Win7 wifi drop outs

[Englishman2010]

Does anyone suffer from regular wifi drop outs with Win7?

My problems started about a year ago when I got a new Win7 laptop and changed ISP at roughly the same time, I have always incorrectly assumed that the problems were with Talk Talk, my router, my wireless adapter or my laptop.

I was talking to my IT specialist at work today and he informed me that the last 5 Win7 laptops we've bought have the same problem, and by digging around on techie forums it appears that the problem is with Win7, although MS firmly deny there is a problem. He's considering installing XP on these machines to see if that cures the problem.

I've been struggling on for about a year with the same issues, my connection slows to a crawl or drops out completely on average 10 times a day. I've ditched the free router and bought a Netgear N150 router, updated the firmware, tried switching channels, bought a Belkin N150 USB wireless adapter, complained to Talk Talk on numerous occasions, and still nothing has resolved my problems.

However, I regularly use 2 Android devices, a Vista Laptop and a couple of XP PC's on the wifi and never have any of the above problems

[les_taxi]

I don't think it's windows 7 at all.
TalkTtalk have had many problems in the past it's not an internet supplier i would ever condsider
I use virgin and never have any problems with my hard wired internet connection or laptop with windows 7 wirelesly connected

[les_taxi]

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews98376.html

[Englishman2010]

I hear what you're saying Les, and have always assumed TT were rubbish, but that doesn't explain why other devices using the same wifi never have any problems. I'll be going back to BT in October when my TT contract expires, I was with them for years and never had a single problem.

[les_taxi]

Virgin works for me customer services crap,internet not cheap but it all works well and 50mbps and unlimited downloads is the business for me
Windows 7 is the best O/S yet so I can't see it being the problem

[Dedworth]

I'm o2 for Wireless Broadband Desktop Win 7 seems fine, son & laptop Vista no probs, Blackberry connects OK. I've always had CPW down like Virgin as a bunch of fly by nights

[Pete/London]

I have had drop outs all week, its the signal to the router causing the problem. I can go weeks with no problems then crap for a day or so.
I have been with Sky for a few years and although its cheap its been the best provider I have had for speed. The drop out problem seems to be getting more frequent so I may have to change providers. Previous suppliers were NTL, Pipex and some strange name, masadafish I think.
Any recommendations?

[KeithD]

It's not a TT issue, nor a router problem. You will probably find the issues is with blocked packets on the firewall, uninstall the firewall, and install another one, this resolves a majority of these problems.

[Englishman2010]

It's not a TT issue, nor a router problem. You will probably find the issues is with blocked packets on the firewall, uninstall the firewall, and install another one, this resolves a majority of these problems.

I agree, I don't think the problem is with the ISP, my phone line or my router. If it is the Firewall then it is a Win7 problem as I'm using the standard Firewall that comes with Win 7.

I don't think it's my virus checker either because I use AVG Business Edition on all of my PC's and Laptops and it's only the Win 7 laptop that drops out.

[Pete/London]

My Vista firewall is turned off, I use Nortons 360.
If it is firewall problems why is it so intermittent.
Do you think the new Vodafone sure signal box could be contributing as it also plugs into the router.

[somebody]

Might be worth googling Nat table overflow. Not sure if Englishmans issue is that. need to know the make of the Device and the components plus whats actually runing on the Windows 7?

Powersaving, network cards chipsets and routers not agreeing plus the software to create the network connection on your laptop are prime candidates.. But sound like your troubleshooting has elimated a lot of this..

Im using windows 7 x64 on a dell with a billion router and touch wood it hardly ever drops out.

Any peer to peer applications running including skype and torrents but other applications use peer to peer connections? Plus how many connections are open on applications and browser on avearage? Some routers simply can't keep up with the data it needs to thoughput and process...

Not sure on a small network people worry so much on firewalls on the devices i prefer to use the routers and if need be a device (PC or standalone device) behind the router running as a firewall.

Make sure if using Smartphones and Tablets smaller netbooks you have a decent Firewall running on your router or just behind it..

[Englishman2010]

Thanks for the info Somebody Some of it's a bit too advanced for my limited tech knowledge.

The laptop has onboard wifi, which started dropping out soon after I bought it, so I bought a Belkin USB wifi adapter, but isn't really any better. 9/10 times if I run the wifi troubleshooter, it eventually resets the network adapter connections and that cures it. Sometimes I hibernate the laptop for a couple of minutes and that fixes it too. I've also found that running CCleaner and cleaning up a couple of hundred megs of junk has cured it, but that may just be coincedence? From time to time the trouble shooter says the DNS server couldn't be found, or the link to the router is broken. If this happens I turn the router off for 10 seconds, re-boot it and reboot the laptop at the same time and that also fixes it.

