Wireless disconnects from school network every few minutes

*** I'm using Windows XP Professional ***

I'm having a huge f*cking headache over this. My god damn wireless just seems to disconnect every few minutes, then it takes another few minutes to reconnect itself again. Sometimes it can be 1 minute, or sometimes it takes up to 10 minutes to disconnect/reconnect. I really have no idea what the problem is. None of my classmates disconnect at all during class except me, and my signal strength is usually always 'Excellent', so that's definately not the problem.

I've deleted and re-created my wireless profile upteen times, the school IT helpdesk even tried doing it twice for me but the problem still exists. We even tried to configure my wireless in Mac OS X, but they ran into some problems halfway and they never finished it. In the end the bloody stupid IT helpdesk just told me "sorry, we have no idea how to fix it."

- My home network connection is fine. No disconnects.
- Currently I'm out in the library using a public wireless access spot, no problems ether.
- Previously when I had Windows Vista, I did not have this problem.

Could it have something to do with this 802.1x authentication or whatever thing? I know my school uses that whereas neither of the above 2 networks do.

 

It sound like the school is dropping your connection. Most school have the students registers the MAC address with them. Some require them to go to specific web address and log in.

First verify that your personal FW is not blocking the Schools subnets. Then verify that you power management settings is not shutting down the wireless to save energy/battery. These are found in 2 areas, Control panel and Advanced port settings of the hardware. You will have to scroll through them. And set them to max power and never sleep.

If its a 11n card and the school is 11g, set to 11g only.

Also if that does not correct the problem, drop off ALL services except the MS login client and TCP/IP. And or File and Printer sharing. Some services will kill a conneciton. These are listed in your Port Properties. Just uncheck the ones not required.

 

Mmm....

There's no need to register our MAC addresss. We log in using our admission number and password. I tried turning off my firewall too but that didn't do a thing. It's also not my power management settings because I have it plugged into the powerpoint socket and it's running at maximum power.

It could be this. I know I have a 11n card whereas a lot of students in my school don't have it. How do I turn it to just 11g?

 

Sounds like a driver issue to me. Wireless cards have so many friggin options and compatablity issues that it drives me up the wall on some days. I'm not schooled in Macs but thought I'd pipe in. I remember helping a Coworker who had the same problem at her favorite coffee shop. after an hour of sitting at that shop trying different things, I wiped all traces of the driver off her laptop and reinstalled it. Like magic it decides to work. I was relieved at the same time I wanted to launch the laptop straight through the window.

Edit: I feel your pain!! You also sound like an above average technology person, so that makes it even worse when you can't figure out the problem.

 

Im with the drivers aswell. Try changing them to whatever versions you can find