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View Full Version : Help with home wifi & internet access that used to work



George
May 26th, 2014, 04:47 AM
Have a WinXP box in the basement on wifi. It has worked well for a couple years at least. Sometimes it would get a poor wifi signal (weather, maybe?) and the internet would be slow but pages would load, if slowly sometimes.

Lately, however - perhaps two or three weeks now - I can't get to the internet at all on the basement PC, even when it says the wireless signal is Very Good.

Everything else on the computer works fine. There are no signs of viruses or anything else that I can see. the only problem seems to be that it won't load any site.

I don't think it's a wifi problem, because iPads, my wife's WinXP laptop, and our Xbox (also in the basement) all connect to the internet just fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

(This message slowly typed on an iPad screen - what a chore!)

thesameguy
May 26th, 2014, 11:30 AM
Is it getting an IP address? Can it see the local network (other computers, the router, etc.)? Are you using IE or some other browser?

George
May 27th, 2014, 07:37 AM
Is it getting an IP address?

I don't know how to check to see if it's getting an IP address. I do get a pop-up ballon from the taskbar saying something like "You are now connected to the wireless network" when I turn the computer. From there I can hover over the wireless network icon in the taskbar, or is it the tray - next to the clock, and it will give me the network connection speed - Very Good, Good, Poor, and whatever else it says.


Can it see the local network (other computers, the router, etc.)?

Back in the mid-'90s when I was the de facto system adminstrator on a small network of Mac IIci's, I could see local network, other computers, etc. I could even drag-and-drop from one Mac to another. I've never seen that stuff on a Windows home network, but I've never tried to connect to my wife's laptop before - there's no need. You'll get a chuckle out of this - I bought a small, supposedly networkable, HP laser printer and it sits near my wife's laptop, ready to be plugged into a USB port when she needs to print.

When I want to print from my computer in the basement, which is very rare, I carry the printer downstairs and plug it into my PC. Now THAT'S networking! So I don't know if I can see "the network" or not.


Are you using IE or some other browser?

Firefox, and I believe it's current. I never use IE at home (get enough of it at work) but I launched it recently just in case something had changed with Firefox. It didn't help - I still can't load any website, and I've tried all the common ones - google, craigslist, ebay, amazon, etc.

The only thing I haven't tried is taking the computer upstairs closer to the router and seeing if that works. That's my next step, but I don't see why that should help, unless our wifi power has been reduced somehow. It just seems strange that I can sit at the desk in front of the PC that won't connect to the internet, even though my network connection is supposedly Good or better, and surf the web on my iPad on the same network - when the PC used to work fine and I haven't knowingly changed any settings.

I'll haul it upstairs one of these days and plop it down next to the router and see if that helps. Thanks for the reply TSG.

Edited to add that this seems like what I've been hearing called a "First World Problem" lately - "I have several ways to get online from home but ONE of them isn't currently working! Oh Noes!" :lol:

thesameguy
May 27th, 2014, 08:58 AM
I need to be honest, that post was very upsetting. Especially the part about carrying a printer around.

George
May 27th, 2014, 09:23 AM
Oh, it's worse that that. My wife apparently doens't know how to plug the cable to the printer into a USB port, so she emails everything to me at work for me to print and bring home!

I honestly don't know how to make the printer "share-able" from our two PCs. We don't print enough to care about it, but I imagine that will change as our kids get older. Tomorrow is their last day of Kindergarten so the Homework Years are just getting started.

thesameguy
May 27th, 2014, 09:46 AM
Your kids don't email their homework in? Printing homework is sketchy '80s "fuck the environment" type of BS.

A couple weeks ago my dad asked my advice about printers as his was no longer working. I asked what he printed, why he even needs a printer. He told me he printed emails out and I damn near punched the old man in the face. He knows better. He asked me why I had a printer, and I told him I bought it in 2005 before portable devices were ubiquitous, and it's printed about 4,000 sheets in that nine years - including around 1,000 flyers for a friend in 2011. Printers should be banned. There's no reason to own one anymore. I've thought about getting rid of it, but every so often I buy something at Fry's that requires me to print out an order confirmation or I use credit card rewards points to buy gift certificates that I need to print to use in-store. I bought a ream of paper in 2012 and used it up a month ago, so I grabbed about 100 sheets of paper from the office (STOLED!!!!). When those get used up, I'm chucking the printer.

Windows XP - Check your IP address: http://networking.grok.lsu.edu/Article.aspx?articleId=204

Windows XP - Browse for other computers on the local network: http://www.home-network-help.com/shared-folder.html

George
May 30th, 2014, 06:19 AM
TSG, thanks for taking the time to post those links. It might be this weekend or later that I'll have time to mess with this again.

Speaking of printing out emails, about four or five years ago a guy I worked with retired. He was born in 1933 - I only remember that because he was my Dad's age - so he was at least 75, maybe 76 or 77 when he retired after 25 or 30 years or something like that with the company. The funny thing was he had previously "retired" from a well-known insurance company decades earlier after a similarly long run, and probably with a pension, too, as companies did back then. But anyway...he was a notorious email printer. I'd go to him to ask a question and he'd open a filing cabinet drawer and produce the answer his neatly filed emails.

Kchrpm
May 30th, 2014, 06:26 AM
I just wish my router would work like it does when it works, and not stop working correctly, requiring a reboot, every 2 hours...had to send it back to Netgear for a replacement last time this happened, don't really want to do it again.

thesameguy
May 30th, 2014, 01:35 PM
Netgear is not the Netgear that Netgear used to be

SportWagon
June 4th, 2014, 09:56 AM
Regarding George's original post...

I find my smartphone (or another Android device) indespensible for figuring out some WiFi problems.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

Perhaps you can get similar programs for your PC/OS? (Or your iPad, duh!)

I run two or three WiFi networks of my own, and if they decide to use the same channels, problems seem worse.

A thesis I would investigate is that someone is running a new powerful WiFi router in a neighbouring house, and that is interfering with yours.

And part of your debugging should include moving the computer closer to the source to see how it works there. But that could be a pain. Obviously. So obviously that you already said it...