Router DCing and Reconnecting

It's driving the people I talk to on AIM and Facebook nuts. What happens is that at random, the router disconnects and reconnects immediately, which often times causes the messages I send to not be received. Also, when it DCs enough, I'll get an error message on AIM saying that I'm signing in too soon. There's nothing about this in my instruction manual or the CD about this DCing.

Specs:
D-Link n300
Using WPA, without "optimizing" speed

Do you have your Router set to Connection: Keep Alive or Connection: Connect on Demand?

Have you looked for other signals in the area on the same band of three channels as yours that are likely overpowering you?
If there's another wifi of greater or nearly equal strength on a similar channel it may be avoidable by simply moving to a different block with less competition.
Also, if there is a 2.4GHz cordless phone in use in proximity to you and you're using the b or g it can cause dropping anytime someone picks up the line.

The router is mine. It's sitting under my desk, and I'm the only one who can use it because I set a password on it. There are many other signals, as I am at UCSD and everyone around here has his/her own router, though they all have passwords as well. Additionally, there are two public wifi's in the building, but those are always really slow.

Additionally, I have the setting adjusted to always connect to my own wifi when it's available, and I have every other signal in the building that my laptop can possibly connect to set to only "manually connect" so that my laptop doesn't try to connect to them.

Run NetWork Stumbler, sort by channel, screen shot and indicate which is yours and which is everyone else.

You should try WPA2 with AES encryption.

I'm thinking it could be how you set up the Wireless as well.

Try this...

1. Reset everything on the Router back to Factory default (also make sure you have an Ethernet cable plugged into the computer you are working from).

2. Set up your connection for PPPoE with the username and password. Also make sure the Keep Alive Connection option is set (most routers have these).

3. Setup your wireless as follows:

rename the SSID somethijg like DL-N300-*your first name*
set up a password
set the connection for WPA2 AES only(do not use WPA/WPA2 MIXED or TKIP, or TKIP/AES modes)
save the settings and test the connection on a wireless device

4. If all goes well it should work.

I would recommend having someone help you setup an account for Dynamic DNS (all routers support this feature, or should). This way if you need help from someone you can allow them remote access to the router and help with configuration.

How often is this happening?

This happened for me, very often. What I did was setup a .bat file to continuously ping 192.168.10.1 and the disconnects stopped.

You should try WPA2 with AES encryption.

-everything else-

I just tried this right now. My router was really annoying to reinstall, and it didn't work. :/

Is there a way to fix this problem without using external programs that I have to download online? Cancambo mentioned a .bat file. How do I set that up, and why does it work? I'm on Windows 7 btw.

How often is this happening?

At random. Anywhere between 1 and 8 minutes.

I just tried this right now. My router was really annoying to reinstall, and it didn't work. :/

Is there a way to fix this problem without using external programs that I have to download online? Cancambo mentioned a .bat file. How do I set that up, and why does it work? I'm on Windows 7 btw.



At random. Anywhere between 1 and 8 minutes.

Figure out the router's IP address. I am not sure how you do this for W7, but on XP you go to Run and type in cmd. Then in the command prompt, type 'ipconfig' and your router's IP should be the same as the default gateway. It should be 192.168.X.X. Then create a the .bat file by opening notepad and put in "ping -t 192.168.X.X" (replace the X's, of course). Then instead of saving it as a .txt file, save it as a .bat file. Double clicking on this .bat will then start the pinger that will constantly ping your router. This creates a constant connection between your PC and your router, and it uses of very minute amoutns of memory to do so, at least that's how I understand it.

Is there any way to program this window to autohide?

I'm not saying unplug the router. There should be an option in the router tools to reset everything back to as you bought it.

On a side note:

It is the PC that keeps disconnecting or is it the Router that keeps disconnecting from the ISP?

If it's the first then you're going about thsi the wrong way entirely and you need to reconfigure your PC's connection to the router.

Is there any way to program this window to autohide?

Not that I know of. :/

I'm not sure whether it is or not. Yesterday night when I connected my laptop to my router by using an ethernet cord, it still did the DCing thing. For reference, my laptop doesn't do this on the public wifi, even though the public wifi is really slow.

Anyways, this ping thing doesn't seem to be working. My laptop is still doing this DCing and reconnecting thing.

Might want to verify that "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is unchecked from both the wireless and wired cards under Power Management in the Device Manager.
Odds are it's something else, but still a really stupid option to have default to "on".

Okay I unchecked the box. Apparently it was on by default. Anyways, I don't know if this is related:



:/

^ I don't think that should be related if all you did was uncheck the "Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power" thing. But if it had to be connected somehow, it'd probably be some script, which I wouldn't know what it did anyways.

At any rate, if it really WAS connected to that DNS failure, checking back on the box should make it go away. (but that's probably not the route you want to go, since Eosian is right; it's a dumb thing to do)

Figure out the router's IP address. I am not sure how you do this for W7, but on XP you go to Run and type in cmd. Then in the command prompt, type 'ipconfig' and your router's IP should be the same as the default gateway. It should be 192.168.X.X. Then create a the .bat file by opening notepad and put in "ping -t 192.168.X.X" (replace the X's, of course). Then instead of saving it as a .txt file, save it as a .bat file. Double clicking on this .bat will then start the pinger that will constantly ping your router. This creates a constant connection between your PC and your router, and it uses of very minute amoutns of memory to do so, at least that's how I understand it.

Wait, how is that different from just inputting "ping -t 192.168.X.X" into cmd without a .bat file?

(sorry I don't mean to thread jack or anything)

Even after I unchecked the box, it's still doing the DCing thing.

By any chance does your router have ANY options for DNSMasq?

Wait, how is that different from just inputting "ping -t 192.168.X.X" into cmd without a .bat file?

(sorry I don't mean to thread jack or anything)

It isn't. Just if you have to use it a lot, it is easier to just make the .bat file. I have it so it starts the .bat file when I start my computer.