My connection is obscenely slow and erratic. Please help.

[Shishio]

OK, I am sharing my landlord's internet connection. To save the hassle of dealing with a really long ethernet cable, I got a wireless card.

Yesterday, I installed the card, a Trendnet 54 Mbps 802.11g PCI adapter, and everything worked great.

For about twenty minutes.

Then the internet went down. I checked the modem and the computer upstairs. Everything is working perfectly on that end. I go back downstairs and check my connection again. It works. It goes down again. I figure it will come back up in a few minutes. It doesn't. I restart my computer. It works. Twenty minutes later, it goes down again. I restart the computer, it works. Lather, rinse, repeat about two or three more times. Then it goes down again, and restarting no longer fixes my problem. I leave the computer on, and decide to go to bed, and deal with it after I get up. I get up, it still doesn't work. I turn it off, go to work, and try again upon getting home today. It still doesn't work. My ISP is Bell, so I call technical support. That was a wonderfully constructive use of an hour-and-a-half of my time...

The tech support agent told me to disable my anti-virus and firewall software. With these programs disabled, my internet seems to work OK, but I would like my internet to work properly with my security software running, for obvious reasons.

And the technical support number for Trendnet is a U.S. number, and I cannot make long distance calls, so with no other options, (Bell does not support my wireless card, so they cannot help me either.) I turn to you. If you can help me resolve my internet problem, or can refer me to someone who can, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

In case it is necessary, my system information is as follows:

Operating System: Windows 98 Second Edition

Processor: 533 Mhz

RAM: 160 mb

Wireless Card: Trendnet TEW-423PI 54 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter

Modem: Siemens Speedstream 6520

Anti-virus Software:  AVG 7.0

Firewall:  Sygate Personal Firewall Pro (Version 5.6, I think.)

[resopalrabotnick]

ok, does the internet go tits up or does the wireless card lose the connection?

check it by seeing if the landlord can still use the web if the connection is down on your end.

share a folder on your and your landlords comp (not the one with all the pr0n of course) and see if when the net goes down you can still access it. if no, then it's not the internet connection that went down but the wireless.

also, you mention a comp and a modem on the landlords side, he does have a wireless router, doesn't he? otherwise you're surfing on someone elses internet, not your landlords.

if it is a problem with the wireless going down i recommend either using a cable (might not even have to put holes in the wall. just sling the sucker out the window and go along the outside of the place) or changing the wireless channels to avoid whatever is causing your interference. if all that don't help, i can offer you some wireless media optimized for 70% nitrogen content at the amazing price of just US$ 0.75 a cubic foot.

[Shishio]

When I am unable to use the internet on my computer, it still works on my landlord's computer.  Everything works fine on his end.  But according to the status icon and window of my wireless card, it's still connected, and I still get signal readings, yet I'm unable to browse or otherwise use the internet at all.  And it won't work again until I either restart, or change something.

For example, as I said, it would work for about twenty minutes at a time, then not work, and only start working again after I restarted.  Then restarting no longer worked and I had to shut down my firewall and antivirus software.  Then it worked for awhile, stopped working, and did not work again when I restarted.  So under my configuration options, I set Network SSID to Linksys, and it worked.  (It was set to first available access point before.  Also, I tried typing in the SSID provided by our ISP, but that didn't work.) Then it stopped working, and worked again after I restarted.

As for our setup, this is how it works:  Our ISP is Bell Sympatico.  He had internet with them, and I asked if he would share his connection.  He called Bell and asked how he could go about this, and they said he would have to upgrade his connection and that they would send us something they called the Wireless Home Networking Modem.  It looks like a normal modem, except it has two additional lights, (Wireless and Internet.) three additional ethernet plugs, and an antenna by the power button. 

His computer is upstairs, and connected to the modem/router/whatever it is via ethernet.  My computer is in the basement, and has a wireless card.  (I did all of the setup work for both computers.)  As I said, his connection works perfectly, and as the topic title states, mine is obscenely slow and erratic.

And lastly, since I am so stupid and ignorant, please tell me how to share a folder between our two computers, and how, if necessary, to change my wireless channel.  (I do see a channel window in my configuration screen, but it's greyed out, so I cannot change it.  It's on channel 6.)

[resopalrabotnick]

changing the channel would have to be done on the modem. it sounds  like a modem/router/wireless access point. btw, does the building have central a/c? (ducting makes great way to lay cable)

to share, right click on a folder, select sharing and seurity. that will let you run a wizard to set it up.

[rammolo]

Hi,

I remember there is a setting somewhere in win 98 that says shut of internet connection after 20 mins of inactivity, i dont use win 98 but im sure it has it, maybe in modem propertirs, check for it. anyway if it is in modem properties it wont apply for broadband, just take a look

[resopalrabotnick]

frag. missed the os. durr. ok, you need to rightclick your network neighborhood icon, activate the file sharig, reboot, and then you can rightclick and share folders.

[Shishio]

I cannot find the "Shut Internet off after twenty minutes of inactivity" option.

Also, I have to wait until I find my Windows 98 CD to activate sharing.  Is the procedure the same on XP?  (My landlord's computer has XP.)

[resopalrabotnick]

nah, for that it is like i described earlier.

but it sounds like there is something fishy with your wireless. look up the ip of your landlords comp on his system or the routers setup page and see if you can ping it when your internet link goes down. if you can, you know the wireless part is ok and there's something borked in the router (that also being your modem however i doubt that it has a problem since the landlord can still surf during your downtimes) so i would expect something with interference on the wireless.

[Shishio]

I tried going to the router setup page, but none of the usernames or passwords we had were valid, so...  How do I lookup his IP?

[resopalrabotnick]

you can look in the control panel at his network properties to get the ip. also contact the isp to get access to the router so you can try channelhopping.

[Shishio]

There is no Network Properties tab in the Control Panel.

[coknuck]

Control Panel - Network Connection- Local Connection- Support Tab

[FallowEarth]

The tech support agent told me to disable my anti-virus and firewall software. With these programs disabled, my internet seems to work OK, but I would like my internet to work properly with my security software running, for obvious reasons.

Anti-virus Software:

[Shishio]

Well, it worked for a little while the first time I shut off my firewall, but I still had problems.

But anyway, I have since learned that our ISP didn't upgrade the service as high as they did, as we are too far away to get their "High Speed", and supposedly the service we're on isn't compatible with their "Wireless Home Networking" service, so I am just going to go with a different ISP altogether.  Thank you all very much for trying to help me, though.