Sudden loss of connection - Please help

Hiyas,

So, I've had this laptop (Fujitsu N6210) since Monday last week. I set it up with a Linksys WRT54G, and it's been working perfectly since - until yesterday. On Wednesday, everything was working fine, and I turned off the laptop when I was done. Thursday, I turned it on, and I had no signal. I've since updated the firmware on the router, and I updated the driver for Intel PRO 2915ABG. I tried to repair the connection both before, in the middle, and after. The laptop's just not seeing the router, but the router has the steady green WLAN light signaling that it's on.

Also, the day (or maybe two days) before the laptop stopped connecting, my desktop (connected with Ethernet cable to the WRT54G) refused to work while the laptop was on - but it worked while the laptop was off. I didn't really do anything about it because it wasn't a big deal at the time... but they played well together for over a week until then!

So, this is my first laptop, and my first router, and I don't know a whole lot about wireless, so any ideas on what to try would be appreciated. Btw, the laptop works if connected to the router by Ethernet cable, at the same time as the desktop that's also connected via Ethernet, and it's set to obtain IP address and everything else automatically. Thanks!

Malia

 

Hm..sounds like you're getting some sort of interference. What is between you and the router? TV's and microwaves cause problems.

Also, try changing the channel on the router to on extreme or the other, see if it helps.

Chaz

 

Chaz,

Thanks! I tried those things... And a whole list of others... Until I realized that the On/Off switch with a squiggly line next to it, that's right next to all the optical drive buttons (stop, eject, fast fwd, rewind) - is actually the wireless on/off switch! And I switched it off!!

To Fujitsu: How often is it that somebody needs to switch off their wireless ASAP? Why not put the brightness up/down buttons there, if there's too much room and all? Gosh!

Well, all this excitement actually brings up another question. What is Intel PROSet/Wireless, why does it want to manage my wireless connection instead of Windows, and should I let it do that? The taskbar icon is pretty ugly, so I think I'll have to hide it, there's enough stuff trying to take up space in there already.

Also, is there a way to remove the LAN icon from the taskbar when no Ethernet cables are plugged in without disabling the LAN wireless adapter?

Sorry for so many questions, and thanks!

Malia

 

The Intel PROSet/Wireless is the driver for your wireless card; your system is most probably a Centrino, right? You'd better leave it in charge, though you may hide the icon
Relating to your topic, however, I'd like to ask something here instead of starting a new thread. My L2000 is currently connected to the Internet through Ethernet cable. It works just fine when I start the machine and work for some time. Yet, if I leave it and the notebook goes to Standby, the connection disappears. It goes to standby and when I return there is no connection. It reports that the cable is in and that Local Area Connection is established but there is no exchange of data. It's probably still sleeping!? When I restart the computer, the connection starts again until the next standby. Any ideas how to cope with that? I tried unchecking the option "allow windows to turn this device off" but no effect. I have the latest drivers from Windows Update ... what could it be?