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Wireless connection drops randomly in XP

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6 replies

by sginsc

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I have a LinkSys 4-port Ethernet/Wireless cable router (BEFW11S4 V.2) that works perfectly on wired connections to 2 Win98se PCs and 1 XP PC. I have a Linksys wireless PC Card (WPC11 V.3) that I'm using on a Toshiba laptop running XP Home.

The card was previously used in an older Toshiba laptop running Win98se and it worked flawlessly. It works now in the Toshiba XP laptop, but the connection drops after a few hours. I can reconnect, but why the dropped connection? Linksys wireless config utility still sees an excellent connection, but my XP reports the wireless network connection is disabled.

I have not changed settings on my router and the laptop is in the same locations that worked fine with the previous laptop. I have also ruled out interference from a 2.4GHz phone and other appliances in the house.

I'm wondering if XP has introduced some setting of which I'm unaware that must be adjusted to maintain the network connection. I've run out of places to look for answers. Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

6 replies

by sginsc

Forgot to mention that I have updated all drivers, firmware, etc. for the network hardware and have all XP updates as well.

by sginsc

I apologize for the long delay in responding. While this didn't directly fix my problem, it did put me on the right track. LinkSys tech support recommended uninstalling XP Service Pack 1 to fix the problem. Microsoft's knowledge base articles confirm that SP1 is the source of the problem.

I didn't want to uninstall SP1 because it was going to required reinstallation of many other applications. Most of the time, the connection still was up even though the taskbar icon indicated the connection was down. I could quickly go through a reconnect dialog for times when the connection wasn't registering.

Since installing some recent XP updates, the problem has disappeared, although I don't recall seeing anything in the update descriptions saying they addressed this issue.

In any case, it does appear that XP SP1 introduces a problem with the connection dropping. For anyone seeing this, verify if the connection is really down or it is just the icon indicator. If you are completely up to date with XP patches, I think you'll no longer have the problem.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

by tyrone

Check in Control Panel => System => Hardware and make sure the option for that card is set so that Win XP Power Saving Feature cannot turn the device off. This should help.

by sginsc

I apologize for the long delay in responding. I rate this as unacceptable only because it didn't help since this was already disabled. However, I have since learned that this is indeed a cause for connection difficulties. Thank you for taking thetime to respond.

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