Samsung NC10 has bad wireless connectivity problems

My roommate got one of these netbooks, and while it seems to run fine, the wireless is being a pain. It's an Atheros wireless chip. It will happily get on the wireless (Netgear router) but after a minute or two it simply loses all IP connectivity. Windows says it has an "Excellent" connection to the router, but the gateway is unpingable and it will not respond for a long time.

I tried updating the drivers, and I also updated the laptop firmware. I wasn't able to find much about it on Google. I don't know if it's a problem with the netbook or a compatibility issue with the router. I do have other wireless devices (laptops, ipod touch) that don't seem to have any problems.

Anyone with an NC10 run into a similar problem?

 

Some people have had problems.

Read the NC10 thread.

John

 

That thread is 68 pages long. Is there a particular range of pages I should focus on?

 

Hi.

Is he using the built in Microsoft Xp WiFi manager or the provided Samsung Version.

As i always find the Microsoft Manager is best in my opinion!

Regards

John.

 

I have it set up to use the native Windows XP wireless stuff. I was never a big fan of those third party things.

 

Yes, I do have a similar connectivity problem with my new NC10. I can see my Access Point (AP) signal at full strength and up to 3 more neighbor signals (quite weak). When I try to connect to my AP, it trys for about 3 seconds and I get an error message saying the AP is not there. However if I try with one of my neighbors' I don't get the error message and I get a dialog box to enter the WEP key, which I don't have so that is as far as I go but aaparently it is getting access. After having me Restore the system and install a new Driver for the Atheros Adapter with no results, Samsung says it is a connectivity problem with my Router/AP. But, my Dell laptop connects OK with the AP ! So connecting to my neighbor (with a weak signal) proves the NC10 works and connecting to my AP with my other laptop proves the AP works. How to resolve this contradiction? Is there something wrong in the Samsung Driver for the Atheros Adpater ? is it possible to install different driver? I have not been able to use my NC10 AT ALL, with no WiFi connectivity a Netbook machine is almost useless, by definition! Please write directly to me if you have a solution or comments, is that possible? If this is a generalized problem, at least to some people, maybe we should do something together directly with the Samsung's President office in Korea.

 

The NC10 contains the Atheros AR5BXB63 wifi card (AR5007EG). This card is just bad. It will drop connections and disappear from device manager randomly. The AR5BXB63 is being used in several netbook and other recent notebook models, and is causing lots of problems.

I say this even though Atheros is my favorite wifi chipset. They just blew it with the AR5BXB63. If your NC10 has this card, just give up now and replace it.

My Acer Aspire One had the AR5BXB63, and I tried numerous driver revisions, bios updates, and configuration tweaks with power management. Nothing worked until replaced it. I replaced it with the Gigabyte WI07HT A/G Dual Band Card. It is also an Atheros card, but it has the AR5006EX chipset which works great. Other cards that will probably work are the Intel 5100, or the wifi card for the Dell 1500 series (see eBay) - although I haven't tried any of these.

 

I've had an NC10 for about 2 months and it was fine until about a week ago when it stopped picking up my wifi. As with others in this thread it shows that the signal is great but doesn't get a proper connection. However if I hold it within 1 foot of the wireless router it connects ok.... any more than that and it doesn't. My other PC is on the other side of the house and conects to the router wirelessly without a problem. I reset the NC10 to the original build and same problem.... quite simply it is hardware. I'm taking mine back to PCWorld on Saturday and am going to do some shouting. I'm seeing similar stories on forums but nobody has found a solution, or shown how to replace the wifi card or what the best one is to get..... is anyone else out there able to shed some light??

 

My son had the same problem, got it nice and new , set it up all himself , the router dynamically allocates an IP address.

A couple of weeks later BAM! NO connectivity.

Here's what I did and believe you me, I am the most non IT technical person around, so If I can do it anyone can!

Go into wifi settings, and manually, allocate an IP address, through TCP/IP settings.

How do you know which one to use...?

Google your wifi router model name and it will give you info on the IP address range for that model (mine was a NETGEAR) you can use.

You need to go into TCP/IP settings in your WIFI set up and manually add a new IP address - other info it requires is stuff like sub NET mask 255:255:255:0 but it all comes with the router info you googled.

You with me?

Or you can check your other laptop/PC that uses the same network/router, note the settings and copy them , except of course the unique IP address.

Hope this helps..

BTW the way if you get an IP conflict (i.e another device /PC/laptop) has the same IP address, go back in and change it again.