Router issues (or more accurately, Vista issues, related to a router).

[Insectoid]

For some reason, my landlord's computer is having trouble connecting to her network. When I reset the router & modem (unplug, wait, plug back in), it connects fine. However, once disconnected from the network (manual disconnection, sleep mode, power off, whatever), it cannot properly reconnect. It will show a connection to the router, however it isn't able to connect to anything past it (ie the internet). I can't ping anything past the router. Once again, resetting the router allows a connection.

She's running Vista (blech) and the router is some model of dlink (I'm too lazy to check it). The network is unsecure (not a good thing, but not my problem). All drivers are up to date.

Any ideas on fixing this?

[Sur_real]

yeah I sometimes get similar problems like this but it's tolerable for me. Although, have you tried another router? or does it only happen on your landlord's? From there you can pretty much figure out what the problem is...

Oh and are you expecting a discount of some sorts on your rent?

[DemonWasp]

At a complete and total guess, it may have to do with DHCP leases. Check the router's DHCP settings and the network settings on the PC (generally, these should use DHCP) and the IP assigned to the computer both when it works and when it doesn't work. Try the following commands:

code:

ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew

which will prompt Windows to release the IP address configured for all connections on the machine and renew the IP address from the router (again, assuming DHCP).

If that all looks kosher, my next guess would be DNS problems. Get an IP for something that never goes down (google.com, duh) from a working computer and try navigating there / pinging that address; if you can do that, but not access google.com, then the DNS system is broken, and ipconfig /flushdns should help.

Some routers are known to behave very poorly if exposed to software that creates a lot of short-lived TCP connections, so check whether she (or someone else on her network) is using bittorrent or other P2P software.

You may well find that it's just some spectacularly shoddy network equipment. Most home routers are really just awful in terms of reliability, speed and power, and I've had constant problems with mine too.

[mirhagk]

My router CONSTANTLY disconnects while watching Netflix on my 360, so I likely have a terrible router right? What are some of the good routers you'd recommend?

[DemonWasp]

I honestly don't know. I've had problems with every router I've tried so far -- WRT54G, WRT300N, DIR-615. The most reliable one, out-of-the-box, was the DIR-615, but even that I had to manually update the firmware to get port forwarding working, because it couldn't figure out that there were updates available. I italicize that because the device I received had firmware that was about 5 versions (3+ years) out of date.

It also took several attempts to make it actually update, because it didn't like some of the updates I downloaded, and would only upgrade to a single specific version (not, as you might expect, the next one in chronological order).

The most reliable router I've ever dealt with was the WRT54G after upgrading the firmware to use DD-WRT instead of LinkSys firmware. It was relatively solid; it only needed rebooting maybe once every 2-3 months. I seriously recommend checking out DD-WRT or Tomato if you can.

[Insectoid]

My computer connects fine. Then again, I am almost always connected to P2P (my ISP (shaw >.>) throttles P2P uploading so my torrents seed for a week, while they download in half an hour).

I've checked the dhcp leases via the router, and that seems to be working fine. I've manually reset dhcp on the router and that didn't seem to work. I'll try running those IP commands on her computer.

@Sur_real, I'm already only paying $300/month, and I don't pay for utilities. I'm just helping out, because I'm the only one who can (without having to shell out the obscene cost of a tech to come in).

[2goto1]

Try rebooting her computer. If that fails, as a test try connecting her laptop to a different working wifi network if possible. If it continues to not connect, try upgrading her laptop nic drivers from the vendor website if possible (and any other bios / chipset updates). Other than that I'm not sure what else you could try apart from disabling the internal wifi nic and purchasing a USB / PCI Express nic

[Insectoid]

-rebooting was the first thing I did
-All drivers are up to date
-it connects fine with a cable. I haven't tried with other networks, however since my laptop has no issues I don't think the network itself is the problem.

[Sur_real]

like 2goto1 said, I'm guessing it's the computer's wireless card that got issues. Do you have another wifi adapter/nic that uses like an USB? you can trying using that instead of the internal one. Most routers, not if all, should've came with one I think.

[Insectoid]

None of the routers I've ever had came with a wireless fob. Dunno where you're getting that info (or if I just haven't bought a router in a while, lol).

[mirhagk]

some routers come with them, I've seen them, but their mostly popular at surplus kinda tech stores, not future shop.

[2goto1]

Yep, you can buy a 3rd party 802.11b/g/a/n WIFI nic that plugs into either USB or PCI Express, i.e.:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=51625&vpn=512AN_HMWG2&manufacture=Intel#CustomerReviews

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=46387&vpn=USB-N13&manufacture=ASUS

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/retail-plus-retail-plus-wireless-n-usb-adapter-rp-npwl-nusb-rp-npwl-nusb/10161724.aspx?path=db1d6c16da81e36cdd93612050b04012en02

[DemonWasp]

If nothing in my first post helps, try manually updating the firmware on the router, even if the auto-updater doesn't think there are any updates. The auto updater on DLink routers can be a dirty liar.