Wireless dilemma

[Lorin]

2 Laptops
One with Win XP Pro
One new with Vista Home Premium
Router tied to DSL modem
have old Netgear Wireless router
have new LinkSys WGU624 wirelss router - Vista compatible
all work fine hardwired - only.
after hours with tech support on both routers and laptops, no one can get the wireless to connect.
I occassionally see the SSID (not all the time)
I get all green bars - plenty of signal.
Tried open and WEP various bit lengths.
Nothing will connect.
I suspect interference, but what?
I have a cordless phone, but it is on the rest.
There are other routers around, the most powerfull shows all but one bar.
How can I find out what is causing all of this?
How do I track down interference?

[XamirX]

2 Laptops
One with Win XP Pro
One new with Vista Home Premium
Router tied to DSL modem
have old Netgear Wireless router
have new LinkSys WGU624 wirelss router - Vista compatible
all work fine hardwired - only.
after hours with tech support on both routers and laptops, no one can get the wireless to connect.
I occassionally see the SSID (not all the time)
I get all green bars - plenty of signal.
Tried open and WEP various bit lengths.
Nothing will connect.
I suspect interference, but what?
I have a cordless phone, but it is on the rest.
There are other routers around, the most powerfull shows all but one bar.
How can I find out what is causing all of this?
How do I track down interference?

i don't know why you bought a new Router just for vista,all the routers are compatible With vista it's the same connector(RJ-45)and needs the same driver.
802.11A+B+G are supported in vista.

let's get back to the problem
check the settings is set to "No Broadcast SSiD" if so,change it you should fined your connection.
something else that you can check to is if you are using Mac address filtering,if so you can make one of the following
1.shut down the filtering(less secure)
2.add your self to the Mac address(much more secure).

[Lorin]

The Vista compatible are supposed to install easier and I saw that could happen if the laptop would connect to the router.
Anyway ... I have already tried all of that and with the help of their tech support (that was little help).

I believe that I have an interference problem.
But I do not know how to locate it or what to do about it.

I can access wireless at a hotspot away from home.
Perhaps my neighbor is radiating something that swamps out my signals.
Occassionally I see my SSID show up with all bars green, then it disappears.
It says uit sees it but cannot connect.
How do I detect that.
The standard "Finders" state on the box that they ignore things like cordless phones etc so that will not work.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Just marketing hype...same install steps as if you were on Win95 or 98 or ME or 2K or XP...manage router/ap with a web browser to the IP address.

[Lorin]

I guess no one that knows much about wireless technical issues come to this board.

[YeOldeStonecat]

I guess no one that knows much about wireless technical issues come to this board.

Have you tried the wireless networking tips stickied to the top of this forum? Everything I'd reply here is already mentioned in that troubleshooting thread.
Also your DSL modem may already be a router...can conflict with your wireless router, what make/model is your DSL modem?

[chpalmer]

You need someone with a spectrum analyzer.

When your signal disappears, do the distant AP's also go away?

Try changing the channel of your AP to something else like 1 or 11.

Get a copy of netstumbler installed on your xp laptop. You can watch the signal strength of multiple AP's easier that way.

Turn both routers on with one on ch 1 and 1 on ch 11. Let the laptops connect to each and see if the problem happens at the same time on both.

Hire a two-way radio shop with the right tools to come out and find the interference. They are generally about $90 and hour. I do it around here all the time.

Good Luck!