Wireless: Intermittent drops, Wireless Zero Configuration

[ahurvitz]

I've only had my (used/reimaged) T-60 a week. Worked fine for a few days, then the wireless connectivity issue surfaced. All the other PCs in the house are fine, but the T-60 connection broke every few minutes.

Because the internal wireless adapter doesn't get a strong signal, I installed a Hawking USB access point. Everything worked great for a day or two. I generally would disable the internal adapter. I also tried keeping both enabled. Sometimes that seemed to work though I have no idea if there were internal conflicts.

When the connectivity failed, the icon in the system tray had a red "x" and the wireless config tool would show the lost connection. Even before it happened, I'd do a bandwidth check and it could be as low as 15kb... yes 15kb. If I did a "repair", it usually worked, but only for a few minutes. Even toggling between adapters, no change in behavior. I did uninstalls/installs, etc.

I stumbled onto something called Wireless Zero Config in Windows XP. Read a few posts where the symptoms were identical to mine. So I disabled it and all appears much better though it's only been a few hours. Any thoughts?

Also, my ignorance... am I creating my own problems by having two adapters?

[BillMorrow]

which wifi card is in your T60..?
if it is the intel card you might consider replacing it with an atheros wifi card..

[ahurvitz]

I have an Atheros card in there now.

[GomJabbar]

I think these kinds of issues are often caused by incompabilities between the default configurations of your wireless AP (router) and your wireless card in your laptop. You can try using some different settings either for your wireless card or your AP. If you go to Manage Profiles and open the one you are using for your wireless adapter, on the Wireless Settings tab, under 5. Advanced configuration > Settings..., are some settings you can try changing. Likewise your AP (router) should have other settings you can change via the web interface (see your AP (router) documentation).

Here are some additional links which may help.

MSBBN: Wireless network connection drops every few minutes

Minimizing 802.11 Interference Issues

Corruption at the Jersey Shore

How to recover from Winsock2 Corruption