New laptop on wireless lan will not connect properly

[gkroeger]

I have a Linksys Wireless B router and have been using it for a couple of years without a problem. I have had one desk top PC (Sony VAIO) directly connected and a Toshiba Satellite laptop connected with its built in NIC. Both machines have functioned well.

My wife purchased a new Toshiba lap top a few months ago and I have never been able to get it to connect properly to the Linksys router. It appears to connect and will pull up a page on the internet with the Internet Explorer, however, after switching sites a couple of times the browser hangs up. Also, after a period of time it seems to knock the router out and none of the machines will connect to the internet until I reset the router.

I have checked on the Linksys page and I can see that all devices are listed each with their own IP address.


When I ping 127.0.0.1 on the suspect laptop to check the internal NIC, it responds everytime in under 1ms. When I ping other computers on the local network it responds only about 50% of the time or less. The times that it is unsuccessful it times out.

Does anyone have any suggestions??????

[classicsoftware]

What firewall if any is on the PC? The computer most likely has a wireless G card and you may need a firmware upgrade on the router for it to work well with these cards.

[gkroeger]

Ben
Thanks for the response
At this point the balky machine is using just the Windows firewall and it is shut off.

I took you suggestion and upgraded the firmware on the router, however, that did not seem to help. After I upgraded the firmware the router changed all of the IP addresses but the balky new laptop is still acting the same.

When I switched on the NIC on the laptop I got a good signal and was able to launch the browser and access a web page, however, 5 minutes later I had no signal from the router and when I when back to check the other two machines they were also off line. After I recycled the router everything (except the balky machine) came back up.

[classicsoftware]

The problem may be the router will not support a wireless G card. Take the PC to starbucks or some other public hot spot and see if you have any problems. If you can connect wirelessly other place and not at home then the router is the issue and you may need to upgrade. If it wont connect at a public hot spot, we will need to dig further.

[gkroeger]

Thanks again

I will give that a try......

[gkroeger]

I just connected a new wireless camera to the router last night and it works fine. I just noticed that the camera is a Linksys WVC54GC Wireless-G. So apparently the router works with a Linksys Wireless-G. Maybe it is either a problem with the laptop or the router just doesn't work with the Toshiba Wireless G. I am not sure what type of NIC is in my other Toshiba. Do you know of any way to tell short of tearing into the machine?

I will try to connect the balky machine to another network somewhere.

Thanks

Gary

[gkroeger]

Interesting
Following your suggestion, I noticed that a neighbor had a unsecured wireless network close by. I had a very weak signal but was able to connect. Surprise, the balky laptop works fine. I was able to jump from web page to web page very quickly. I was even able to access my wifes email account.

Do you think the only solution is a new router?

Seems ridiculous to have to replace a perfectly good router because of capability issues with Linksys.

[jlreich]

I would recommend a new router. You would not only would you get better performance from a new router but you would also get much better security. That old router most likely only has WEP. New routers use WPA and WPA2. Much better security. ;)

And yes I think the old router is the problem with the new laptop. Not that it is a Linksys, because Linksys is a good product. It's too old and outdated. It's just time to upgrade.

[MJamesAllen]

As i have been reading, some toshiba laptops dont connect to wireless B. Make sure you have one that will