Wireless Network Issue, Disconnecting Randomly From Network

Question

I'm having an odd problem with my wireless network. Here is the background information:

Server (Windows Server 2008) 1 to 10 end user machines connecting to the network Layer 3 Access Point (Asus WL-330 gE) connected to ethernet of Server and all machines connect to the network via the AP

The end user machines get a connection to the server with no problems initially. But then connections are randomly lost throughout the day to the server/network. The wireless NICs of the machines still see the wireless network but are unable to connect to it. Then after some time the connection is regained automatically.

I initially thought there was a problem with this particular AP, but then I took the same make/model AP out of storage and still ran into the problem.

Any ideas what could be causing this??? Very confusing that the wireless nics on the end user machines can still see the network but not connect, and that the connections are randomly lost/gained.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The problem is not very odd actually. You'll notice this behavior with most 802.11g consumer-based access points (specially with 5-10 users). Here are some things to check:

• Since the access point is 802.11g based, it’s possible you have another electronic device at that same 2.4 GHz frequency causing issues with connectivity (wireless phones usually, but a microwave oven would also run at this same frequency, avoid them by either moving them physically... or for your phone, think about purchasing one that operates at a different frequency.

• Try to find what type of bandwidth use is required by your clients. Are they killing/overwhelming the access point with high amounts of traffic? Most-likely: “yes" (YouTube, downloading/streaming music/videos, torrents, high levels of file server access). Another thing to check, though unlikely, is to look for clients connecting at 802.11b speeds, as they will definitely affect your other wireless devices, even if they're 'g' they'll encounter performance degradation.

Think about at least upgrading your wireless access point to 802.11n (preferably dual-band, that way you can support both g and n clients at their original frequencies).