Wireless Internet Rant

[Brain Toad]

I need to vent, and maybe get some advice on this.

I use AT&T DSL, been using Pacbell internet for years have had no problems at all.

We finally realized how out of date and slow our internet is compared to what's available. So my dad calls up AT&T (out of an accident, there was some mix up while we were researching plans, they thought we ordered something, etc led to the phone call) We find out we've been paying $40 a month for service that now costs $15 and they failed the tell us. So we upgraded to the 2nd tier service and the highest available in our area, which costs $20 a month. It doubles our speed, nice.

They set us up on this internet last night, was wonderful, everything moving quickly and nicely.

We also ordered a new wireless gateway (router/modem combo) from them for $70 with a $50 rebate and I ordered myself a new wireless card from newegg.com The Gateway came today, so I quickly plugged it in and got it all set up.

My dad's computer took awhile to get up and running since it was doing the most work. My laptop was set up and ready almost instantly, mainly because it's newer and using 802.11g as opposed to 802.11b.

My own computer put up a fight, which wasn't surprising considering it's a piece of junk and I don't have my new wireless card yet. I set it up quickly/badly and something is still wrong and I can connect to everything (mIRC, IMs, Steam, other stuff) but the internet. Correction I can open up Google and some other pages, but I can't login to anything. No matter, new card is coming next week, so for now I'll stick to my laptop.

Until a few minutes ago. My mom calls and my dad is talking to here for awhile, then BOOM my connection dies from the interference! This has never happened before with that phone (has happened with the other phone on the same phone line as the DSL, but it's located closer to the gateway) So I'm throughly frustrated and pissed off, which leads to me taking out my anger on my dad (bad idea)

So I Google for some fixes, learn the obvious fact of interference and I'm faced a few options

Keep changing the channel the gateway runs on and hope it doesn't interfere with the channel hopping phones (so far I've found one that I'm safe for now, will find out how safe I am as time goes on)
Replace the main cordless phone and my dad's cordless phone/fax machine business phone.
Hire somebody to come out and wire a network from the kitchen to my room

ARGH!!!!!

[flynnibus]

Get a different phone. Some just really cause problems. I have a 2.4 phone that doesn't do anything to my wireless.. other coworkers have other phones that immediatly kill the network.

You can get 5gig phones that will not interfere with b/g networks.

Its really hit or miss.. nothing you can really predict with certainty.

[Sambo]

Absolutely - our 2.4ghz phone would frequently knock out our wireless network. Replaced it with a 5ghz cordless system and the phones never interfere. The frequency hopping is simply rolling dice - you will eventually and quickly crap out...

Get a 5ghz cordless phone system and eliminate the problem all together.

[Brain Toad]

Looking in to 5ghz phones, just working on convincing my dad to replace at least the main one. Don't really need to replace his fax/business line as it is barely used.

Hopefully the new wireless card from newegg elevates all the other problems I've been having, which I'm sure it will.

[figment1986]

i wish verizon would get around to finishing the fios around here... my network doesn't crash much, except once a day... its strange when it does. I might need to move it one more time to fix the problem.

your problem is not that bad, at least you figured how to set it up... took me a while.

[Crazy Legs]

Yes 2.4 is problem got for a 5

[Tom Chaney]

Sorry, don't mean to derail the thread... but:

I've been an AT&T customer for years. They've always given me good service. Currently I'm using their DSL connection. However: make a habit of occasionally checking their pricing plans. The same thing happened to me a few years ago. I was paying 29.99 for monthly service. Their charge dropped to 19.99. They never alerted me and continued to charge me the $29.99 while all the new customers were paying the lower price.

[Brain Toad]

Originally Posted by Tom Chaney

Sorry, don't mean to derail the thread... but:

I've been an AT&T customer for years. They've always given me good service. Currently I'm using their DSL connection. However: make a habit of occasionally checking their pricing plans. The same thing happened to me a few years ago. I was paying 29.99 for monthly service. Their charge dropped to 19.99. They never alerted me and continued to charge me the $29.99 while all the new customers were paying the lower price.

So true. We're going to be doing that from now on. I was a bit ticked they did something like this, but AT&T is still the lesser of the two evils in broadband here, so no reason to change. Just got to make sure we're still getting best deal.

[Brain Toad]

5 days and lots of calls later, no more interruptions. Seems switching to channel 11 did the fix, knock on wood it still works.

Also finally got my new wireless card stuff, so I'm really happy everything is working right and I'm off my laptop

Thanks for letting me use MiceChat to rant :P

[SCUBAbe]

wireless phones suck...my mother has wireless at her house and it is intermittent because of the 8 to 10 wire less phones she has throughout the house and garage. At my house we have no phones, except cell phones, so our wireless ir wonderful. We both use the same router so I know thats not it and I use my laptop at both places. Our old microwave used to mess up wireless stuff also.

[Druggas]

Originally Posted by Tom Chaney

Sorry, don't mean to derail the thread... but:

I've been an AT&T customer for years. They've always given me good service. Currently I'm using their DSL connection. However: make a habit of occasionally checking their pricing plans. The same thing happened to me a few years ago. I was paying 29.99 for monthly service. Their charge dropped to 19.99. They never alerted me and continued to charge me the $29.99 while all the new customers were paying the lower price.

Same here. I've had DsL with them since it was $50 a month. Everytime DSL dropped in price, I called and got the lower price too.

But I had to stay on top of it. PacBell didn't notify any customers of their new pricing.