Wireless adapters

[Caliga]

Sup homeslices,

I think I might need a new wireless adapter.  I have a wireless-N network running on a WRT350N with DD-WRT.  My personal PC currently connects to it via a Linksys WUSB300N USB adapter.  In general, this adapter has performed beautifully for the three years I've had it, but over the past couple of weeks some strange things have happened:

* When I boot my PC, the adapter doesn't automatically connect to the router.  If I pull the adapter out of its USB cradle and plug it back in, it does connect after it reboots.

* Sometimes it disconnects from the network while I'm doing shit, and I have to go through the whole reboot routine again.

* Last night it disconnected, and when I pulled it and plugged it back in again my computer BSODed with a BAD_POOL_CALLER error.  This is the first BSOD I've gotten on the PC in almost a year, and the last time it happened was when I was fucking with the board BIOS and overclocking the RAM.

The other weird thing, which may or may not be related, is that I cannot connect to the router's control interface via 192.168.1.1 ... which is odd since it's carrying the network just fine--Princesca's PC has had no connectivity issues (it connects via patch cable though), my work laptop had none last night while I was doing a production install, and my wireless printer appears to be connected fine too.  I was going to reboot the router but because I had that work to do last night I didn't want to risk it not coming back up.

Anyway, assuming a reboot of the router doesn't seem to fix the problem, should I go with another USB adapter or a PCI-e wireless card?  I assume the PCI-e connection will be faster but I like having the remote adapter connected via a long cord, and worry about feedback via the speakers and connectivity if I plug a wireless card into the board.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Anyway, assuming a reboot of the router doesn't seem to fix the problem, should I go with another USB adapter or a PCI-e wireless card?  I assume the PCI-e connection will be faster but I like having the remote adapter connected via a long cord, and worry about feedback via the speakers and connectivity if I plug a wireless card into the board.

Since you don't want to move the adapter between boxes, get a PCI-e card with a remote antenna.  I'd show you an example off NewEgg, but my PyCon connection is kinda shitty.

[Caliga]

Hm, I saw some of those the other day but I didn't add them to my newegg wishlist like I probably should have.  When I have some proper downtime at work maybe I'll go back on there and cut/paste.

[DontSayBanana]

Starting with not being able to access the router config, did you check to make sure you have wireless access allowed?  Most routers I've seen have some kind of force option where the config is only accessible with a wired client.

Princesca's computer isn't being affected by the wireless network- the Linksys wired connection implementation almost functions more like a passthrough.

[Caliga]

Good thought, but the other night I tried to access via Princesca's PC and couldn't do it either.

[DontSayBanana]

Good thought, but the other night I tried to access via Princesca's PC and couldn't do it either.

Cool.  Now we're getting somewhere.  Have you tried resetting the router to factory defaults?

[Caliga]

Nope.  Tonight I first plan on a quick reboot of the router to see if that fixes my inability to connect to its control panel.  If not, factory reset is next (which'll suck because there's quite a bit of customization in there, and I'm not sure I've backed its settings up since going to DD-WRT).

[viper37]

Sup homeslices,

I think I might need a new wireless adapter.  I have a wireless-N network running on a WRT350N with DD-WRT.  My personal PC currently connects to it via a Linksys WUSB300N USB adapter.  In general, this adapter has performed beautifully for the three years I've had it, but over the past couple of weeks some strange things have happened:

* When I boot my PC, the adapter doesn't automatically connect to the router.  If I pull the adapter out of its USB cradle and plug it back in, it does connect after it reboots.

* Sometimes it disconnects from the network while I'm doing shit, and I have to go through the whole reboot routine again.

I have these problems too, with a Cisco N-router and N-usb adapter on one of my computers.
Windows has a patch for this, but it didn't solve the problem for me.
It's fucking annoying, but I can't swear it's specific to one brand/model.

* Last night it disconnected, and when I pulled it and plugged it back in again my computer BSODed with a BAD_POOL_CALLER error.  This is the first BSOD I've gotten on the PC in almost a year, and the last time it happened was when I was fucking with the board BIOS and overclocking the RAM.

that, I never had.

Anyway, assuming a reboot of the router doesn't seem to fix the problem, should I go with another USB adapter or a PCI-e wireless card?  I assume the PCI-e connection will be faster but I like having the remote adapter connected via a long cord, and worry about feedback via the speakers and connectivity if I plug a wireless card into the board.

PCI-E with an extension antenna.  Otherwise, you may have poor reception because the adapter will be very low on the ground (it depends on the distance of your router from the computer, really, mine is 100ft away and one floor above).

[Caliga]

My router is one floor below the PC and about 75-100 feet away, through at least one wall.  So I'm not expecting a stellar connection here, but the WUSB300N has until now been rock-solid.

[Caliga]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833130081

Something like this?

[derspiess]

Are you 100% sure your router's IP is 192.168.1.1?  Have you checked that that's what shows up as your local gateway in your PCs' IP settings?  I would at a minimum do a factory reset on the router before you buy any hardware.  My guess is that it's more likely a router or Windows issue.

FWIW, I recently had an issue with my "new" (actually an old piece of crap in worse condition than the laptop it replaced) work laptop's wifi connection.  Seems like every time the laptop went into sleep mode it would briefly reconnect when it woke up, then totally crap out (seemed like an XP issue).  I had PDANet on there for tethering with my phone, and I think that was causing some kind of issue, even if I had the PDANet connection disabled.  After I uninstalled PDANet from the laptop everything worked fine.

[viper37]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833130081

Something like this?

yes, or the ones Cisco and D-Link sell are ok too.

[Caliga]

I guess I'm not 100% sure, spiess, but I don't recall ever changing it and I know DD-WRT defaults to that IP (just like linksys factory firmware).  I'll check that when I get home too, thanks.

[derspiess]

I guess I'm not 100% sure, spiess, but I don't recall ever changing it and I know DD-WRT defaults to that IP (just like linksys factory firmware).  I'll check that when I get home too, thanks.

Reason I mentioned it is that new Buffalo router I got that came with DD-WRT build 14998 pre-installed defaulted to 192.168.10.1

That could have been something Buffalo did, though. 

[Caliga]

Update:

This morning I pulled the plug on my router and immediately pulled it back in, which strangely seemed to do a factory reset.

I had to reconfigure the PPPoE connection but for now I'm back in business.... I think I'll leave everything @ default for a little while just to see how the router behaves.  The houses here are very far apart so I'm not too worried about leaving the network unsecured.