Does my WRT54G have a hardware issue?

[Joemonkey]

I know wireless phones, microwaves, holding your tongue right, and the phase of the moon all have something to do with your wireless connection, but over the past week or so this thing has gotten out of hand. Random disconnects as often as 30 seconds, but sometimes up to 20 minutes all day long on two separate laptops. The disconnect lasts for maybe 5 seconds, but it's enough to be a pain. After 5-10 disconnects I have to disable then re-enable my radio just to connect again. I'm just glad I quit WoW before this started happening... Everything was working fine until recently, nothing in our house has changed.

What I have done so far:

Moved the physical location of the router

Changed antenna positioning

Upgraded to newest official Linksys firmware

Flashed the DD-WRT firmware

Changing the channel from 1, to 6, to 11, happens on all channels

Nothing makes a difference, wireless disconnects after all that.

Checked Netstumbler, we live across the street from an elementary school and it picks up something like 12 APs over there, 4 on channel 1, 4 on channel 6, and 4 on channel 11. However, the SNR is in single digits, whereas mine is always between 50 and 70.

Is it dead? Dying? I bought the thing back in December to replace a D-Link that needed to be rebooted daily, but I know I don't have the receipt any more. I have another WRT54G that none of the wired ports work on after a lightning strike, but wireless works great. Any way to cobble together a working one? They are version 3 and 8, so I'd imagine probably not

Any suggestions? Wired connection on my desktops and even on this laptop does not drop when the wireless does if that's any help.

 

[jaqie]

It's entirely possible... I can't say for sure without being there and testing for a radio signal with some expensive equipment.

To be honest what I would do is buy a WRT54GL for a spare and to test by swapping...

 

[Joemonkey]

Meh, I guess buying a replacement is the best choice. The ONLY other thing I suppose I could try is to move it away from the other electronics on my entertainment center.

I rewired the house to have it on the entertainment center since a wired connection was going to my XBOX, and in case it needed to be rebooted for easy access, vs. when it was in the basement. If I wanted to move it somewhere else, it would require a LOT more cable runs.

Maybe I'll hook up my old D-link on a power timer that reboots it every morning at 4am or something

 

[Joemonkey]

Hooked up my old D-Link, wireless was fine even though it wouldn't stay connected to the cable modem

Went out and dropped another $50 on a router, WRT54G2, so far so good. Only thing that kinda bothers me is that my SSID was Sparta, and after changing it w/ the new router (OCD thing I've always done) I still saw a Sparta out there, but it was only capable of 802.11B and signal strength was somewhat low (about 15SNR)

One day when I get bored maybe I'll put the old one back up and change it's SSID as well...

 

[Joemonkey]

Spoke too soon, this thing has a special wireless security thing on it and even setting it to Manual and changing all settings to what I want, it won't let one of my laptops connect half the time

wish i could find a buffalo router