For well over a year now I've been using a Linksys WUSB54G ver4 wireless adapter with my PC to connect to the family network running on a Belkin F5D8233-4v3 router. This morning after booting the PC I could not get a CONNECTION with the router. Sometimes it would show up with a strong signal but I couldn't connect, most of the time it wouldn't show up at all. I tried restarting all the components involved to little effect. I switched the adapter with a Netgear WN121T adapter and installed the Netgear software. After a few attempts I can now reliably connect to the router. However, after 5-10 minutes at most the connection degrades to the point of useless. The wireless reads a good connection (4-5 bars) and the speed shows over 200 Mbps, but webpages stop loading or responding. What I find especially strange is that often I can't even access the router menu, which I thought would be a given with a strong signal and connection speed listed.

Again, up until yesterday this setup worked perfectly, absolutely no complaints. I haven't any clue what has happened. Virus and MALWARE scans have come up empty. Have you any other machines connecting wirelessly to the router? Have you installed a DECT/cordless phone or wireless audio/video sender recently (or anything similar)? Any neighbours recently acquired a baby (and consequently a wireless baby monitor)?As of right now this is the only wireless machine in the house. I had an XBox on the network too but its packed away now and hasn't run since the problem started. No new cordless phones. Couldn't say about the baby monitor but I doubt it as I'm certain there's no babies around.

I did upgrade the firmware on the router. This had the immediate effect of giving me a stable albeit at times slow connection. It would consistently go from a decent speed to slow in waves. For a few days it was fine like this. Now its acting up again, out of the blue. Its almost as if the router doesn't want to communicate. My previous G adapter can't get a signal at all, and the N adapter, although it GETS a 100% signal, is constantly dropped or has a slow speed. Still can barely pull up the router setup page if at all when its connected.

I haven't a clue what's going on. In a few weeks I'll be moving and on a different network but I still have a lot to do before then online.I suppose there's always the possibility that the router is dying. The cheapest thing to do would be to install a wireless access point, but if that's not an option, you may want to consider connecting to the router using an ethernet cable...

If you're willing, it might be worth just going through the diagnostic process of checking your network configuration. To start with, at a command prompt, enter "ipconfig /all" and cut and paste the results here.Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : achilles
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Belkin

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-17-31-2A-55-59

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 4:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR WN121T Wireless USB 2.0 Adap
ter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-4D-72-8A-DB
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.4
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:02:46 PM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, January 18, 2038 11:14:07 PM

Thank you for the help by the way.Okay, that all looks fine. I still suspect the router. The next time the connection goes funny, try the following commands:

ping 192.168.2.1
ping www.yahoo.com
nslookup www.yahoo.com

Copy and paste the output here - it might tell US just a little more.Well, it was all request timed out because the connection just wasn't existent, even if it was saying it was connect to the router. However, I decided to try digging out an old WRT54G I had. Using this once again I get full signal but the connection is slower than snot, and it disconnects more than it connects. Still can barely access the router if at all.

Near as I can tell I guess it IS some sort of interference, although nothing I can pinpoint as it doesn't seem to be on my property.I would recommend calling your ISP. They have techs that can trace rf interference, and I know that with my provider they will do it for free. Hopefully you can get away with a minimal charge or free as well.Sounds like a plan. I'm out of ideas anway. Thanks for the help guys.Hopefully it works out, LET us know Ah, I'm so dense. I was thinking about frequencies and realized there was one thing I hadn't tried all along, changing the channel. I still can't get the G adapters to see the router but the N adapter is working like a breeze now with a different channel selected. Sorry for the trouble guys.