My Sister's Wifi seems to die every X amount of minutes?

[Crow550]

She's trying to watch Netflix Instant on her Wii for now. She wanted to get a Netflix enabled device that supported HD content. However until the Wifi can work properly.

I will send her a link to this thread.

What would be a good wireless scanner to see if any other devices are conflicting? I tried Netstumbler but it wouldn't load on her PC? Some .dll error.

I tried swapping Wifi channels 1, 6 & 11. No difference.

I even tried moving the wireless router closer to the Wii.

Tried different routers too....All G as for N she would need a special adapter for the Wii.

Any help would be appreciated.

She's in a house in the woods. Couldn't find any other hot spots from neighbors using the Windows Wifi scanner. She does have a garage door opener, cell phones. I think she got rid of her 2.4GHZ phones....

 

[darkewaffle]

Are you sure it's the wifi and not the internet connection itself? For about a year and a half I lived in an apartment where where our connection would drop and re-up every 4 hours like clockwork. Whenever I looked into this, I found out it's just something some ISPs do.

Try and isolate the problem. Test the router with a wired connection, test the modem with just a PC, see if the connection dies on a regular interval or at regular times.

It could be the wifi, but there's also a number of other things it could be.

 

[Crow550]

I have the same ISP as her....

Could it be the cable modem? She is currently renting one. I got her a cable modem. However she hasn't got it switched yet.

It appears like the Wifi router will cut out like I said every X amount of time. The same time each time. Sometimes it will crash and then need to be unplugged. This all happened with another Wifi router too.

Her PC is direct connected.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Microwaves, distance, bad wiring, cordless phones etc. Does she work ok if she goes wired just to rule out the possibility of it being the ISP losing signal?

 

[Crow550]

I had stated that in my last post some possible 2.4ghz devices that could be causing issues.

Does a Microwave matter if it's not running?

Yes the PC is connected directly. I believe the connection will be fine as long as wireless is not being used.

I will clarify this with her to make sure.

 

[wirednuts]

it very easily could be the cable modem. talk about devices (especially the pos's that you rent from the cable company) that do so many weird things that you never can pinpoint.

i had one run about half speed, sometimes 1/8th speed for a whole summer. i finally called out the cable company, and the guy spent 2 hours going over my entire network backbone. thing is, im a union electrician and i assured him the wiring was proper. he didnt listen to my first suggestion of just trying a freakin replacement modem.

so after 2 hours, he finally got frustrated and said "i have another modem in the truck, i dont see how it will matter but its worth a shot at this point". sure enough, new modem installed and everything works absolutely perfect.

and that lasted about a year. this time, intermittent dropouts. knowing what i knew, i just bought a linksys cm100 on ebay for $25. installed that, saw speeds and stability i have never seen before. completely smoked the crap that comcast kept giving me... never looked back. i will never rent a cable modem again.