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Question tech friends:

If my dsl modem keeps dropping the wireless signal from my phone and laptop connection....would it be advisible to add a regular wireless router to connect to...instead of directly going to the dsl modem?

Is that kind if connection more reliable? I get that Ethernet is a hard connection...but we have wireless stuff for a reason.

Here is the long story:

I have 2 laptops A is new and B is older. I have a droid phone. I have a ps3. I have Frontier DSL with their provided wirrless dsl modem.

Last night at 8 my elder son was playing Warframe on my Laptop A. My yongest son and I were watching Bob Ross on the tv via the ps3.

Everything seemed to be working fine.

They go to leave and I fire up the Laptop B (the older one) to begin downloading Warframe to it directly from the warframe site. It was slow...but I wasnt surprised.

Leave the house come back at 1130p.

My phone won't connect to the dsl box.
Laptop A won't connect to the dsl.
Laptop B is still showing as connected, and still chugging away at downloading (slow, but still showing progress)

I reluctantly reset the modem...wiping out the download progress.

Laptop A can connect. Phone can connect. Laptop B can connect.

I start playing my own game on Laptop A.

Eventually I get a "No network connection" in the game.
I see my phone isnt connected.
Laptop B is connected and chugging along slowly.

I say heck with it and go to bed.

Today...same kind of deal.

Phone and Laptop A won't connect to dsl...Laptop B is connected and apparently downloading....however if I go toany site (say, cnn) it won't load.

I can't give you any real help but I have had various similar problems with my wireless router in the UK, enough to know that "standards" aren't 100% applicable in computing.

Two things you could try:

1. Turn the wireless router 90%. This for some reason helped the signal in my house a great deal.
2. I equipped my PS3 with ethernet over power line.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-PA4010KIT-V1-20-Powerline-Configuration-UK/dp/B01BECPIMC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1516303011&sr=8-3&keywords=power+over+ethernet+adapter

It's sometimes a bit flakey but I am on an ADSL connection which runs over an air line direct to the local exchange and is shared between 24 houses.

There's literally anything that could be going on here, and Dakka is probably second to last place I'd go for tech support.

- How far away are devices? Too far and you lose signal strength.
- What are the walls / floors / paint in between the devices and the access point.
- How old is the old laptop? If it's an old enough wireless card, it could be downgrading the WAP to 802.11b, and if the other devices are set to 802.11g only or something strange like that, they might drop connection.
- Is your microwave running? This is a more serious question than you'd believe.
- You said the download was "slow". Was it still fast enough to eat up your bandwidth? Note that bandwidth of an 802.11b connection would be 11 megabits a second.
- Your WAP antenna has a specific footprint to it's radiation output. KK's suggestion to rotate it would be pertinent here.

I've always found that wireless is good for non-realtime things. Listening to music or watching movies, looking a webpages, and stuff like that. It's not good for gaming. It's not really reliable (though it has gotten better) for large downloads. If you want to do gaming, maybe consider trying to find some way to get an ethernet connection.

Straight uninterrupted line of sight less than 10 feet away.
Modem is on a shelf in a smallish entertainment cabinet with glass doors (which are open 99% of the time)

The oldest laptop is....gosh....7 or 8 years old I think.
My newest laptop was new in June '17.

Microwave was not running.

When I said slow, the program's download graphic shows betweek 350kb/s and 500kb/s

On the old Laptop, the NIC seems to be an Intel Centrino Wireless N 1030

Never had this kind of issue before.

First, how long have you been voming blood for?

 daedalus wrote:
There's literally anything that could be going on here, and Dakka is probably second to last place I'd go for tech support.

...and what is the last place that you'd go to for tech support?

Bolter and Chainsword, obviously

Touché!

 Alpharius wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
There's literally anything that could be going on here, and Dakka is probably second to last place I'd go for tech support.

...and what is the last place that you'd go to for tech support?

Frontier tech support is probably the last place to go....the lafy on the other end knew jack squat.

So...I think I may know the issue...maybe.

My old laptop finished downloading the game file.

When I came home this morning, everything connected a-ok.

I decided to download the game file on my new laptop as well.

I hooked it directly to my dsl modem with the new cat 6 ethernet cable I got today.

As it has been downloading....my phone has not been able to connect to the modem.

So apparently downloading this game file somehow hogs ALL the bandwidth and somehow prevents anything else from connecting and using bandwidth.

I have a max of 6mb download (I know, not much but it has been ok until now).

Does that seem about right?

Forgot to check back in on this...

The last place I'd go for tech support? Probably the WebMD message board. I'm saving that for when I'm vomiting blood.

The warframe downloader could be using all your bandwidth. Most games updaters are torrent based, or at least, they used to be, and bittorrent has a knack for using literally every bit of bandwidth it can squeeze out.

I'm not saying absolutely that it's your problem here, but this link describes something similar: https://superuser.com/questions/409208/bittorrent-hogging-my-bandwidth-to-the-point-where-windows-doesnt-think-im-con

That sounds EXACTLY like what I am experiencing.

With no way to adjust their download protocols/settings.

Oh well...leaving for several hours today so it will be a good time to download it.

Thanks so much for the info!!!