Home Networking Problem

[DigiSLR]

I have a strange problem that hopefully one of you techies can help me resolve.

I have 3 PCs, a Laptop and XBox 360 on my home network. I have a Linksys wireless router and most of the time everything works fine and dandy.

2 PCs are set up with a LAN cable plugged directly into the router, and the Laptop, 3rd PC, and XBox are all set up wirelessly.

SOME times when I boot one of the wireless devices, I lose internet connectivity on all the devices. I can get from the PC to the router, but not out to the internet. I have checked when this happens and all the PCs have different IP addresses so there appears to be no IP address conflict.

The only way I can resolve the issue when it happens is to un plug the router, unplug the Cable Modem, plug the cable modem back in, wait 2 - 3 minutes, plug in the Router, wait 2 - 3 minutes, then reboot the PCs.

I NEVER have a problem using just the 2 wired PCs. I NEVER have a problem using just ONE wireless device. The problem seems to appear at random when I have 1 or more wired PCs on and operating, THEN I turn on one (or more) of the wireless devices.

FWIW, I have updated the firware in all my PCs, the Wireless cards, and the Router to the most current versions.

Where should I begin looking and what do I look for?

Oh, I have Windows XP Pro on the wired PCs and Vista Home Premium 64bit on the Wireless PC, Windows NT on the Laptop.

[SaSha]

I've had trouble with the Xbox before but it was on a hub and not wireless either.
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=61693
You aren't alone....Ill see what I can find for you.

[photosteve]

Sounds like the xbox is conflicting with your wireless. Set up the xbox with a static ip and see if that works.



PhotoSteve

[Concisus Cognatus]

This problem is going to take a little research in order to determine what's happening.

I'd start by taking an in depth look at the linksys logs. As a matter of simplifying things, I'd empty the present logs, then, the very next time the problem shows up, immediately look to see what occurred. Additionally, verify each ip address by attempting to ping them.

A few things to make note of:
1. Does it happen with any particular wireless device?
2. Are all wireless devices using the same version of wireless connectivity technology?
3. Can you ping the WAN side of the router, but not surf?
4. Can you ping other devices on your LAN?

That's all I have for right now. I'm certain there'll be others to chime in with more help than what I've offered. Good luck in getting this problem worked out.

[rexster314]

If you are running DHCP at the present, try assigning static IP's, or conversely, try the other setup, delete the static IP's, and try DHCP

Rex

[DigiSLR]

anyone have a tutorial on how to set up Static IPs, my ISP only provides me with Dynamic IPs... Can I do some port forwarding or something that will give everything a dynamic IP?

[DigiSLR]

RD.. To answer your questions...
1. I am not 100% certain, I need to pay closer attention when it does happen. I usually have a lot fo the devices on at the same time. I'll need to see if it's a particular device causing the problem.

2. All are using 802.11 g/b with WEP encryption

3. Haven't tried to ping the WAN side of things. I know I cannot surf

4. I can Ping the other PCs on the LAN side.

It's only when I unplug the router that I get the little message stating something like "a network cable has been unplugged"

[SaSha]

If you notice when the Xbox when signs into Live and then the other computers cannot connect then that should be your only problem...and then setting the Xbox with a staic IP will most likely help.

[Concisus Cognatus]

Originally Posted by DigiSLR

anyone have a tutorial on how to set up Static IPs, my ISP only provides me with Dynamic IPs... Can I do some port forwarding or something that will give everything a dynamic IP?

Matt if you have admin access to your Linksys, then you can easily configure the ip addresses and there is no need to configure port forwarding. Outgoing data will default to the gateway, hence, all the private addresses used will automatically forward data to the gateway as long as the address the data is being sent to is not found to be on the LAN.

Here's a link to a tutorial for Linksys manual configuration:

http://www.2kevin.net/router.html#SETUP .

[epoh]

I definitely second the recommendation to give your Xbox a static IP. This can be done w/in the router.

[Roadrnr]

Not only should you set your xbox with a static IP but you need to set the modem as a bridge, and let your router handle the DHCP functions. From there, open the NAT for the Xbox's IP in the router.

www.portforward.com can offer a lot of good info on this

[DigiSLR]

Thanks everyone. Haven't had the time to play with the Network, but I didn't turn on the XBox and didn't have a problem last night....