Help! Desperate! - Problem With Wireless Network

I am in a house that has Comcast cable that is shared among a total of 10 people via a router. The router is located on the first floor. One of the problems with the connection, is that the upstairs rooms have a very hard time connecting to the wireless connection. A comcast guy came by and said that our router was spreading the wifi signal out sideways, rather than upward and out. We have a Belkin router(just purchased it), would you happen to know if it is the router that is the problem?

Also, people who wirelessly connect(including people on the ground floor) continually have their wireless signals lost. And the signal does not go out for all the computers at the same time, but often disconnects various computers at random, while still providing the signal to other computers. Unless we are directly wired to the router, the signal is very flaky and very unstable, disconnecting every few hours. Whenever it disconnects, I turn offthe router(by unplugging it) and turn it on again, to restore the wireless signal to my computer. And if that does not work, restarting my computer usually works.

My house mates and I were thinking that maybe the problem is the router, and I agree. But before taking any action as yet(it is going to be a pain trying to get the current router replaced) I thought I should ask anyone with more experience on the issue.

My question to you is this: What can I do to fix this problem? Should I get a new router? If so, what type/model would you recommend? Is it a router setting? Do I need to access the router preferences and adjust the settings from there? Please post anything that may help me. I am very desperate right now, and any help is appreciated. Please respond as soon as you can, because we are trying to resolve this fairly soon.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

 

i just bought a new router, and even then my comcast cable internet drops a couple times a week. i have to 'repair' the connection, or restart the modem/router/computer to bring it back up. i don't think anyone gets an unbroken signal from comcast. i have had techncians 'fix' my connection (they replaced the outlet, connectors and cables) and they say everyone has problems. they also said their 'repairs' probably wouldn't prevent the occasional outage...

before the new router, i was having weird problems like you- and the new router really improved things. if you have computers that are obtaining/losing a signal intermittently, especially close to the router- it is probably the router. you could test this by connecting a computer to the router by ethernet. if ethernet and wireless connections go down, i would say the problem is the modem or the signal. if the ethernet stays up while the wireless goes down, it is likely a wireless problem. this is what happened with my now replaced netgear router. wireless would be totally unpredictable, while ethernet was rock solid. i guess the wireless transmitter in the router was on the fritz.

 

I have Comcast and a Belkin router and adapter and very rarely have problems. Have your router and adapters all had firmware/driver updates? The router should be set as high and away from obstacles as possible, as well as in the most central location available to you. The machines using the signal should be away from phones, microwaves and other metal objects. You might also try changing the channel on the router. You can also either allow Windows or the Adaper software to manage the connection - whichever works best for you (my machine hates Windows Zero Configuration and works much better with the Belkin app). One last step which really helped in my own situation, was to set WPA and also ensure that the machines using the network make that particular router the first/main choice for the connection.

 

First off, try running the network unencrypted or if you're using WPA, step down to WEP. I'm betting many consumer devices were never intended to have 10 active connections at once. Some of the earlier D-link routers couldn't even handle ONE client with encryption. If that clears up the problem, you know the router doesn't have enough processing capacity to handle that many connections.

Either way, this should help. Put one or two of these in, set 'em to different channels (One on 1, one on 6 and one on 11) and different network names, and segregate who connects to which AP to ease the load on your router. My guess is that you'll clear up a lot of your problems. You only need one ethernet to powerline adapter. You can put multiple powerline/wireless APs on after that. Buy 'em at a retailer so that if they don't work you can return them.

 

Instead of paint or wallpaper you could cover your walls in alumunim foil.

On a more serious note, interefence from certain types of building materials can be an issue for the people upstairs. If everyone is losing the signal upstairs but those near the router are fine then this is likely your problem. Also, make sure your router is placed as close to the center of the home as possible and preferably higher rather than lower. If it has external atenna point them in the directions needed. Make sure you don't have a cordless phone/speaker sitting directly beside the router and don't set it on a microwave.

Be sure to follow beefman's suggestion regarding the different channels or see if your encryption on that router is the issue.

I use Comcast for my ISP as well with a Linksys WRT54G router with WPA-2 encryption and have had no such connection issues. If my power goes out I may need to power cycle it but that is it. Other than a power outage I have no dropped connections at this point.

I used to use a Linksys Wireless-G USB adapter to connect one of the desktop PCs but it couldn't maintain the signal. That desktop is now connected with CAT5e and is located near the router and all of the other PCs and laptops have no problems.

Maybe contacting Belkin after trying the suggestions you get from people here would be a better first route than trying a different router initially. Perhaps others experienced similar problems and their tech guys are aware of the quick fix or settings change that is needed. You may also want to check for a firmware upgrade if available.

 

Thanks a lot for the responses! I will definitely look into those.

I talked to someone who knows a lot about computers, etc. and he said it may be due to people using torrents, etc. which often doesn't work well with routers, and which may be causing the connection to be unstable.

What do you guys think of this? Valid? I am up to asking people to stop torrenting to see how it will affect out connection. Thanks!

 

Oh hell yes that'd kill the poor Belkin! Won't cure the signal issue but that's likely a huge reason why the router is locking up. Bittorrent generates a TON of network traffic and connections. Open up a command prompt in Windows (Start/Run/type CMD and click OK) while bittorrent is running. Then type "netstat -a" and press enter (without the quotes). Some of it isn't bittorrent but a lot is. Imaigne that times 8 or 10 people.

The router has to track each connection and map the internal IP for the computer opening the connection to the external port it's assigned to that particular 'transaction'. Multiply that by 10 people and you're absolutely going to just drive the router batty. You can still use bittorrent but only have ONE client. Have everyone work off that one client. The best thing might be one of those bittorrent/NAS boxes. You should be able to 'funnel' bittorrent traffic in the router's firmware to one computer. That will also preclude anyone else from using it.