Difficulties keeping wifi going.

[EMCF]

Ok, to keep this brief:

I have the nintendo wifi dongle, and no access to a router. I've been using the dongle for the longest time, but about a month (or two) ago it stopped working. I tried all sorts of things, and nothing worked. Finally, I just uninstalled the nintendo wifi software off my PC, and reinstalled it. Bingo, problem solved.

For about 20 minutes (roughly).

So I do it again, reinstall, connect... everything is fine. For about 20 minutes. It seems the only thing I can do to fix this problem is reinstall, and it will work flawlessly for a short time - then crap out suddenly. What the hell is going on? It still shows up when I double-click the wifi logo, but when I try to run a connection test it gives me the usual 51040 error (or some number similar) and says to check if my dongle is working - which it is.

Some background info:

-My Wii and the dongle are in seperate rooms, but have always been and it used to work fine. The dongle and the wii are both close to the same wall however and are no more than 5 feet apart.

-It's not my internet connection either, as far as I can tell. I just switched providers for a non-related reason and I was hoping it would solve this - it did not.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KrisKhaos]

hmmm....

You might have a software conflict of sorts my friend, something that predictable sounds like it's running a cron job (Linux/Unix term basically for a timed process) and is conflicting with the little Wi-Fi adapter.

I suggest temporarily shutting down anything that you don't need running software wise that could be blocking it. One of my first suspects would be to check your firewall settings (XP SP2 has a simple firewall installed) and simply shut down one application at a time to get a simple test. If you actually know what you are doing CTRL-ALT-DEL brings up the task manager in XP, and a quick slide to processes will allow a more detailed "kill and check" style operation to knock off software executing in the background (be careful with this).

Likewise you can always boot into Safe Mode and there should be an option to start windows and check which startup applications and devices you wish to execute. I would help more with this option however it's been awhile since I had to do such and generally when I have to I don't think about it as it's been pure habit for years now.

 

[EMCF]

I know my way around a computer fairly well... however I'm not exactly well versed in the options you gave me. I'm somewhat wary of turning off my firewall but it's worth a shot, however then why didn't it effect me for so long and just choose to now?

Furthermore, if I do go through a list of programs and disable different ones who may or may not be the offenders I'm going to have to head up stairs and check if it's working over and over - potentially even having to reinstall it and wait the 20-30 minutes needed for it to give out on me again. I really appreciate the help and will try what you suggested (and what I am capable of doing) but is there any other help you could potentially offer?

Thanks a lot.

 

[KrisKhaos]

I'm somewhat wary of turning off my firewall but it's worth a shot, however then why didn't it effect me for so long and just choose to now?

Waht I am saying is temporarily, not permanently. What I am saying is NOT TO UNINSTALL software either (except for the Nintendo Wi-Fi adapter if that is how you know it to work), but simply to stop it from running for a short while, presumably so you can simply reboot to regain normal operation.

The idea is to single out the problem that could be conflicting with the Nintendo Wi-Fi software, without any knowledge of your setup all I can do is offer a simple means of troubleshooting.

I am certain however (educated guess) that the Nintendo Wi-Fi adapter for your computer is creating a WAP (Wireless Access Point) and setting up a special local network complete with a dynamic IP, basically turning your computer into a router to gain Internet access.

I suspect a firewall as a possible source of your problem for two reasons. First, most will literally detect this data traffic and depending on it's settings, will assume such ports are unneeded and deny access depending on what firewall software you are using and how you have it configured. A good example with the internal XP Firewall is the option to toggle "Don't allow exceptions" which then fails to warn you when it is blocking IP's and ports. The second and most important reason, firewalls are often the most common connectivity problem regarding software related network failures. :lol:

I know it is troublesome however to root out this problem my best advice is to check for all possible points of failure.

Sorry, just offering suggestions to help isolate the problem.

 

[EMCF]

I tried simply running a connection test with the firewall down, nothing changed. I'm going to have to play around I suppose.

Sigh.

A bit of a headache really. Is there any info I could give you that would help for you to make diagnosis, oh Dr.Internet?

 

[KrisKhaos]

A bit of a headache really. Is there any info I could give you that would help for you to make diagnosis, oh Dr.Internet?

Heh.

I'm not much for online technical support, much less attempting assistance in a chat room or forum for that matter. This is 10x easier doing this sort of thing in person, which is simply not an option.

Problem is I would need complete lists of things that you simply cannot "print out" without either re-typing it or posting screen shots of things like what is listing in your process list, and attempting to talk you things like "ipconfig" via command shell is NOT happening on a forum as well.

Aside from shutting down applications (and some "services"), tweaking your firewall settings (or shutting it down), or knowing what software actually likes to hook more directly to your network hardware (VMware, Firewalls, and possibly even some Anti-Virus software) poses a problem.

Just for entertainment goto My Network Places and click the View Network Connections on the left hand side. See if the Nintendo Wi-Fi device is listed there and if it is, try Right-Clicking it and then select "Disable". Then re-enable it and see if it comes back alive without having to re-install it each time. You could also try the "Repair" option too see if XP helps give you more options and check for various conflicts on it's own and other network related troubleshooting. (Don't know what options it will give as I prefer not to rely on anything automated if possible, I wouldn't rely on Windows for that matter if Adobe had a Linux/Unix version of it's software. )

My best advice is try another computer if you have one in the same house, or even possibly hiring someone to check it out for you.

 

[mahooka]

Considering you've been using it a while and it's only now acting up, it's possible there's a new source of rf interference in/around your home. I don't know if the dongle lets you set the wifi channel, but if it does, try changing it.

 

[bilzar]

I would say that it is just the dongle, there have been Way too many problems with those. My suggestion is that you get a Wii Lan Adapter . Problem solved

 

[KrisKhaos]

I would say that it is just the dongle, there have been Way too many problems with those. My suggestion is that you get a Wii Lan Adapter . Problem solved

Yeah, the dongle was also on the list of problems. Seems shortly after this conversation I read of others having a lot of trouble there's as well. Personally I've never messed with one, and by the sounds of it don't want to.

 

[bilzar]

Yeah, the dongle was also on the list of problems. Seems shortly after this conversation I read of others having a lot of trouble there's as well. Personally I've never messed with one, and by the sounds of it don't want to.

I had one, and it worked for about an hour and then it never worked again, I got my money back and then we got Wireless internet. Oh yeah, getting Wireless is another choice besides the LAN adapter. We got ours for $40 from Wal*Mart and it works perfectly

 

[CantGetAWii]

I have the Wi-Fi Connector, all I had to do was turn off one of my firewalls.

Thats weird it won't work in your situation.