Two laptops wireless problem.

dilli-theclaw · 13-12-2009, 12:41

So I am house sitting at my dad's, and I have my son with me.

We can both connect to my dad's router (netgear one from virgin - he unlike me has a cable connection) but when we BOTH connect the internet is virtually unsuable.

Any ideas on that one?

Cheers, in advance.

Dilli.

Raistlin · 13-12-2009, 12:44

Probably already checked this, but do both laptops have different IP addresses and MAC addresses?

Also, is there any chance that one of them's downloading something massive (Windows updates for example) in the background and that's consuming the bandwidth?

Failing that have you tried rebooting the router? Might be that it's been up for while and it's feeling the strain.

dilli-theclaw · 13-12-2009, 12:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob M

Probably already checked this, but do both laptops have different IP addresses and MAC addresses?

Yup they are different.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob M

Also, is there any chance that one of them's downloading something massive (Windows updates for example) in the background and that's consuming the bandwidth?

I have tried my laptop in kubuntu - mac os and windows 7. It does the same thing in all of them.

Peters netbook is all up to date. As soon as he stops trying to get on the internet mine starts working agian - or vice verca.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob M

Failing that have you tried rebooting the router? Might be that it's been up for while and it's feeling the strain.

It was doing it yesterday and before we went out today so I've rebooted (power cycled) both a few times now.

Still no joy tho, chees for your help though - some good ideas

13-12-2009, 12:49

change default broadcast channel?

has the default DHCP server got enough allocatable ips? have you tried a hard reset? and with no security?

Raistlin · 13-12-2009, 12:51

Doesn't sound like the router's not capable of dealing with the simultaneous connections, which is odd to say the least.

Are you both connected wirelessly? If so, is there any improvement if you're connected directly via cable?

If it is wireless see if you can find out what other networks are operating on the same channel as your Dad's (netstumbler is good for this) - it could just be that the wireless channel is congested and that's causing the problems. Although I'd expect to see that manifest itself with only one connected as well as with two.

dilli-theclaw · 13-12-2009, 13:21

Trying those now - cheers......

---------- Post added at 13:21 ---------- Previous post was at 12:57 ----------

HHHmmm looksl ike it's something to do with Peters netbook. It works ok when I'm doing youtube on my dads pc / laptop and my iphone at the same time.

Cheers everyone

Raistlin · 13-12-2009, 13:28

Odd.

Is the router assigning DNS addresses, or are they setup manually on the machines?

What speed does the netbook adaptor say it's running at? It could be forcing the router to autonegotiate to a slower speed than is ideal.

dilli-theclaw · 13-12-2009, 13:36

I'm going to have to get back to you on that - he's being picked up by his mother shortly so I'll have another bash when I get home. Cheers

Raistlin · 13-12-2009, 13:41

No prob's

Bloomin' networking's a nightmare sometimes, and even when you think it's all working right another issue is just around the corner

13-12-2009, 21:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas T

I'm going to have to get back to you on that - he's being licked up by his mother shortly so I'll have another bash when I get home. Cheers

Licked??

dilli-theclaw · 13-12-2009, 21:13

Yes - I can't see my keyboard very well on my laptop. Still getting used to it.

Ah well, mistakes happen