About to kick my new laptop

[TXHookem]

So... I went and bought a new laptop - an HP 4805. Has pretty much everything I need it to do... except... my Internet connection sucks big time. Wireless seems touch and go and I have a tough time getting on to any web sites. Explorer just seems to hang. It's freakin' killing me!? Any ideas? Is it the integrated wireless card?

 

[CaptainObvious]

is it a broadcom b/g card? what brand router do you have?

 

[TXHookem]

I have a Linksys wireless router. Not sure about the integrated wireless card... it's what came with the HP laptop. I have a connection (WEP is enabled) but it is very intermittent and mostly hangs when I try to get to web pages.

 

[DLev]

If you can, call Linksys customer support. When I first got my router, I spent 5 days trying to get the damn thing to work (and I'm a freaking EE). I finally called customer support and they had me change some obscure setting in some advanced menu (after trying 10 other things first) and that worked. When I asked them where I could have looked that solution up myself, he flat out told me nowhere. Not the best documentation on these things.

 

[YChang]

upadte the firmware on your linksys router also. My wireless performance stunk until I did that.

 

[ldogg53]

oh ya.. and you might be having problems if using a 2.4ghz wireless phone while trying to be online... I frustrated myself for a few hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my connection... turned out the phone was causing interference..

 

[TXHookem]

Just to provide some additional background to help...

We also have a Toshiba laptop with a NetGear wireless card. We don't seem to be having any problems there.

The HP is "talking" to the router because I get an ocassional spotty connection. I had previously spoken with Linksys to make sure I had the WEP set up properly but when I spoke with them, I didn't know about this other problem.

I'll connecting with a wire to see if that makes a diffrence. Also, would downloading updated HP drivers from their web page make a difference?

 

[fluff]

Get a new wireless card, the built-in ones, suck!!! Seriously

 

[CaptainObvious]

Updating your router firmware is a greatidea.

I have a Dell Truemobile 1300 which is just a relabeled Broadcom. I'm thinking it's the same card and is known to have lots of issues. I had the exact same trouble for about a year with Netgear and Linksys routers, all the while Dell saying "the new driver will be released next month". Well it finally happened in June and after the driver update the thing works beautitfully.

I checked the HP website but couldn't find a new driver for your card. Look in device manager and see if you can verify the card is a Broadcom and what driver version it is. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is your problem given my troubles.

 

[TXHookem]

I'm going to try out y'all suggestions. BTW - if the problem is the internal one, how do you disable them so you can use a regular wireless card?

 

[LosIllini]

Do a search in the forums at dslreports - there's a lot of good information there.

 

[TXHookem]

I have to hand it to you ladies... you were right. The integrated wireless card is indeed a Broadcom and the driver is from March of 2003. I'm going to update it and see if that helps.

On a brighter note, I tracked down a D-Link network card that we had and it seems to be working well. It doesn't seem to pick up a signal very well but it's doing the trick since I'm writing this e-mail from my laptop.

Thank you for all the input. Very appreciated!

 

[TXHookem]

Finding out that both the D-Link and the Broadcom have piss poor range. My wife's Netgear smokes them in a big way.