I have a Netgear 54mps adsl2 DG834G modem, BT broadband, WPA-PSK & WPA2-PSK

It has been working fine with my home laptop and my wifes laptop.

Just brought home a new works laptop and iPhone and suddenly the laptops won't connect to the internet for more than about 5 minutes without dropping the connection. My home laptop won't connect at all if my works one is connected.

I am guessing that either they have some settings that are clashing or the modem is overloaded.

Any advice on making the laptops live happily together?

Go to your hub settings here and have a root around.

My guess is you are having issues with IP addresses assigned to individual PC's/laptops by the router. At a guess, in the advanced settings under home networking. switch on one PC/laptop at a time, and make each IP address permanent as you go. Make sure DHCP server is enabled also.

If that doesn't work, try changing the wireless channel.

If that doesn't work, I've no other ideas unless you post further info.

(I'm presuming the link above is the IP address for your router as it is the default IP address for current BT Homehubs).

Cat5 cable works every time. Wifi sucks

Just brought home a new works laptop and iPhone and suddenly the laptops won't connect to the internet for more than about 5 minutes

Two things here.

1) Can you reliably replicate this issue? Ie, does everything work until you introduce the new device(s)? What I'm getting at here is, is it a big coincidence or not?

2) Does the Internet connection drop on the router, or do the devices lose contact with the router?

It does sound like Waverider might be on the right lines, in that it's possibly an IP conflict. If your work laptop has a fixed IP address that also happens to be in use on your network, you'd get symptoms as described. The only reservation I'd have with this is, in this day and age it's really bloody unusual for a company to issue static IP addresses to laptops.

What you might try on your laptop is, with the work laptop connected, go to a command prompt and type "ipconfig /release" followed by "ipconfig /renew" – this will tell it to get a new IP address allocated to it from the router. I'm assuming XP here – if it's Vista or Windows 7, you'll need to open the command prompt as Administrator first.

Please don't start setting static IP addresses manually on your laptops. That way lies madness.

If you're no nearer, we could do to have a look at the IP settings on the two laptops. Can you confirm what version of Windows you're running on both?

Hang on, I misread the OP slightly.

Just to clarify – everything works fine. You connect your work laptop to the router via WiFi, and at that point -both- home laptops fall off the network. Removing the work laptop, everything works again. Is that right?

Summary to date:

Turn on my home laptop – everything is fine and can see internet using wifi. ipconfig tells me the ip address ends .3

Turn on my wifes laptop – everything is fine and can see internet using wifi. ipconfig tells me the ip address ends .2 My laptop still works.

Turn on the works laptop – everything is fine and can see internet using wifi. ipconfig tells me the ip address ends .4 My laptop stops working with wifi but if I plug the cable in it works fine. The works and my wifes laptop carry on working with wifi

My laptop and the work laptop are sat next to each other on the desk right next to the router. My wifes laptop is downstairs.

Mine – Windows Vista
Hers – Windows 7
Works – Windows XP

Cheers.

Bit leftfield, but are the WiFi cards operating at a mix of 802.11b/g/n? Eg, your home machines are all 802.11n, you introduce the work machine which is 802.11g only, the router renegotiates at lowest common denominator, and your laptops fall off the world as they're set to .n only?

(warning, the above contains large amounts of speculation)

Sounds plausible.

What does it mean and how do I change it?

Good question.

On the Vista / 7 machines, go to the properties page for the wireless connection, it'll show you the connection speed. 11mbps is 'b', 'g' is 54mbps and 'n' is, ah, faster. 108 probably.

On my XP box, it's under 'link status' on the properties page, the same applies.

First question is, are they different?

Actually, that's probably cock, as I've just spotted you listed the model of your router. DG834G is b/g only. I'll be shocked if the work laptop is nailed at 802.11b, unless it's really old.

Hmm.

Out of interest, have you tried disabling WPA? Not permanently, but as a troubleshooting step; would be nice to rule out encryption compatibility issues.

have you tried updating the firmware on the router?

Also,

Is WiFi enabled on the Netgear -and- on the BT 'hub'?

Netgear Wireless Routers are shite.

Bin it and get a Cisco

Seriously, they especially don't like playing with macs. For the sake of £50 it is not worth pi$$ing around with them IMHO.

have you tried updating the firmware on the router?

Good call. Every Netgear router I've ever used has been pants out of the box until it's had the firmware upgraded.

Top tip here is to export the settings from it to a text file before you start, as it can wipe them when you flash it.

