Forgive me, I’m not IT, I just play one on tv. So I apologize in advance for any “the thing is doing that thing and it’s not working!” aspects to this thread. Anyway, there are two laptops and two desktops in my office. All of us connect to the internet and our email via our wireless router. For the last several days, every day, the desktops - and only the desktops - lose their connectivity. Can’t send or receive email (we use offsite servers) or connect to the internet. The laptops are fine. The only thing that solves this problem is to unplug the router and plug it back in. Then all is fine until the next day about the same time (late morning) and it happens again.
IT consultant suggested just going and getting a new router (we use a Linksys) - or adding wireless cards to the desktops. I have no problem getting a new router, but thought I try here first to see if anyone knows what this is? Have you ever heard of such a thing?
My cheap Wal*Mart $50 LinkSys WRT54G with 3 desktops and two WiFi laptops works like a champ and all the other LinkSys routers I have used have worked great.
Do easy fix first. Get another router and see if it fixes it. $50 is cheapest thing to try first if you do not have a Guru to come in and mess with it for free…
I had recently been facing such an issue at home a router that had worked great for years started acting flaky in a manor similar to what you are experiencing. Things would stop working and if I unplugged it and plugged it back in again things worked fine for a few days then flakiness again. Then one fine day it quit completely. It turned out that the wall wort failed. A new wall wort fixed it and it worked great again no more problems. If you have a compatible power adapter you might try that.
That’s what I assumed based on the OP’s mention of IT’s suggestion of getting wireless cards for the desktops.
To the OP, does the router show PC connectivity when the internet fails (as in, is the PC connection LED on the router flashing or is it off)? Are you doing any weird regarding IP configurations?
Oh, try checking the power management settings on the network cards on the desktops. Right click Desktop -> Properties -> Device Manager -> Network Adaptors. Make sure “allow windows to turn this device off to save power” is NOT checked.
Yes, laptops are wireless. Here is where I really show my ass… I’m not sure I understand what an ethernet is. Can I offer you some useless facts re: FCC requirements for Public Files? That’s something I know a bit about…
I will check this tomorrow when, predictably, it goes down. I really don’t think we’re doing any weird IP configurations.
In the end, I bet I’ll end up just buying a new router. But I am just not comfortable not knowing why this is happening and how to fix it. I want to learn, dammit!
Go here and select your router’s model number, or simply type it into the search box on the left. Once you find your model number, you’ll see a link to download firmware updates. Download the file and save it to your computer.
Next, open your web browser and type 192.168.1.1 in the address bar (delete any http:// stuff). Press Enter. This should bring up a password promt. If you haven’t ever changed the password, it should be “admin”. Leave the username (the top field) blank. *This will bring up the routers configuration menues. There should be an “Administrative” tab that has an option to upload your new firmware file (which you saved earlier). You may have to dig around the menus a bit. Use the updater to browse for the file, then continue.
DO NOT FUCK WITH IT WHILE IT’S UPDATING! If will let you know when it’s done.
It’s called “Ethernet” because in the original Ethernet networks, every computer was connected to the same cable. The cable was called “the ether” because it was a shared medium.
In retrospect, “Ethernet” would have been a much better name for a wireless network. Maybe we should start calling WiFi Aethernet for maximum confusion.
No idea. It seems to be a problem with how the router is handling the wired connections which could be traced to firmware behavior. If anything, if this doesn’t work, you know what problem it’s NOT.
