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prostuff1

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
1,482
18
Don't step into the kawoosh...
My friend running Windoze XP is having trouble keeping an internet connection.

I am talking to him right now but he disconnects and reconnects about every 10 min. It is really getting annoying on my end and it is probably driving him nuts on his end.

He has a linksys WRT54G connected to an eMachines desktop running XP home. He has the modem connect to the wireless router an the router connected to the computer.

He has a gateway laptop running of the wireless connection. The laptop has XP home on it also. He can sign on but can not keep a connection at all. He has AOL 9.0 cable internet but i know for a fact that the connection is like the lowest speed one AOL offers.

I am not sure if it AOL or the gateway laptop. He can still use the desktop when his connection goes down so i dont think it is the wireless router.

Any help would be great.

Thanks
 

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
prostuff1 said:
My friend running Windoze XP is having trouble keeping an internet connection.

I am talking to him right now but he disconnects and reconnects about every 10 min. It is really getting annoying on my end and it is probably driving him nuts on his end.

He has a linksys WRT54G connected to an eMachines desktop running XP home. He has the modem connect to the wireless router an the router connected to the computer.

He has a gateway laptop running of the wireless connection. The laptop has XP home on it also. He can sign on but can not keep a connection at all. He has AOL 9.0 cable internet but i know for a fact that the connection is like the lowest speed one AOL offers.

I am not sure if it AOL or the gateway laptop. He can still use the desktop when his connection goes down so i dont think it is the wireless router.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Uh, last time I was near a non-Mac computer was about 1986, before Gates ripped off the Mac desktop icon things and dubbed it "Windows".

How come you are asking about a PC on a Mac site?
 

prostuff1

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
1,482
18
Don't step into the kawoosh...
California said:
Uh, last time I was near a non-Mac computer was about 1986, before Gates ripped off the Mac desktop icon things and dubbed it "Windows".

How come you are asking about a PC on a Mac site?

Cause i figured there would be some people her that might have an idea about what was wrong with his problem.

I told him that it was clearly his computer and he should get an iBook to replace the POS gateway laptop he has. He would not listen :mad:
Since i am not there to do anything i figured someone might have some suggestions. I told him to call gateway and ask them about it and he will probably do that tomrrow.
 
L

Lau

Guest
I think it might be XP if that's any help. Not that AOL's much good, but that's another story. Out home setup is a Netgear DG834G, connected wirelessly to a Windows laptop and a Mac laptop. In about a year or so, I have been booted off the network about twice on the Mac. The Windows laptop takes ages to find the connection, and it loses it a few times each session.

I doubt (for this reason) it's AOL, but there may be a setting you can tweak within Windows to get a better connection.
 

prostuff1

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
1,482
18
Don't step into the kawoosh...
Lau said:
I think it might be XP if that's any help. Not that AOL's much good, but that's another story. Out home setup is a Netgear DG834G, connected wirelessly to a Windows laptop and a Mac laptop. In about a year or so, I have been booted off the network about twice on the Mac. The Windows laptop takes ages to find the connection, and it loses it a few times each session.

I doubt (for this reason) it's AOL, but there may be a setting you can tweak within Windows to get a better connection.

Thanks for the info. I told him to call gateway and talk to there support people and see what they say.

I never like AOL either and i told him to try something else but that is the only thing offered in his area.
 

Laser47

macrumors 6502a
Jan 8, 2004
856
0
Maryland
Tell him to update the firmware on his router. Most likely he has a version 5 WRT54G which has been very buggy with download speeds and wireless connections. Those problems can be solved with the 1.0.4 update.
If he doesnt have a version 5 (>5), see if there is a firmware update anyway.
Also tell him to enable MAC address cloning on the router (it has helped for some people)
BTW: he can check what version of the WRT54G he has by looking on the bottom of the unit on the sticker.
Linksys Firmware Updates
 

prostuff1

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
1,482
18
Don't step into the kawoosh...
Laser47 said:
Tell him to update the firmware on his router. Most likely he has a version 5 WRT54G which has been very buggy with download speeds and wireless connections. Those problems can be solved with the 1.0.4 update.
If he doesnt have a version 5 (>5), see if there is a firmware update anyway.
Also tell him to enable MAC address cloning on the router (it has helped for some people)
BTW: he can check what version of the WRT54G he has by looking on the bottom of the unit on the sticker.
Linksys Firmware Updates

Oh yeah, i totally forgot about the fireware update thing. I have the same router as him and now that you mention it that is one of the first things i did. I let hijm know to downlaod it and told him it should help.

Thanks for the information.
 

Laser47

macrumors 6502a
Jan 8, 2004
856
0
Maryland
prostuff1 said:
Oh yeah, i totally forgot about the fireware update thing. I have the same router as him and now that you mention it that is one of the first things i did. I let hijm know to downlaod it and told him it should help.

Thanks for the information.
Yea, before the firmware update for my version 5, my 8meg internet connection topped out at 500k up and 110k down :(. Installed the update and i returned to full speed.
 
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