Losing internet connection

The problem is really; I just lose my internet connection for random amounts of time (up to 15 minutes) and they seem to randomly happen… I could stay on the internet for an hour and it would be fine, or another time I would struggle keeping connection for over 5 minutes!! At first I thought it might have been a problem with my computer (3 computers hooked up to the wireless router and this computer is as close as the others; and they work fine.) I then posted a hijack this log in the malware forums; to no answer. So I ended up formatting my whole machine, and I still have the problem… The main reason I am posting is if somebody could suggest where the problem is, considering it randomly started (as in, nothing noticebly changed at all.) the wireless router is: apple airport extreme the moden is: zoom adsl X3 the adapter I recieve the wireless through is: 54Mbps Wireless-G PCI Adapter (which is plugged in correctly) Cheers for looking, any help would be appreciated

Do you happen to get the "Limited or No Connectivity Error Message" Jeremy

nope, I get no message what so ever…. I just am unable to access the internet when it happens

Are you running Service Pack 2 on the problem omputer?

Hi RockFall,

I am aware you stated that you "formatted my whole machine".
So that should be the answer. Or put another way, I shouldn't even be asking.

I just want to confirm that you did actually Re-Format your Hard Drive, prior to reinstalling the operating system, DirectX 9.0c, Chipset Drivers, and the additional drivers.

I'm asking, to "rule-out" that you may have done an "over the top" repair installation, which would have left any malware in place and still actively causing you problems now.

What is the "home page" that your IE goes to?
Do you recognize the page as one you intentionally selected.
If not, attempt to change the home page to something common, like www.abcnews.com, or Staples.com.
Do you get re-directs when you open IE?

Best Regards

The reason that I was asking what Service Pack you was using is becuase, there is a bug in the system that cause you to lose connection. Most of the time you get the "Limited or No Connectivity" error message but sometimes you can still be effected and not get the error message. Microsoft has a patch to fix thei problem. Here is a link to the topic. It tells where to download the patch to fix it, how install the patch and also some other ideas if that does work.

http://www.pchell.com/support/limitedconnectivity.shtml

Let me know it this helps.
Jeremy

^ tried that, but to no avail… I also gotta say that I have started to encounter some weird problems (especially since there isn't much on the comp and it's been fully protected) Firstly mozilla firefox at time acts funny (I can look at anything on the page I'm on, but I can't go change the website through going back or changing the url etc… and when I try a small white box appears where I clicked) IE has started to crash when I use the dropdown arror on the url address bar And sometimes the taskbar loads slow… funny things because I've never experienced these before (even with the connection problem, until now) I don't think the SP2 fix caused them aswell!! EDIT: the firefox problem is just when I try and download with star downloader so no worries there… I am actually not bothered about the problems in this post… I just though it better to post them!

What kind of wireless card are you using?

my wireless card is: 54Mbps Wireless-G PCI Adapter

Check to make sure the wireless card is working. Try putting into another computer that you know works. Sometime you can find diagnostic software that will test hardware for you. Programs such as: PC Doctor CheckIt Diagnostic (comes with Norton System Works) I can just image that there is a few free good one out there. Do a search for one. Let me know how it turns out. Jeremy Let me know how it goes.

I have been struggling for time recently… but I have been able to swap the wireless cards between this PC and the other on the network (which unfortunately is rarely used) but I still continue to get the same problem with a different wireless card!!
I have downloaded a free diagnostic program called freshdiagnose, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious problem (it does't run a test per se, it just gives info on things…)

I also have reinstalled the wireless card software (which is Ralink), so I then went onto the ralink website for available driver updates: http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm
not sure which of the top 2 to download, or if I should download them!!

Hi Rockfall,

You may have already covered these trouble-shooting steps provided by Microsoft, but if not here goes:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/n…oubleshoot.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn…n/wifitrbl.mspx

I usually find the glitch with those protocols and a few of their links.

Easiest for Wireless is to checkmark the box for "Let Windows Manage your Connection"

Best Regards

them links don't seem to help dough… I would also like to state, that with the majority of the times (not all) the signal moniter (which is a colour of the K: green for good, yellow for moderate, red for bad) drops down to red or sometimes puts a red cross (as in no connection) Recently after all the attempts to fix, the problem seems to worsen in evenings and get better through the day!!

I'm sorry if you've covered this before, but do you still get good DSL connectivity with your other machine, even when you have low-and-no signal at the problem machine?