I read through some of these threads, and instead of bringing up months old threads I figuered I would start a new one. My wireless trouble started when I set up a streaming network in my home. I have an Xbox 360 wired in the living room, Xbox 360 wireless in the bedroom, 2 laptop PC's, my main PC in the living room (all 3 wireless) and frequently would have visitors over who would use the wireless. The trouble I started having was that I would frequently have to reset the router and modem, supposedly because of conflicts with my cable modem (Motorola surfboard that I own, router is a Linksys WRT54G of some variety that Vonage gave us years ago).
I live in the country, and for the longest time I was the only person on the node, talk about FAST! Well I noticed degredation in my speeds, and obvious problems with the modem/router conflicts for a long while. I first set wireless security, WPA but this is a HUGE hassle when dealing with steaming because if it tried to renew the lease with a device that wasn't active at the moment, it would fail (device would show but wouldn't allow you to access it). I set static IP's for everything, and put them out of the range of the auto assigned IP's, still kept running into issues. I had someone tell me that my router didn't play nice with the Comcast cable, so I purchased a new Rev 1.0 WRT54G (the sleek black one with no antennea).
This got me up and running, but still had the issue with the WPA and still would get the random disconnects and modem troubles. Finally I found a program called inSSIDer and ran it, MAJOR problem found! My neighbors had apparently all upgraded to high speed, and 4 out of 5 were broadcasting wireless on channel 6! One person was broadcasting on channel 12, so I dropped mine to channel 1. After this I disabled the WPA security, and since then I have been set. I have reset the modem/router maybe 3 times in the past few months, and while I'm a bit nervous about no security, I live in the sticks and have been dealing with it. If I ever get to nervous, I'll restrict the router to only allow access to manually added IP's
I see a lot of talk on here about flashing firmware, or re capping, but here's the crazy thing, I gave the old Vonage router to a friend of mine who lives WAAAAY out in the woods (but just close enough to get DSL) and it has been flawless for him ever since. This router is at least 4 years old with no firmware update, and it is still kicking. While I agree you should stay current on these things, It never hurts to check the small stuff first.
Finally I wanted to add that one of our laptops will give the random "no network found" error that for the longest time I blamed on the router, turns out the wireles B (yes old school) mini PCI card is dying, 15 dollar fix and I get upgraded to wirless G speed.
I live in the country, and for the longest time I was the only person on the node, talk about FAST! Well I noticed degredation in my speeds, and obvious problems with the modem/router conflicts for a long while. I first set wireless security, WPA but this is a HUGE hassle when dealing with steaming because if it tried to renew the lease with a device that wasn't active at the moment, it would fail (device would show but wouldn't allow you to access it). I set static IP's for everything, and put them out of the range of the auto assigned IP's, still kept running into issues. I had someone tell me that my router didn't play nice with the Comcast cable, so I purchased a new Rev 1.0 WRT54G (the sleek black one with no antennea).
This got me up and running, but still had the issue with the WPA and still would get the random disconnects and modem troubles. Finally I found a program called inSSIDer and ran it, MAJOR problem found! My neighbors had apparently all upgraded to high speed, and 4 out of 5 were broadcasting wireless on channel 6! One person was broadcasting on channel 12, so I dropped mine to channel 1. After this I disabled the WPA security, and since then I have been set. I have reset the modem/router maybe 3 times in the past few months, and while I'm a bit nervous about no security, I live in the sticks and have been dealing with it. If I ever get to nervous, I'll restrict the router to only allow access to manually added IP's

I see a lot of talk on here about flashing firmware, or re capping, but here's the crazy thing, I gave the old Vonage router to a friend of mine who lives WAAAAY out in the woods (but just close enough to get DSL) and it has been flawless for him ever since. This router is at least 4 years old with no firmware update, and it is still kicking. While I agree you should stay current on these things, It never hurts to check the small stuff first.
Finally I wanted to add that one of our laptops will give the random "no network found" error that for the longest time I blamed on the router, turns out the wireles B (yes old school) mini PCI card is dying, 15 dollar fix and I get upgraded to wirless G speed.
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