same time I had a desktop PC, with a cheap AirLink 10gb card humm along just fine. Both computers were at the same desk, 10ft from the router through the wall. showing excellent signal strength. Laptop was plugged in, so no battery issue here.

Desktop too would experience rare resets, but never at the same time as laptop. And laptop's resets were frequent and annoying to the point I returned the router to the store.

There also was a Mac connected to the same router via wire was running torrents, but not enough to swamp our Comcast connection (but maybe enough to swamp the router?)

I have heard many theories of what was the culprit:

1) D-Link was a piece of junk
2) D-Link was missing a $99 visit from Fry's wireless network guy to configure it right
3) 4965AGN in Dell would not play with D-link (N draft versions incompaibilities)
4) cordless phones were interfering - we have both 2.4 and 5.8 in a house, but neither was ringing at the time of drops
5) torrenting was putting too heavy load on the router
6) VPN was causing it, and we needed to add a "booster" in between
router and laptop (regardless of top signal strength)

I really would like to have a gigabit wireless router. It does not necesarily have to run with Dell's 4965AGN at full 300mbps, but it can't be dropping me every hour or 15 min. It also has to stand up to the Mac chewing it's wired connection with heavy data load of torrenting. I am willing to let the 5.8 phone go (but not the 2.4). Any insights as to what the problem really was, and suggestion what to buy?

 

Try hitting the "Channel" button on your phones. Also, see if you can pop the panel off of the underside of the laptop and unplug the antennas and put them back on. Try reseating the card also.

Greg

 

I purchased a D-Link 625 router with similar issues, except mine dropped my PS3 as well.... So I want to let you know you are not alone, thinking possibly my D-Link might have been partially D.O.A. I sent it back, and when I get the replacement I will let you know tomorrow. However it may be Intel 4965agn and D-Link may not play well together :-/

 

Theory number 3 sounds most likely to me. We have a D-Link DWL-3200AP and some D630 Notebooks. There are dropouts every now and then, and the connection is unstable at its best.
I have not concluded, but we only have this problem with the D630's with the Intel 4965agn built in network card. I think Dell have a problem here, even if it's D-link that possibly create them. But I haven't seen any solution so far, except going back to an older wireless card.

Arnie

 

The mere fact that the cordless phones weren't ringing at the time isn't conclusive proof that they weren't interfering with the wireless signal; the phones may still be transmitting to the base receiver to "stay in touch" even if they're not ringing. The only way to tell for sure is to unplug the phones and power them down.

 

in my case, intel 5100 drops quite often on both hp dv7t and gateway p7811fx, about once per hour.
thats with 2 top notch routers, belkin pre-n and dlink 655.