It is a Windows Vista system. Tried your suggestion - thanks for that. The information in the Network and Sharing center indicated that it worked, and I had an internet connection, but in reality I still could not access the net with either windows explorer or firefox. I re-booted, hoping that this would help (doesn't it usually?) the computer "see" the connection, but no dice. I'm thinking that the computer itself is just fucked.
New house, new wireless network, new problems. The internet is slow, I get that. It also has several people using a slow connection. Again, understood. However, periodically, the internet just cuts off and restarts. It's like the connection disappears for about 15-30 seconds and then reappears, without having to reconnect. Why? Also, some sites like Reddit, Facebook or Cracked don't load at all, just cycle for hours. Some sites, like this one load blissfully without incident. There are no blocks, no constraints to speak of. Why? How can I make a shitty connection more stable, and why are some major sites (Fb, reddit, bbc news, cracked are a few examples) slow to load, while others load perfectly fine?
Take the wireless and the router out of the equation - plug directly into the modem that your internet provider gave to you. See if that fixes the problem. Also, since there are several people using it, do all of them have the same problem?
Plugging direct into the modem is not an option because I am on the 3rd floor. Everyone has the same problem.
You're probably going to need to plug one computer, any computer, directly into the modem to troubleshoot this.
So who owns this internet connection? About the only easy thing you can try without eliminating the wireless as a source of the problem is to change your DNS servers. It's possible that you've got either shitty or slow DNS servers and they're not doing correct lookups. How to do this: Connect to the wireless Open a command prompt Type "ipconfig /all" Copy that information into a text document Go into the properties of your wireless network connection Set your IP address, subnet mask and default gateway to be the information copied in the previous step Set your DNS servers to be "8.8.8.8" and "8.8.4.4" Hit OK and see if it's at all improved If you don't know how to do one of the above steps, post up or hit Google. If the above doesn't correct it, and everyone has the same problem, you need to get the owner of the internet connection to do some troubleshooting.
downndirty PMed me about his problem above, but PMing is down at the moment, so I'll paste my reply here: Oops, sorry! I've logged in a few times since you sent that, but just now looked up and saw that I had a PM. First, check if the problem goes away when plugged directly into the modem. Reset the modem after you plug it directly into the computer. If it works, your problem lies somewhere in the router settings. Post what kind of router it is in the tech thread, and we'll go from there. If it still doesn't work, bring up the DOS prompt (Start/Run/CMD), and type IPCONFIG. Hopefully it will give you only a few lines, but it may spew out a bunch of crap and you'll need to scroll back up. Check what your IP address is. Plugged directly into the modem, it should start with anything but 169, 192, or 172. If it's a 169 IP address, post this in the main thread; that just means that your computer can't pull an IP address. If it's 192 or 172, reset the modem again, and when it comes back up type IPCONFIG /RELEASE, then IPCONFIG /RENEW and see if anything changes. Either way, post the results in the thread and we'll go from there. Of course, you might have figured it out by now; sorry for the delay...
10. is a private subnet as well, but none of those are 100% true except 169. Many "modems" are integrated router/modems, especially for DSL services (but even some cable services sell integrated devices), where you can't get a public IP address directly. So, it's fine to check your IP address - and it shouldn't start with 169, since that's basically an error state - but what should be checked here is really internet speeds, you need not worry about what IP address it gives you.
I think my router is shitting the bed. I currently have a Belkin something-or-other. My setup is: Motorola modem to the Belkin. Belkin to the desktop, hard wired. Belkin wireless to my laptop, PS3, cellphones, etc. I can get this: AirStation™ HighPower N300 Gigabit Wireless Router and Access Point from Buffalo™ Technology for $70 or either of these: Cisco - Linksys E2500 Advanced Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router NETGEAR N600 Wireless Dual Band Router for $80. Opinions? Alternatives? I need something that can cover basement, first floor and second floor of my house. Wouldn't mind being able to stream music through my phone on it in the yard, but that's not a deal breaker.
