Massive problems with wifi...
 

Over the last few weeks i've been having increasing problems with my wifi connection.

Works fine linking up to my wireless router at home and also the wifi connection in Corney & Barrow (London chain of wine bars) but I'm getting interminable grief from things like T-mobile. It's either not connectiong or doing so with limited connectivity (i.e useless).

Have tried repairing the connection but to no avail.

Any thoughts as to what the issue might be? It seems to have gone downhill since I was in Canada where I 1) plugged into the Fairmoint LAN in my room, 2) installed second life and 3) used some dodgy wifi connection in Whistler.

Thanks

Computer Configuration?
What type of wireless.. built in or external.. 802.11b, g (n or a, unlikely)

Possible antenna issues based on distance... have you tried changing the channels its looking on....

It's an internal card (centrino) with 802.11g, although it's never had a problem reversing into a "b" format.

As I said it's odd as it used to work no problem but now it seems somewhat more selective, forcing me to spend extended lengths of time in overpriced winebars ;)

How do I change the channel?

I'd be willing to be its interfearence from a neighbor or your microwave or cordless phone. There's not much that connecting to some other network would do.

However, if you've ever connected to an ad-hoc (computer-to-computer network) then XP will want to default to that connection, even if it doesnt exist. Go into your wifi setup and delete all the prefered or remembered networks exept your legit home network. that may help.

Make a drastic change to the channel...if you are on 6 the go to 11. See if that helps.
What kind of AP is it?

The channel is controlled by the router, not the client PC. The OP is not having problems at home, only with public access points, so he's not going to be able change the channel.

Just a thought.... Windows is currently managing the wireless device. Do you think it would make any difference if I had the Intel app doing this instead?

Our tech guys say windoze actually does a very good job of handling wireless. Personally I prefer my thinkpad thinkadvantage as it offers more info and more options.

MisterNice

Its unlikely but worth a try.

I missed the part about this being public hotspots only...
I'd still try removing all prefered networks...

At the end of the day, it could be dieing hardware too...

I'm no expert with this tech stuff, but I used to experience similar connectivity problems at the UA Intl RCC at SFO. Somehow I used to get it fixed by using my web browser to go to 1111.com while in range of the T-Mobile hotspot.

Peronally, I would say they are wrong. The best thing I ever did for wireless is to let the wireless software override Windows.

Delete every connection you have but the home one, and let it rediscover them and see if that makes a difference.

Update your drivers
 

You may want to update the drivers for your wireless card, whether it's internal or extenal. There were some Internal chipsets that had a known problem when connecting to the g radio...sometimes updating drivers helps, other times you can just disable the g radio and operate off the b radio

In one of those "duh" moments I finally put two and two together last night. For as long as I've had the WIFI I've noticed that from time to time the system would grind to a halt. Still operating and actually OK for text like -email but functionally unusable for images or web browsing due to very low signal strength.

Finally last night it begins to happen again and this time I notice the sound of the microwave humming away in the kitchen. A few experiments later and "bingo" a one to one relationship. My microwave is screwing up the WIFI big time.

BTW the transmitter is upstairs and I was about, hmmm, 30? feet away in the living room with the Microwave about half-way between.