Wifi gone wonky

[luciusad2004]

Hey guys. I have a little Acer aspire one and I've been having problems w/ the wifi. The problem is that it doesn't want to see my home network. It sees all of the unprotected networks around me but it wont see mine. It connects to the other networks fine as well. Other computers in my household connect to wifi fine.

After a few minutes sometimes if I disable the wireless connection and reenable it, it will auto connect to my network like normal.

I don't know to much about setting up wifi but I do have the router setup to hide the ssid and use WEP authentication.

Anyone got any idea's what might be wrong w/ it? I'm so lost. I might just try reinstalling the wifi drivers. I just hope above all else that my wifi chipset isn't crapping out. I Imaginve if it was ready to die it wouldn't be connecting to any other networks though.

[OvRiDe]

Linux or Windows? .. I had to add 0x at the beginning of my wep key in linux.

[luciusad2004]

Windows XP, Sorry, should have mentioned that.

[Outlaw]

Do you have the wireless to connect to your router first? If the router isn't broadcasting and the pc doesn't look for it first, the pc may not be able to find it. I have our laptop set to look for and connect to our router first even though the router isn't broadcasting. Even without the broadcast, the pc still sees and connects to the router.

[Mach]

Are you using XP to manage your wireless connections? If so, try setting your wireless to broadcast then see if it connects. If it does then reset your router to not broadcast. XP has a stupid rule that it won't connect to a non-broadcasting router the first time but will after its connected to the router previously. Even so it sometimes "forgets". Hope that helps, troubleshooting wireless is a PIA.

[luciusad2004]

Do you have the wireless to connect to your router first? If the router isn't broadcasting and the pc doesn't look for it first, the pc may not be able to find it. I have our laptop set to look for and connect to our router first even though the router isn't broadcasting. Even without the broadcast, the pc still sees and connects to the router.
Yeah it looks for my network first. I used to use my laptop at multiple locations so I had a few networks saved in there.



Are you using XP to manage your wireless connections? If so, try setting your wireless to broadcast then see if it connects. If it does then reset your router to not broadcast. XP has a stupid rule that it won't connect to a non-broadcasting router the first time but will after its connected to the router previously. Even so it sometimes "forgets". Hope that helps, troubleshooting wireless is a PIA.
Hmmm, I'll give that a shot. If turning on broadcasting makes it work I might just turn it back on. I always feel more secure on a non broadcasting router though.

[Outlaw]

If you don't already have it set, MAC filter will help (obviously ways around/through it). If somebody really wants on your network, not broadcasting wont stop them. lol GL

[luciusad2004]

If you don't already have it set, MAC filter will help (obviously ways around/through it). If somebody really wants on your network, not broadcasting wont stop them. lol GL

I thought about mac filtering but never really got around to it because I figured it would be a ton of work to set up. I never thought mac filtering was something easy to get around though. Either way occasionally family and friends bring laptops and filtering would make it extra difficult. I don't really have to worry about 1337 haxorz in my area.

I set it up to broadcast today I'm gonna see how it works out over the next couple of days.

[TheGreatSatan]

Did you install IE8? Everyone I know has been having connection problems since they installed it because of IE8's built in firewall.

Also, right click My Computer choose Manage.
Double click "Services and Applications"
Double click "Services"
Scroll down to the bottom of the list and look for "Wireless (something or other)"

Is it set to Automatic? If not,

Double click it
From the drop down menu select Automatic.
Click OK

Reboot

[luciusad2004]

Thanks for the tips TGS. The wireless service was already set to auto. I'm not sure about IE8 though. I wouldn't have voluntarily installed it so unless it auto installed in an update I shouldn't have it.

Edit: I checked and I have IE7. It hasn't given me any trouble so far today since I Enabled ssid broadcasting but I'll give it a few more days and see what happens.

I'm thinking it might also be a distance thing. Usually when i can't connect its right after my computer wakes up from sleep mode and I'm up in my room one floor above the router. If I go down stairs and wait a few minutes and then reset the wifi on my laptop it will usually connect right up.