I don't run much software in the background, I usually keep Googletalk open, MS Outlook, and maybe a couple of IE9 pages are open at the same time. However, a lot of programmes automatically update themselves in the background (Flashplayer, Adobe Reader, Windows..etc to think of a few).

It is very intermittent, somedays it will drop out at least a dozen times and other times it can go 2 or 3 days without a problem (today has been fine).

[KeithD]

Check your power settings as well, you need the wifi on 100%

[somebody]

Need to think outside of the devices possibly doesn't sound as if your using any peer to peer connections in software you use. What these can do is keep opening and opening connections untill the routers Nat table is overloaded and crashes. NAT in a nutshell is part of the process in converting your internet connection os it can speak to the outside world and viceversa.

Sometimes when troubleshooting people get to hung up the problems is in a certain area or concentrate on the technical side.

Is there any unique time, place or scenario where you use the win 7 device?

Have you loaded http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/ and left it running to see if the signal gets interupted or is faint. Just to eliminate a Wifi issue and has MR Boss Admin mentions best to check power settings if you use all over the house garden etc..

Worth setting one of the xp laptops and win 7 in same location away from server with netstumbler running and then seeing what teh results are stength of signal etc..

You mentioned DNS and I know in the past Talk talk and DNS has been a source of peoples pain when web browsing..

Have a look at this http://www.google.co.uk/#sclient=psy...w=1366&bih=599

If your comfortable access your Routers config page and see if using google DNS or one of the other DNS providers ip addresses makes a difference.

As you use Droids i would think you have no problem with using another google product

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beTp_YYNOxo



Some ISP's DNS service for some is not as good as others.

At home we usse google DNS and it makes a difference to the speed it takes for pages to be found compared to BT's. Certainly makes a difference not having the router have to ask for settigns from the ISP...

[Terpe]

Wow, somebody. If only you could translate into English I would be so happy.

[Englishman2010]

Thanks Somebody, I'll run the test on that link.

I'm already using Google's DNS server 8.8.8.8 I think, from memory

There isn't any particlar time or place in the house when it drops out, it is completely sporadic. I can be sat right next to the router at 10am and it will drop out, or I could be 30 feet away at 9pm and it's fine.

I'm still convinced there is something on this laptop that is causing the problem (either software or hardware). Resetting the network adapters is the usual cure, but I'm puzzled why the network adapters stop responding and need resetting. I've got the most up to date drivers installed for the onboard adapter and my Belkin USB adapter.

The problem is definitely a lap top to router problem, not phoneline to router. Everytime I've run a speedtest with the network cable plugged in, the download speed has been in the region of 16mbps and upload around 1mbps. If I've got a good wifi connection, the speeds are similar.

[KeithD]

Delete the network connection, and rename the computer System>Control Panel .... reboot .... this clears out all old network data ....

[Englishman2010]

I've already deleted the network connections, the drivers and re-installed them, although I haven't re-named them....and that didn't work either

[somebody]

So i think running Net stumbler or for vista/win 7 http://www.vistumbler.net/ is worth while to see if anything can be seen but might take a while to see if there is anything.

Possibly an issue with the laptops aerial? I doubt it as you tried external usb dongle thingy.

Im guessing drivers have been changed and IPV 6 has been disabled? As on Win 7 its enabled by default..

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852

http://windows7themes.net/disable-ipv6-windows-7.html

Big worry soon many of us will need IPV6 but both some network cards (wireless and wired) plus routers don't seem to get on with.

Some older routers I have noticed seem to dislike and don't forget in the router as well as the laptop the wire and wireless Network card have indivudal components which may take issue to protocols and what not..


Also see if not using the network sharing centre possibly bypass to a degree and use the chipset wlan software if possible on my work laptop im using the intel proset wireless wifi connection utility which works smoothly enough. This of course depends on your internal card. But having written that you mentioned you tried a dongle what software connection utlity did you use for that?

[les_taxi]

I've already deleted the network connections, the drivers and re-installed them, although I haven't re-named them....and that didn't work either

You have to name them Bob and Mick or it won't work

[Englishman2010]

I've removed the drivers for the Belkin USB card and am just using the onboard wifi now. I've been on line for an hour and no drop offs yet....fingers crossed

[Englishman2010]

No problems for 3 days. Hopefully removing the drivers for the USB wireless card and only using on board wifi has done the job. Windows has installed auto updates for that last 4 days, they seem to have speeded up browising too, but that might be coincedental.

[Englishman2010]

Any reason why you've quoted me and then copied and pasted my message Templet Spammer, Hacker, Troll?

[Pete/London]

Any reason why you've quoted me and then copied and pasted my message Templet Spammer, Hacker, Troll?

Given the location maybe its a habit