Laptop losing wireless connectivity

[IanWilson]

We've got cable broadband and a wireless router to which my iMac connects by ethernet cable and various other devices connect wirelessly (iPads, iPhones, the lodger's Windows 7 laptop, my wife's Windows Vista laptop).

Twice in the last couple of weeks or so, my wife's laptop running Windows Vista has lost its connectivity to the wireless network. Windows reports that it has limited or no connectivity, although it still shows a strong signal from the wireless router. Disconnecting from our network and then asking to connect again didn't work - it still showed a strong signal but limited or no connectivity. Using the Windows wireless network diagnostics, we've tried the settings for

- "Automatically get new IP settings", and

- "Reset the network adapter"

but after attempting its repair, Windows reports that it has been unsuccessful.

The remaining option in the diagnostics is "A problem with your network router or broadband modem might be preventing an internet connection," and a recommendation to restart the router. At first I discounted that as a possibility since other devices in the house such as our iPads and iPhones were still connecting OK.

However I discovered that the laptop could still connect to a different wireless connection (a hotspot set up on an iPhone) so I thought it worth trying powering off and restarting the wireless router. That solved it.

I'm not quite sure what is going on. Everything has gone on happily for ages, and I don't recall having had to restart the wireless router for months if not years, but suddenly I have had to do so twice in a couple of weeks, even though other devices were still getting their connection OK.

Any suggestions?

Ian

[StuartR]

This could be caused by a problem with the DHCP server in the wireless router. This wouldn't affect devices that didn't attempt to reconnect, but might affect the laptop if it had a momentary loss of wireless signal and had to re-establish the connection.

I have a BT HomeHub router that behaves exactly like this about once a month or so.

[IanWilson]

This could be caused by a problem with the DHCP server in the wireless router. This wouldn't affect devices that didn't attempt to reconnect, but might affect the laptop if it had a momentary loss of wireless signal and had to re-establish the connection.

I have a BT HomeHub router that behaves exactly like this about once a month or so.

So is there anything to be done about it or should we just put up with it? Is there anything else to do or is restarting the router the only solution?

Ian

[StuartR]

Restarting the router is the only solution I have found, short of replacing it with a new one.

[jonwallace]

We had a similar problem when I swapped my Buffalo router for a Belkin one.
My wife has a tendency to close her laptop, rather than turn it off, and after checking that Windows wasn't allowed to turn off the Laptop's wireless adaptor power to save battery, I suspected that the router ip address lease was too short, so I increased it to the maximum that the router allowed. So far the problems have not recurred. (Maybe coincidentally)

[IanWilson]

We had a similar problem when I swapped my Buffalo router for a Belkin one.
My wife has a tendency to close her laptop, rather than turn it off, and after checking that Windows wasn't allowed to turn off the Laptop's wireless adaptor power to save battery, I suspected that the router ip address lease was too short, so I increased it to the maximum that the router allowed. So far the problems have not recurred. (Maybe coincidentally)

Last time I had to restart the router like this, I actually changed the setting on my wife's laptop so that it couldn't turn off the wireless adapter to save power. So I'll wait and see if the problem comes back before I mess with the ip address lease length as well.

Ian