Wi-Fi Grief

[apollo13]

Ok, here goes, I'm on wi-fi and on a regular basis the pages are timing out. Signal's good. I have to keep disconnecting and then reconnecting to get any results, or, get this, if I play chess against the computer that also seems to work every time (not kidding). Any takers?

[beerian]

Is it a netbook on xp or vista? If so, it sounds like power management. Goto control panel --> system --> device manager, find the wifi card, properties and make sure that computer can put this device to sleep is unticked and any power management options in options/properties are disabled.

Edited December 10, 2010 by beerian

[apollo13]

Ta for that Beerian, It's an old notebook, thinkpad R50, but still chugging along ok......running xp 3. Haven't got the option to stop the wi-fi adapter...(is that the same as wi-fi card?) going to sleep, but i did stop the hard drive from nodding off on laptop power management......see if that works, if not, more bloody chess i 'spose.

[TimeBandit2]

Does it exhibit this behavior on only one network, or any network?

That is, if you go to your friends house, and they have wi-fi, does it time out there as well?

If it does time out there as well, try connecting a USB wi-fi dongle or replacing the internal wi-fi card. They're cheap.

If it doesn't time out there, it is probably the router you're connecting to that's the problem. Routers need to be turned on and on about once a week, try resetting it if that doesn't work as it could be configured wrong.

[apollo13]

OK, Timebandit, I'll try turning the rooter off n on, see if that works, but what i still don't understand is, why is my chess game solving the problem....I've changed the power management settings for the hard drive....see if that helps, if it doesn't then i'll reset the rooter......cheers for the advice.

[Xircal]

Maybe others are using your bandwidth. You can check by following the steps described here

Forgot to ask you if your chess game is played over the Internet, or is it a program which you installed on your machine?

Edited December 11, 2010 by Xircal

[apollo13]

Maybe others are using your bandwidth. You can check by following the steps described here

Forgot to ask you if your chess game is played over the Internet, or is it a program which you installed on your machine?

It's a shared wi fi and the game is installed on the comp...not an internet chess game.

[Eureka]

Maybe others are using your bandwidth. You can check by following the steps described here

Forgot to ask you if your chess game is played over the Internet, or is it a program which you installed on your machine?

It's a shared wi fi and the game is installed on the comp...not an internet chess game.

It appears that your WiFi adapter is not keeping the conection active and is timing out. Some games maintain a backgroind connection which would prevent the timeout.

Open a command prompt. (the black window with white writing) and type the following.

ping www.intel.com -t

You can minimize the windows but do not close it.

Now try surfing the web. Is the problem solved?

If this fixes the problem then the WiFi Card/Adapter settings are at fault.