laptop dilemma

[scoobydoo2]

Can anyone help before I go totally insane. I am with orange broadband - have 2 computers- 1 wired connection + 1 wireless which is constantly losing connection. Have rung helpdesk and they sort it temporarily but 10 minutes later have the same problem. I feel I am wasting my money keep ringing them every day! Any help appreciated

[fo3nix]

How far away is the laptop?

Try sitting with the laptop right by the router, and using it -- in line of sight.

[scoobydoo2]

Have tried that but again only lasts for a short time. For some reason it keeps losing my ip address - I can work for about 10 mins then it goes again! So frustrating!

[ryepie]

I'm not clear as to whether the problem is solved when you restart the router or not. If so it sounds like it could be to do with the IP leasing from your router, especially as it always seems to take the same time before it decides to sulk.

When your wireless connection next goes down, can you go into the command prompt and run the command: ipconfig /renew
and see if any error messages come up?

Also dig around your router settings and see if you can see a lease time specified anywhere? Change it to, say, 2 mins and see if your connection goes again at that new time, then you will know if it is the culprit.

If it is, then a firmware upgrade helps greatly in many of these cases, if a newer one is available. But I'm not familiar with Orange's broadband setup, do they use an off-the-shelf router, or do they customize the firmware like BT do for the homehub?