Geoff –

1) in a corporate environment I'd agree, but for a home network there's absolutely nothing wrong with Netgear routers. If you're seriously suggesting that every home user should have a Cisco router, I'd respectfully offer that you're bonkers in the nut.

2) how many Macs do you see in the OP's question?

3) call me old fashioned, but I'd rather find a solution to the problem than blindly throw money at it. Otherwise, you might end up seriously out of pocket and absolutely no nearer a resolution.

Geoff –

1) in a corporate environment I'd agree, but for a home network there's absolutely nothing wrong with Netgear routers. If you're seriously suggesting that every home user should have a Cisco router, I'd respectfully offer that you're bonkers in the nut.

2) how many Macs do you see in the OP's question?

Cougar, you are of course correct, I've just had a couple of bad experiences with them, which came as a shock given that the wired stuff they do is bombproof. I just hate having to spend time tweaking stuff that should just work. I have a 6 year old ozenda router which has never missed a beat, and a 2 year old cisco one which is the same.

As for the mac question – 1.

TBH, if BBB reverts to form and uses the adjustable hammer on it, he may be in the market for a new one – I was just getting my recommendation in early 🙂

3) call me old fashioned, but I'd rather find a solution to the problem than blindly throw money at it. Otherwise, you might end up seriously out of pocket and absolutely no nearer a resolution.

You might be right there, but sometimes, £50 is a price worth paying if I don't have to spend an evening checking and mucking about with MAC addresses, DHCP settings and WPA flavours.

*snort*

I get where you're coming from, though to be honest I've had exponentially more problems with generic happy shopper routers than I ever have with any of the 'branded' kit. Netgear and Linksys (which is Cisco's home offering these days) are about the best of a bad bunch in my experience.

In the case of the Netgear, I do wonder if the aforementioned firmware issue is what bit you? My first Netgear (a DG835G v2) was originally -terrible- until I flashed it, then it was a different machine entirely.

£50 is a price worth paying if I don't have to spend an evening checking and mucking about with MAC addresses, DHCP settings and WPA flavours.

Agreed, if you know that's going to fix it. In this case we don't, yet.

In the case of the Netgear, I do wonder if the aforementioned firmware issue is what bit you? My first Netgear (a DG835G v2) was originally -terrible- until I flashed it, then it was a different machine entirely.

I suspect you are bang on the money there 🙂

I just hate having to spend time tweaking stuff that should just work.

Sadly, that's pretty much my job description. Ho hum.

I will flash at my netgear then.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Oh – check the version on the label, there's several different versions.

Seriously folks, ditch the wifi.

I recently had my house networked for under £200 – this did not require any channels chasing into the plasterwork by the way

RJ45 sockets near to the router; more RJ45 sockets in each room where I want to use a computer; some Cat5e cable and a bit of manual labour to connect them together. Then some patch cables to connect the router to the sockets, and some 3m fly-leads to connect the computers to the network.

Bingo, no more wifi blues

Seriously folks, ditch the wifi.

Not much use for the iPhone though, is it?

🙄

How very 20th Century of you.

I recently had my house networked for under £200 – this did not require any channels chasing into the plasterwork by the way

Did you do this yourself, or did you just pay someone?

Bingo, no more wifi blues

Just cables running around all the skirting boards and £200 lighter 😉

no cables round the skirting – all under the floor & out behind the skirting.

No I didn't do it myself.

If I had done it myself then it would have been cables round the skirting (and about £70) but that used to be part of my day-job so I couldn't be arsed

20th Century it may be, but it works. How many of you are driving round in 20th Century cars?

No it probably isn't much use for the iPhone that I don't have

wifi isn't usually that much of a problem tbh, although I do wire it in when I can (where stuff happens to be near the router) and if I was decorating, I'd consider it, as it sounds like it is a bit disruptive – but you are restricting things to be in certain postitions though.

well, only in so much as you need to be within 3-5m of the socket – however long your fly-lead is really.

There is a reason why businesses still use, for the most part, wired networks

It wasn't that disruptive – took a team of 2 guys less than a day.

Wifi is great until your neighbours start clogging up all the channels, or your house turns out to have been built full of bits of metal.

There's a common misconception that there are 14 channels available, since you can choose any channel in that range (country regulations permitting).

But actually the channels overlap. So if you're on channel 1 and your neighbour is on channel 2 or 3, then you will be slowing each other down.

802.11a is much better in this respect, but I think it's still quite hard to get 802.11a kit that's actually legal to use in the UK.