Annoying problem with wireless router

[Blackberry Bun]

Sometimes when my brother is using my wireless router for browsing or playing online game he just suddenly disconnect and cannot connect to my network anymore with message "Windows is unable to connect to the selected network". Turning off the router and turning it back on will enable him to connect again, but it's annoying whenever that happens. Not to mention that lately it happens twice a day. Anybody has any idea why it happens and what can be done to prevent it?

[cpd2009]

First, we need to know the brand and model number of your router. That way, I can search for any other people that are having similar problems with that particular router. We also need the model and brand of your brother's laptop, if possible.

There could be something with that laptop's wireless card that is causing the router to crash in that manner.

[RAMChYLD]

It's usually an indication of incompatibility between the router and wifi chipset of the laptop. There's a few things you can do:

1. Check for new version of the wifi chipset drivers for your brother's laptop.
2. Upgrade the router firmware if available.
3. Change router

I suspect 3 will be the quickest way to solve the issue, but of course it's not the cheapest. Alternatively, he could just switch to using LAN cables when playing games online? Wade could be right- the wireless card probably sent a packet sequence that broke the router- I noticed that this sometimes happens with certain routers.

[Blackberry Bun]

This is the router


My brother's laptop is Fujitsu Lifebook NH751

Changing router is not an option because this current one is not even one month old. Oh, and if this bit of information is of any use, the game he plays is Elsword Online, Indonesia server.

[RAMChYLD]

This is the router


My brother's laptop is Fujitsu Lifebook NH751

Changing router is not an option because this current one is not even one month old. Oh, and if this bit of information is of any use, the game he plays is Elsword Online, Indonesia server.

Well, try looking for a driver update for your brother's laptop, and firmware update for the router. I reckon the new drivers would be enough.

As for the router... TP-Link. Quite a low key brand, but my experience says that they're reliable. I have a pair of 10/100 fast Ethernet card from them from 2000, and they still work when they wre pulled to be replaced with gigabit cards last year! Right now, I'm using a 24-port gigabit switch from said company and it works well.

[Blackberry Bun]

The two of us have observed that this happens whenever my mother connects her Blackberry's wi-fi to the network. Can that be a possible cause? What is your opinion?

[RAMChYLD]

Well, anything is possible. Is your mother using the latest blackberry OS? Have you tried updating your router's firmware? And of course, update the laptop's wireless drivers? If the same thing is done with the old router, does the same thing happen?

[Stella Grapes]

This type of thing happens a lot in my household, too, although our router and laptops and phones are different. I think multiple things trying to talk to one router is part of it. Am I right?

[RAMChYLD]

This type of thing happens a lot in my household, too, although our router and laptops and phones are different. I think multiple things trying to talk to one router is part of it. Am I right?

Well, I fear that either one of the devices (either the Blackberry or the laptop, or both) was wired to a fixed IP address and when one comes on an IP address conflict occurs. Or even worse, both devices somehow has the same non-changeable hardware address (called the MAC address even though it has nothing to do with Apple's computers). If that happens, usually the router's action would be to kick off the device that connected first because it is assuming the older device has crashed and is reconnecting.

If it's a IP address conflict, the fix is trivial- just check both devices and make sure they get their IP address by DHCP and not manual entry.

If it's a MAC address conflict, there's nothing much we can do. Some wireless cards allow you to change the MAC address by reflashing it's BIOS, but for most cards, the best you can do is to turn it off and use the wired connection or a USB Wifi dongle.

Less realistically would be the laptop mistaking some of the signal transmitted by the blackberry phone as a "kill" signal and thus act accordingly. It's rare, but does happen mainly due to driver bugs on the laptop.

[Stella Grapes]

My Mac has officially retired. Hey, May 2006 - December 2012 is a very good long run. I use a PC laptop now.