wifi failure

Just moved from Be (several problem free years on adsl2+) to Plusnet FTTC in order to get more speed.

Using supplied equipment BT Modem + TG582n router (2nd one - Plusnet have swapped out the first one).

Ethernet is fine stable, doesn't drop and getting advertised speeds.

WiFi is problematic. I have a strong signal but the connection to the internet keeps falling over (and I only get it back with a reboot of the modem/router. My laptop can 'see' the router on WiFi but there's no connection to the net. Ethernet continues fine when this happens. Same with all devices: Win/Android/IPhones.

Have tried switching channels - no difference. Interference? - nothing obvious, it's not happened before (when with Be it would stay up for weeks) and it happens at seemingly random times.

Ideas please!

can you access the router on 192.168..... when it's in this "off" state

Try downgrading the wireless to 802.11g mode only - sometimes interoperability can be issue

If that does not work, then try turning off wireless security and then turn on a simple WEP key, then WPA and then WPA2. Have also seen devices that don't work with all the security modes sometimes

Yes

so that suggests the wireless layer is OK in that you can chat to the router wirelessly and see its web page.

When it's "off" you could try doing 'nslookup www.bbc.co.uk' from a command line to see if that works, and if it does try 'ping www.demon.net' to see if you can send packets across the internet.

If 'ping 192.168.whatever' on a command line works to the router address, and 'ping 89.145.83.36' doesn't, then your router has issues with routing. If these both work but 'ping www.demon.net' doesn't then it's a DNS issue.

thanks - will give this a whirl when it goes...

here we go ..

on ethernet - everything OK
on wifi:
nslookup - times out
ping demon - could not find host
ping 192.168.etc - 2ms 0% loss
ping 89.145.83.36 - 18ms 0% loss

I'd appreciate some help with what this means and how it might be resolved!

In reply to a post by Beetnik:

on ethernet - everything OK
on wifi:
nslookup - times out
ping demon - could not find host
ping 192.168.etc - 2ms 0% loss
ping 89.145.83.36 - 18ms 0% loss

Sound. This shows that you have a DNS problem, the DNS turns a web site or server name into a numerical address which is used for the comms. Your internet connection is working fine as you can ping to external sites over the wireless and the ping to the router is confirmation that the router is pingable over the wireless.

So, if you get a command window up like for doing the ping and do 'ipconfig /all' then post the output here (highlight it and press Enter to copy). I'm interested to see what the DNS server setting is.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Steve>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Anjare
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : lan

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-26-B9-00-93-1A
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : lan
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-22-FB-9F-F5-B6
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::894a:f65:6eb6:5815%10(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.66(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 14 February 2013 09:38:35
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 15 February 2013 17:35:59
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 184558331
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-14-A9-5B-D3-00-26-B9-00-93-1A

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.lan:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 12:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:5ef5:79fb:849:1ec5:2bc7:9386(Prefe
rred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::849:1ec5:2bc7:9386%23(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{4F0A8D05-935B-4CA0-8801-FF4624D798D5}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\Steve>

firstly if you don't use IPv6 yet you could untick that in the properties of the connection as some routers seem to have issues with it.

You could put manual DNS server entries into the TCP/IP properties of the wireless connection to 208.67.220.220 (OpenDNS) and 8.8.4.4 (Google) or possibly get your ISPs DNS server addresses from the status of the WAN side of your router.

That way the wireless laptop will be able to access an external DNS server and bypass the router which appears to be failing to respond to DNS requests.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc775637(... may be interesting.