ADSL problem

[London Geezer]

Hey guys

Here's the little thing.

I've had problems with my ADSL for ages now, in the form of getting disconnected every 2 or 3 hours or so...

There are 2 PCs in the house, my desktop and my flatmate's laptop.

One thing i've noticed is that when he's away, i pretty much never get disconnected. When his laptop is here, even when OFF, we get disconnected...


What's the deal?!

The problem always seemed to be the line (which is being fixed apparently) but this thing really bugs me, why would i get disconnected when his laptop is here and not when it's not?

Last time he went away, i never got disconnected in 48 or so hours, now he's gone to Amsterdam and i've been connected for 13 hours straight.

The line never stays up for more than 2-3 hours usually when he's here...

*confused*

 

[digitalwanderer]

Mebbe he's one of those people that technology just hates? :|

 

[Natoma]

Did you make sure to put a filter on the phone line?

 

[London Geezer]

Did you make sure to put a filter on the phone line?

Yeah, of course.

 

[Natoma]

Your machines setup with DHCP or static IP? My router has had troubles with DHCP before in terms of disconnecting me, which go away when I manually set my IP.

 

[Wunderchu]

if you have a D-Link DI-624 router, you may want to try this solution [I had been getting frequent disconnects (every 1-3 hours) with this router until I tried this solution]:



1. DO NOT use "Super G with Dynamic Turbo" or "Super G with Static Turbo" for your "Super G Mode" [don't worry, it is still possible to connect to the router wirelessly at up to 108 Mbps using the D-Link DWL-G650 (rev. B) WiFi card updated to the latest firmware (2.54) ]



2. DO NOT use "Channel 6" [I recommend using either Channel 1 or Channel 11]




[after I changed to "Super G without Turbo", and to channel 1, and have only had about 1 or 2 disconnects in about 700 hours of using my DI-624, over about 5 months ... I have recently been using channel 11, and with this channel the router is still extremely stable & functioning well]








Note: My results are from using the latest firmware (2.50) and a rev. C router, so I don’t absolutely guarantee the same results with other DI-624 router revisions/firmware.

 

[hey69]

this is clearly a WIFI problem if otherwise your connection stays up.

 

[Frank]

How does the network looks like? What cables / connections, where is the splitter / filter? Without knowing anything else, it is the most likely that your splitter / filter isn't the first thing connected where the phone cable enters the house, and the addition of another line is causing noise. If you're a mile or more from the nearest switching station, it isn't uncommon to lose the connection every now and then when the line is not totally " clean".

I would expect the laptop to use WiFi, but in that case it cannot interfere when turned off, so I assume it's using a cable.

Technical detail: there's four tiny transformers in each RJ-45 (Ethernet) jack, so there's a signal on the cable even when the computer is turned off, as long as the cable is plugged in at both sides.

 

[Natoma]

I logged into his router and fixed a few settings. Though good lord he's still using WEP and he wouldn't let me change it to WPA even though his router and card support it.

I tried to convince him of the complete uselessness of WEP, especially in comparison to WPA, but he wouldn't hear any of it. Maybe the rest of you guys can help me gang bang him into submission and fix his damn security settings.

 

[Frank]

I tried to convince him of the complete uselessness of WEP, especially in comparison to WPA, but he wouldn't hear any of it. Maybe the rest of you guys can help me gang bang him into submission and fix his damn security settings.

We've all had a discussion about that, during which he enabled WEP: look here.

 

[Natoma]

WEP is useless. Might as well have nothing on at all.

So yea, you convinced him to enable WEP. Now we have to convince him to enable WPA. WEP = teh suck

 

[Tim Murray]

WEP isn't totally useless... it'll stall them for half an hour or so.

 

[Natoma]

Less than that these days. Most WEP cracking programs I've seen can get you a key in under 10 minutes.

By comparison, I set up MAC filtering on my router, WPA-PSK, and have it rekey the key every 120 seconds. The key I created was an alphanumeric 64 character string which I then hexed, reversed, and rehexed. I also set it up so that all IPs other than my own are blocked. And I set it to only accept 'g' connections. And 'WPA' only as well.

 

[Frank]

There is no perfect security. Security can be "good enough" or "not good enough", depending on the needs. While it is fairly easy to get inside when you know the network well, it is quite hard to "crack" some random network. There are just too many layers of security. And if you don't know the layout, most things become guesswork.

Almost all network security breaches are either some generic vulnerability, apllied randomly to destroy things, or employees or friends who know how things work. If you want in, go there in person and make sure you get unrestricted access to a computer there.

If the risk that someone will go through all that trouble to get a look at your data is really small, the only things you have to prevent are the things any interested script kiddy might try. So, at home you need SOME security on your WiFi, a good router with NAT and a firewall, passwords on all your accounts and locks on your doors. Everything more than that is only useful if it makes you feel safer.

But I would rather make sure I've got a good backup of my data and a very convenient Linux server before bothering. IMHO, of course.

Edit: Using IE for browsing or not having a virus scanner is a MUCH larger security risk than only using WEP.

 

[jvd]

I use wep . Its good enough. My friend had a 5 foot antena on his wifi card right next to my front door and couldn't get a signal . The bricks + steel stop the signal cold . And then you get no signal past my patio in the back yard and I doubt someone will sit in my back yard and hack my wifi . Not when you can go to a panera bread or starbucks 4 blocks away and get it for free

 

[nutball]

I can see three wireless access points from my living room, and only one of them is mine Of the two I don't own, one is running WEP, the other isn't running any sort of encryption or access control. Oh the delights of suburban living in a small country!

Personally I have WPA PSK + MAC filtering. It's there, so why not use it?

 

[Frank]

Personally I have WPA PSK + MAC filtering. It's there, so why not use it?

Absolutely. But I have multiple computers in the LAN, so I prefer security that is good enough and leaves most of my bandwidth for data. It depends on your needs.

 

[Althornin]

I must laugh at all the people using MAC-filtering!

All of you talking about how crappy WEP is, and yet you bother to enable a feature that offers even less in terms of security. Totally worthless.

 

[Natoma]

MAC filtering would be crappy by itself. Stacked on top of WPA, or AES if you have one of the newer routers/cards, it's just another level of protection.

WEP is crap because it's your first line of defense encryption wise, and it can be hacked within minutes. MAC filtering was never designed to be your first line of defense. Merely a supplemental.

 

[Tim Murray]

my wireless protection at home is simple--live far enough away from civilization that they would have to be standing in my yard in order to get any kind of signal.