I've never heard of AirStation so my instinct is to avoid the shit out of them. I've had good experiences with Linksys, while friends have had good Netgear experiences. If theyre wireless N they should be fine covering the house as long as the router is on the main level. Alternatively you can wire two together through the ceiling as a range booster if you have problems.
Do a hard-reset on the device and clear the NVRAM. Depending on the make, model, and version of your device this process can be very easy, or impossible given the contraints of your specific router. You can look at the manufacturers sticker on the bottom, it will typically tell you all this information. Doing a hard reset will clear the OS, so you'll have to re-flash the device with the latest version of firmware and Router OS. You can get this software package from the manufacturers website. Before you attempt to do this, do research on your specific router as to whether or not it can handle a hard-reset Depending on your device, it typically goes something like this: With the device plugged in, hold down the reset button for 30 seconds, release it for 30 seconds, hold down for 30 seconds. Try to reach the router device on 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 (depends on your make and model). Then re-upload the firmware. You can also flash it with DD-WRT. But be sure to read up before you do to make sure the OS is compatible with your Router. Decent router, the range on it isnt what you're expecting. If you go this route, make sure you disable QoS and WMM. Both are shit when it comes to handling network traffic. You'll see what I mean the second you use wireless on your laptop. Netgear actually started making reliable routers. I have nothing but positive things to say. They dont dumb things down like Cisco is now doing with their consumer grade devices. So what's wrong with your existing router?
Apparently nothing is wrong with it now. I told my laptop to "diagnose and repair" and it all works again. I have no fucking idea why.
I just added a wireless combo printer/scanner/copier to my network. I can print from it wirelessly from my laptop with no issue. However, I can't get it to add onto my desktop computer. My network is set-up like this: Cable modem to wireless router. Desktop is plugged into the router directly. We have the PS3, my laptop and both my cellphone and my wife's cellphone able to access the router. I have a wireless adapter for a laser jet black-and-white printer that has worked before, but I usually just plug it into the laptop if I want to use it. I just can't get the frickin' desktop to find the wireless printer. The add-a-printer option doesn't find it. I've tried fooling with the network stuff from the desktop, but honestly, the desktop is old and sucks cock. Laptop is on Vista. Desktop is on XP. Help?
Find the IP address of the printer - either through the on-device display, or find out how to print the "printer information" page, or log into your router and figure out what DHCP address it pulled down. Once you have that - can you ping the printer from the desktop?
Figured it out. My wife had fooled with it and blanked out the password to our network. I don't know what she was doing out of the kitchen... All fixed.
I'm not 100% sure if this is the right thread so please move it if necessary. I want to create a wireless movie drive in my house for my family. I'd like to rip all my movies onto a central hard drive and be able to watch them from any television or computer in the house. I pretty much need advice from the ground up. Can someone first recommend a good blu ray ripper? Is there a specific type of wireless router I need? What do I need to buy to interface with my televisions? Thank you in advance.
It kind of depends on what you are willing to spend. Give me some ideas based on how may TVs, how much storage you think you need, etc. I've used a media PC and an XBOX 360 to play on the TV, but you are talking about $500-600 or so to set that up for 1 TV/media PC ($199 for each additional TV). You can find media extenders, but an XBOX works better from my experience and is not much more expensive. You could get a wireless router that has a USB port to plug an external drive into and use a Roku or something like that to stream media: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.roku.com/roku-products" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.roku.com/roku-products</a> Something like this would work too and as long as your TV will do DLNA, it should play it on it's own: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Wireless-Ethernet-Attached-301932/dp/B0044WX0K2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Wireless-Et ... B0044WX0K2</a> DVDFab is a good ripper, or at least it works decently for me: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.dvdfab.com/blu-ray-ripper.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dvdfab.com/blu-ray-ripper.htm</a>
I'd like to be able to access the drive from all 4 TVs in the house. I already have an XBOX hooked up to every TV. I'll probably need at least 5 TB of storage space if not more. Ive got over 100 Blu Rays and 3-4 hundred DVDs. I was hoping to spend under $400 total.