Tech Talk at ShieldsGroup

While visiting some friends, my Inspiron 6400 kept dropping the wireless connection with their Actiontec DSL Modem/Router.  It happened a couple times each hour. Not only did it drop the connection, it was unable to renegotiate it. Looking for wireless networks in vista on the Inspiron showed none, a surprising read since when I first connected the Inspiron found at least a dozen in this community.

The only fix was to turn off the wireless card in the laptop and turn it back on. It didn’t just happen to my Inspiron. It happened to my wife’s Acer.

Reading around on the net, I found that some people blamed the problem on interference on channel 6 from other wireless networks. Some suggested changing to channel 11. Nope. No better.

But then I changed to channel 1. Ha! I’ve been connected for about nine hours without being dropped once. Looks like that fixed it.

What’s puzzling is why my Inspiron, when dropped from the network, couldn’t find any of the other networks until the wireless card was restarted.