Wi-Fi Periodically Drops out

[Assimilator87]

I'm a total noob when it comes to networking so keep that in mind. I have a TRENDnet router and both my desktop and laptop are using Wi-Fi. The connection is constantly dropping out though. Sometimes I'll just restart my computer and it won't be able to connect to the internet afterwards. I ran ipconfig on my laptop, which can't connect right now, and here are the results:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix: Blank
Link-local IPv6 Address: fe80::4173:3d4b:bb04:a503%11
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address: 169.254.165.131
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
Dafault Gateway: Blank

My desktop, which is connected to the internet, brings up the following:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix: muppets
Link-local IPv6 Address: fe80::b8c3:7a6:3e94:832c%12
IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.103
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Dafault Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Power cycling the router fixes everything, but I'd like to able to solve the problem from within Windows. On a side note, the instant I open torrents, the internet connection drops. What does that mean?

Thanks everyone

 

[Motorheader]

Torrents causing Internet drop could be either a router issue - can't handle large number of connections - or an ISP issue.

Channel issue. If you look anywhere on the web about wireless networking - google is your friend here - you should try a different channel setting on the router. The most common non-overlapping channels are 1, 6, or 11.

Line of sight - are they in the same room, different floors, etc. Cellphones, baby monitors, microwave ovens, neighbors wireless are all things that can cause interference.

Security settings - if you have a software firewall running on either system. Security settings on the router - are you using none, wep, wpa, etc??

 

[Assimilator87]

Now that I think about it, my connection usually drops after restarts and not in the middle of use. I'm using WPA2 security.

 

[Motorheader]

If you start up a torrent connection while wired to the router, does it kill the Internet connection??

Did you try a different channel setting on the router?

 

[akhilles]

Lower your wifi encryption. WPA2 is quite taxing on the connection. WPA/WEP is fine. Make sure you use HTTPS for shopping/banking. There's a lock beside the address in a web browser. That means secure.

Lower your global max. connections in P2P apps.

Increase your signal strength by using a directional antenna for about $20. Or build one out of aluminum foil and paper/cardboard. Point it at the router.

Set this up to run on startup. It may help.

http://www.martin-majowski.de/wlanoptimizer/

 

[seepy83]

Originally posted by: akhilles
WPA/WEP is fine.

I would argue that WPA is OK...WEP is most certainly NOT fine.

 

[JackMDS]

Wireless works OK (with, or without WPA2) when used for what it is intended to and Not when working according to what the user wanted to.

The Wireless Router are small computers, usually with P-II level CPU (or similar property), and very little memory, they cannot take the load that the ?Grabby? users dish to them.

Wireless was designed for easy access to the Internet, retrieving email, and other type of messages, and Not for ?ripping? Movies and music from of shore Sites. -