Help Needed about to throw my laptop!!!!wireless issues

[94f450sd]

acer extensa 4420.windows vista home premium.

haveing issues with the wireless network crap.it will connect to a network that has no signal or 1 bar with no problem.a nieghbor directly next door has wireless and gave me thier security key so i can use thier internet.i get full signal from her till i connect(if i can connect to it)once connected it will drop to 2 bars.most of the time i only have 2 bars from her but i cant connect.but it will connect to somebody else that has either 1 bar or no signal at all.im not more than 100 feet from the nieghbors router.never have signal in the house,but had 3 bars from her this morning.i moved outside closer to her house and cant connect to her now.and if it does connect it will lose it and go for the weaker signals.if somebody walks by or a car pulls in i will lose the nieghbors network and it will connect to the weaker networks.

it keeps saying "windows cannot connect to network" then it asks if i want to diagnose poor signal quality or connect to another network.it will connect to the other 2 networks with no problem,1 has no signal and the other has 1 bar while the nieghbor is giving me 2 or 3 bars.sometimes it wont connect to any of them and says my wireless adapter isnt compatible with thier routers.

i downloaded the windows update SP1 for vista the other day.could that be messing with it?im getting pissed and about to throw this thing!!!!

 

[94f450sd]

right now im connected to a linksys network with 0 bars and its faster than the netgear network that has 1 bar.

 

[94f450sd]

now it connected to the nieghbor on its own when i put it down to go inside for a minute.ive been trying to connect to her all day so far.WTF is this things issue?!?!?!?!?!

on edit i keep forgetting to turn off my signature after the first post

 

[dpantazis]

rich-
vista is a pig. i don;t know it at all.

what i would say, is make sure that your passwords are right.
cordless phones and cell phones can throw wifi off a bit.

what is the wifi card in the laptop- ie what applet or driver are you running to connect to the network? or is it using the windblows app?

things i would check in vista is to uncheck any box that says "use interface robustness" and "maximum power on the antenna"
set antenna strength to "auto"

what could be happening is the laptop is broadcasting so strong, its drowning out the other end when its trying to listen.

have you done anything with your 'other' radios?

dp

 

[94f450sd]

password is correct.phones arent being used but those didnt bother it all week.dunno what wifi card i have,it came with the laptop.as for drivers dunno that either whatever came with windows for it.

i dont know how to mess with any of the settings either.i shouldve bought one with XP instead of vista.i dont care for vista so far.nothing but a PITA to figure out how to use stuff

 

[desert50eagle]

Yes! the problem is Vista....Wife has a six month old Sony labtop w/ vista and we have the exact same problems with our own wireless router. Numerous calls to the techies for the router have only resulted in more frustration. Friends come over with their xp notebooks and use the router with no problem. Ours works only spotty at best. We have full bars and it says we are connected to the network but the internet just refuses to come up. We broke down and bought a Sprint broadband card for it. Yes the card is slower but at least it always works!!!

Thought you might like to know that you are not alone.....

 

[94f450sd]

today its working fine.

i had a sprint card.but i got my first bill and couldnt afford it.they said it was gonna be high but they didnt say it was gonna be almost 600 bux .

what do i need to do to get rid of vista and go to XP?

 

[desert50eagle]

today its working fine.

i had a sprint card.but i got my first bill and couldnt afford it.they said it was gonna be high but they didnt say it was gonna be almost 600 bux .

what do i need to do to get rid of vista and go to XP?

1. We signed up for the two year unlimited plan through Best Buy and it runs us 60ish a month.

2. Not sure about the switch over to xp....Our friend is an it guy and he tried to convert his dell labtop from vista to xp and he said something to the effect that either dell didnt make the right drivers or that they were impossible to get.(not sure about acer). He also said the Microsoft is trying to force the switch over to vista...so you might just wanna get used to it now.
I am not an IT guy but............I definately dont like Vista so far (wifes labtop almost went into the trash a couple of times).

 

[CHPMustang]

Same here,Sprint Broadband card like $50-60 a month and also have a Senao card for 80211 wifi applications

Don't worry about the signature thing Rich

 

[94f450sd]

my sprint card was added to my nextel bill.they told me my bill would be about double for the first bill.the bill was supposed to 160 a month so i was figuring on the bill being about 350.00 not almost 600.but definately not happy with vista though.XP was much easier to figure out and use.

yesterday i had no problems but today its being a nightmare again