wifi teething problems with Advent PC

Aggie Plod

I would love some help with my PC. Bought new Advent DT 2410 in PC world ,after months of contemplation and begging from son, and went through set up guide.We have UPC wifi with Thompson router.The PC is having difficulties connecting,records poor signal(actually v good coverage around the house) and then drops wifi totally so keeps insisting on cable connection and only searches for wifi if you restart computer. The wireless is a little Ralink USB dongle(I was quite surprised as we haven't owned a PC for years and I thought they would all have built in wifi now).
My husband contacted PC world today and they said that modem may not be up to date with windows 8 and to go through channels and see if one is best.It took me ages to work out how to log into my modem-v frustrating but I eventually got it , found the right page and went through channels but the PC didn't seem excited by this process and just kept searching for wifi signal round and round and round.
I now have one very tetchy frustrated son,one husband whose face just falls at word modem and one very expensive redundant dust collector. I could go back in to PC World and may need to but I can't help thinking that problem is in the house -maybe some kind of communication problem .
Has anyone had similar problems ? Any ideas? Anyone??

yoyo

Modem not up to date with Windows 8? Lol but anyways blaming the modem configuration may not be totally wrong. Login to the modems gateway setup page (give us exact modem make and model if you need help with this) and under wireless configuration look for Wifi channel options. Generally these are on 11 or something as default, and if neighbours etc. are using channel 11 interference can be an issue. Try changing it to 7 or 8 and see if the stability improves.
Did you download the most up to date drivers for the Ra Link dongle? Also a USB extension cable will allow you to move the adaptor around and give more flexability, something like this:


Nick

Aggie Plod

Thank you for that YOYO.I hadn't updated dongle due to lack of internet but just realised when I read your post that of course I could plug the dongle in to one of the laptops. I have an extension lead and tried it but computer was sulking at the time and so I wasn't sure if the lead was unwelcome or if it was just having one of it's moments.I will give that a try. I do want to add that I have always found the people in PC world very helpful and in their defence my husband spoke to them it may be his interpretation of their advice coming out muddled.
If I have no success with your suggestions I will call them myself tomorrow now that he gave me the receipt(they wouldn't talk to me without the purchase number).

HelpWithIT

The URL for Thomson is 192.168.0.1 username leave blank and password is admin
I think the small wifi dongle is the problem, ask them to supply the USB cable suggested above or ask them to upgrade the wifi dongle to something better. Even the new Desktops with built in Wifi aren't great at picking up the signal, if the wifi doesn't work as expected you could get a Homeplug kit, which works over the electrical circuits in the house eg here

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/9126291/Trail/searchtext%3EHOMEPLUG.htm

Aggie Plod

Yes ,got onto the Thompson after a google search came up with blank,then admin- I had been expletive deletive for 20 mins with our upc number and wifi password.I think you are right about the dongle so will consider that plug in system if extension doesn't help. Thank you.

Torqay

Why not run a network cable from the router to the PC (can be up to 100m)? If that is not an option, a set of PLC adapters is cheap enough. WiFi would certainly be my last choice.

Freddy Smelly

buy a wifi CARD rather than a dongle they are much better for pcs

make sure it is an N TYPE card cos they have better range, strength, and speeds over the G Type

Aggie Plod

Just a quick note of thanks for the suggestions to help me. We now have wifi. Happy contented silence in the house,game bought on steam over 12 months ago now being played.... We did a little bi of everything, first went back to PC world who offered a change of PC to see if related to machine or house.That identified house as the problem.So I bought the plug in kit from Argos to transmit signal using power supply.That seems a good idea but didn't work and I am pretty sure that was because we live in a warren of trailing extension 4 gangs and had no wall plug to put the extenders into. So undeterred I went back to PC World and bought 'the best dongle they had' , a Netgear wifi dongle with it's own extension cable and the rest is history. I imagine that a card might be better and that is something to explore for the future.
I was so demoralised about the situation initially and hadn't posted anything on boards for a long time(no particular reason) but I knew that someone would have a plan.
Thank you so much