Useless wireless connection - pages not loading.

[thomasyn]

Hi,

I recently moved into a student flat with 8 other people, and we have set up a fibre optic net contract with Virgin Media, who have supplied us with a Netgear Wireless N-300 router. When we first installed it we had a little problem with it not connecting to any of our laptops, but another flatmate has since 'switched the channel to 11' and now it works on their Windows ones. But not mine. I have an early 2008 15" MBP.

I'm currently sat right next to the router but the only way I can get connection from it is through the ethernet. When I switch to wireless, I can pick up a full signal pretty much everywhere in the house - we have 3 floors - but no websites will load, Spotify won't connect etc. Occasionally it will grant me two minutes of very slow connection - taking a minute to decide to access a page, then not letting me go on the next and giving me 404s instead.

I'm not really sure how to solve this as I will definitely need internet connection for my studies this Sept. My room is the one directly next to the router room so signal shouldn't be a problem. I tried downloading iStumbler a few times but it kept crashing before opening.

I do know, however, from my airport bit of about this mac:

AirPort Card Information:

Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8C)
Wireless Card Locale: Worldwide
Wireless Card Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.38.35)
Current Wireless Network: Wharncliffe2k10
Wireless Channel: 11

What should I do? Sorry I'm a little clueless when it comes to technicalities. I have had issues of signal drop in most houses (where Airport loses all its bars completely and won't connect) but not this issue of having signal and still not loading.

Thanks x

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Go to the "Open Network Preferences" from the Airport menu in the top bar (

if you don't know what i'm talking about).

then click on Airport in the left menu and make sure you aren't getting an APIPA addy (an IP starting with 169.). Otherwise one of your buddies could have put up some sort of authentication on the router and didn't pass you the goods. Who set it up?

 

[thomasyn]

Go to the "Open Network Preferences" from the Airport menu in the top bar (

if you don't know what i'm talking about).

then click on Airport in the left menu and make sure you aren't getting an APIPA addy (an IP starting with 169.). Otherwise one of your buddies could have put up some sort of authentication on the router and didn't pass you the goods. Who set it up?

My IP is a 192. one. I set the router up on my mac when it first arrived but my friend changed the channel to 11 when I was away (I don't know how). It's working on two Windows laptops at the moment so I don't think it's exclusive.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

<<shrug>> Perhaps try restarting? Otherwise i'm not sure, if it's connecting. Someone else will probably chime in. I don't use wireless oft these days

 

[bigjobby]

I've had this problem before where my airport was connecting and I was able to get into the router console wirelessly but no internet pages were loading. I eventually nailed it down to an IP conflict. So I reserved an IP address on the router for my wireless connection and all's been fine ever since. Might be worth you giving this a whirl.

Keep us updated if you can.

Oh! Don't forget to renew your DHCP lease afterwards to pick up your new IP from the router.

 

[thomasyn]

I've had this problem before where my airport was connecting and I was able to get into the router console wirelessly but no internet pages were loading. I eventually nailed it down to an IP conflict. So I reserved an IP address on the router for my wireless connection and all's been fine ever since. Might be worth you giving this a whirl.

Keep us updated if you can.

Oh! Don't forget to renew your DHCP lease afterwards to pick up your new IP from the router.

Sounds great, how do I do this? Would I have to do anything to my friends' connections too? I'm not sure what DHCP etc is.

 

[bigjobby]

Your router should have a DHCP server. Basically speaking, it distributes and manages the IP addresses of your network and when a new unit tries to connect to the network, the DHCP server issues (or leases) an IP address to the device.

When reserving an IP, it doesn't effect other connected devices as it is an update of the router configuration rather than a change as such. What I suggest is to ask someone who might be more familiar with the ins and outs or is in charge of the router rather than tackling it yourself if you're not sure.

I'm not familiar with the N-300 but with my previous experiences with NetGear products, the router console interface is pretty intuitive. From memory of NetGear routers, you can reserve an IP address by tying it down with the device's MAC address.

 

[thomasyn]

Your router should have a DHCP server. Basically speaking, it distributes and manages the IP addresses of your network and when a new unit tries to connect to the network, the DHCP server issues (or leases) an IP address to the device.

When reserving an IP, it doesn't effect other connected devices as it is an update of the router configuration rather than a change as such. What I suggest is to ask someone who might be more familiar with the ins and outs or is in charge of the router rather than tackling it yourself if you're not sure.

I'm not familiar with the N-300 but with my previous experiences with NetGear products, the router console interface is pretty intuitive. From memory of NetGear routers, you can reserve an IP address by tying it down with the device's MAC address.

As far as I can tell, the DHCP assigns me one automatically at the moment. The router is .....1.1, I'm 1.2, my flatmates are 1.3 and 1.4. I don't think anyone else is set to ...1.2 as we're the only ones here right now. Should I change it? I have the option to 'renew lease' in network preferences airport advanced, but it doesn't seem to have done anything.
I'm afraid I don't have anyone else to ask about this as my flatmates are only adept at windows.

 

[thomasyn]

Your router should have a DHCP server. Basically speaking, it distributes and manages the IP addresses of your network and when a new unit tries to connect to the network, the DHCP server issues (or leases) an IP address to the device.

When reserving an IP, it doesn't effect other connected devices as it is an update of the router configuration rather than a change as such. What I suggest is to ask someone who might be more familiar with the ins and outs or is in charge of the router rather than tackling it yourself if you're not sure.

I'm not familiar with the N-300 but with my previous experiences with NetGear products, the router console interface is pretty intuitive. From memory of NetGear routers, you can reserve an IP address by tying it down with the device's MAC address.

Right. Well I went on the router set up and found that the MAC number my macbook gives me corresponded with the IP ending in 1.5, not 1.2. So I changed that in network pref and reserved it on the router site. I now have internet connection but it's veeeeery slow and keeps breaking up - for instance I can't stream music on Spotify. My friend's laptop in the next room is streaming it fine though. Is this because of the change in IP address? I'm sat right next to the router so it's not a distance thing.