As title, im having trouble connecting to the internet. Netbook is a Samsung N220 with windows 7 starter and the router is a Netgear WNR854t. Both devices are upto date with drivers etc. Now the netbook can see the network (full signal) but when I click connect it says itis unable to, however if I restart the router, bingo im connected and also if I connect to another network in range then disconnect, ill then be able to log into the Netgear network. This happens everytime I startup or its been in standby mode for a while.

Now some of the time when I diagnose the fault it cant find any and says device is working properly but sometimes windows says its the W/adaptor or access point so in the Netgear settings ive made sure access control is turned off, it already knows the password to log in, ive put it into mixed mode b/g/N not just N.

Hope its clear because im stuck!

How many devices do you run wirelessly?

How many devices do you run wirelessly?

Just one other laptop (with a netgear stick), other laptop is dead but that was fine and dandy connecting with internal adaptor.

Just one other laptop (with a netgear stick), other laptop is dead but that was fine and dandy connecting with internal adaptor.

Sounds like a mac address allocation issue, check the settings to see if device control is enabled just to be sure.

You might also want to check the wi-fi security standard (WPA etc) you have enabled just in case there is a compatibility issue.

From memory I think this router operates a double firewall too.

Is the channel set to automatic or have you predefined this to say ch6?

Channel is set to Auto and device control is off. Its connected right now after its been turned off, so ill see how it goes in the morning.

Security is WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]

Thanks for the advice so far!

Also, not many people do, but if your router has the option (most do these days), change the DHCP lease time to something like 30 mins to an hour, see if that helps....

Some routers lease IP addresses to certain devices with no expiry time, and expect that device to always be the one that connect to that IP, most routers will cope with refreshing the IP address list based on devices attached, but there are some that simple dont like dropping that IP address given to a device, they always want them to connect via a specific IP, and therefore occaisionally have a **** fit and never let devices reconnect even if they literally just were.

Was fine this morning but is playing up again now so will give it ago and see if it sorts it, thanks.

Who is your ISP and do you have bridged mode checked?

Remember a lot of routers need the hex password in caps, or your passphrase can be case sensitive. Ie A1 isnt seen as a1, or Password isnt seen as password.

right it was playing up again after I got home so diagnosed again because it was getting limited access (but still not able to connect to internet), it came up with "wireless network connetion doesnt have a valid IP configuration" so plugged it into the router and had a look in the settings again. Couldnt change the DHCP/ didnt see how to. While it was plugged it it connected wirelessly straight away, for the time being

Internet provider is Virgin Media not sure what you mean by bridged mode. Ive checked to make sure password is in lower case as is should.

Virgin cable or ADSL.

Does your other wireless device work all the time correctly?, what about any wired PC's.

I use an antique linksys router on our virgin cable connection with 12 wireless devices connected using WPA2 AES and never really have a problem getting any of them to connect.

Can you access the deafult settings once the router has been on via the default 192.168.1.1 or whatever it is for your specific router?

Are there lots of other access points around you in other buildings? You might have someone on the same channel.

If you can change them manually it might be worth moving to another.

One other thing that has worked for me in the past (I don't know why) is to change the password (passphrase).

One other thing that has worked for me in the past (I don't know why) is to change the password (passphrase).

Yep, I've seen that too.. Wireless is wonderful when it works, and a PITA when it doesn't. There's 12 of us in this office, and 10 of us can use the wireless and the other 2 have to use a cable as they can't get an IP address from the router... Whatever we try we have at least one laptop that can't connect...

I think my neighbour agrees with wireless being an unknown at times..., their SSID is "Magical Pixie Dust"

A little update.

Ive waited a few days and it seems to connect straight away on startup. What I did was go into adaptor settings, advanced, then clicked wireless mode and changed the setting from IEEE 802.11b/g/n to IEEE 802.11b/g. Strange thing is my router is set up on Max N not mixed mode but it works so im not complaining although it shows just 54.0mbps not 150 mbps if it was on N but I can change the setting once connected and its fine untill I start up again.

Try changing it back. It might kick in. Wireless is like that. <edit> Sorry I see you've tried that.

Have you tried the Windows wireless zero configuration thingy rather than the manufacturer manager or vice versa. They can argue with each other sometimes.

I wouldn't worry about the bandwidth, your broadband is probably only 5-8Mbps. Might be an issue if you are transferring a lot of large files between machines but not otherwise.

If pixie dust was the issue life would be much simpler.

Edited 16 March, 201016 yr by Aspman