Too Many Devices
 

We have too many wireless devices in the house on weekends. The minute my stepkids walk in the door with their two phones and an iPod touch, my laptop wireless connection is for shit until the minute they leave. It gets better if I walk around the house and start turning off the connections on various other things, but it seems that for whatever reason my laptop is at the bottom of the pile, the first to get kicked off. (Currently posting from my phone, which never has problems when they're here, by comparison.)

Mr. Clod has been looking into solutions, but so far they're all pieces of hardware that cost upward of $300. Any other suggestions, or experience with this type of problem?

I haven't seen that, strange.

Have you plugged an ethernet cable into the wireless router, logged into the console (might have to Google the default IP address and username/password if you haven't already reset those and know what they are) and then click around looking for settings, possibly assigning priority to devices, or adding a "Guest" SSID that step-kids devices default to?

I wonder why your laptop is knocked off first? Maybe it is on an ordered list, sorted numerically by assigned IP, and yours is the first IP because it is not always leasing a new DHCP address, as your step-kids' devices might be--an address which times out and has a new one assigned next time.

Maybe you could assign a static IP to your laptop, or find a checkbox which explicitly gives its IP precedence?

Maybe you could tell the router to never drop the connection to your MAC address?

Maybe you could tell the kids to turn their shit off and go outside.

Or just away.

Will the router serve up another IP if you plug a device directly into it?

Not ideal for some, I know, but my laptop is usually docked to a whole set of peripherals, and I have the ethernet plugged into the docking station.

Numerous reasons can explain those symptoms. None are 'too many devices'. However to say more requires numbers in dB. Many better computers (see the manufacturer's web site) or software for WiFi devices can provide those dB numbers. Some computer WiFi cards are supported by a third party program called Netstumbler.

Also add portable phones and microwave ovens to a list of devices on the same frequency.

What router do you currently have?

I dunno (and I'm too lazy to go look.) Mr. Clod did some kind of firmware update on it the last day they were here, and the problem seemed fixed for the few hours before they left. I'm waiting for the stepkids to come back again this weekend to see if it was a fluke or not.

Your floundering again.

Don't you get crabby with me.

He wanted to solve it himself. He's so shellfish.

I sea.