Replacing my dongle and filter

seun · Oct 3, 2011

Over the last few weeks, my internet connection has been pretty patchy - cutting out, coming back, cutting out again a few minutes later. I've done the usual of turning the computer off and on, rebooting the hub and swearing . Nothing makes much difference. Now I'm wondering if I should replace my wireless dongle and the filter into the phone jack.

Is it a good idea to replace either/both of these every year or so? They've been in use about that long.

Fruitbat · Oct 3, 2011

Hee hee, Seun needs his dongle replaced. :roll:

Also, gitchyer face back on your avie, you are confusing everyone. What are you trying to do, shut down AW completely again?

*sorry, I have a fever today*

seun · Oct 3, 2011

Fruitbat said:
Hee hee, Seun needs his dongle replaced.

Also, gitchyer face back on your avie, you are confusing everyone. What are you trying to do, shut down AW completely again?

*sorry, I have a fever today*

Such immaturity.

Dongle. Heh, heh.

Matera the Mad · Oct 3, 2011

Uh, yeah. Those USB wireless dingle-dangles do go south. I just replaced one at work. It was cutting out more and more, and last Friday its little light lighted not.

CircusOfCrows · Oct 3, 2011

It might be a good idea to call your ISP and see if its an internal problem, or an external issue.

If it's internal, being your wireless router or modem, a fix might be as easy as replacing the equipment. If it's external, you might need your local Telco out there to fix the issue.

A good way of troubleshooting where the problem might be is bypassing as much equipment as possible.

If you're using wireless, attempt to plug in directly for a period - if you get disconnected, bypass your wireless router, and see if you're still getting disconnected.

If neither of those yield any results, try to plug in at your MPoE - the minimum point of entry, or the telephone box on the side of your house. By plugging in there, you're bypassing all of your internal wiring. If you get disconnected out here, the problem is either with the modem or the line. If it's the line - get your ISP to call the Telco and repair it.

If its the modem, well, you know what to do.

seun · Oct 4, 2011

Thanks for the help. I'll try it stage by stage with the equipment and line testing. Funnily enough, it was totally fine yesterday after I posted this although there's no guarantee it'll stay working.

dpaterso · Oct 4, 2011

Just saying, my niece did a Windows update thing last week and after rebooting, she couldn't get on the internet, the damn update had somehow sabotaged her dongle connection software!

She was going to wipe and re-install from scratch (!) before I headed her off at the pass. Doing a system restore (from a pre-Windows update restore point) was a much better option, but before even doing that I brought her laptop here, enabled internet connection through my BT hub instead of her not-talking dongle, and upgraded the dongle driver via Control Panel > Device Drivers > Universal Serial Bus Controllers (where I found the dongle driver entry, and right-clicked on it to select Properties > Driver tab > Update Driver button).

This worked -- when we double-clicked on the "connect" icon the dongle started singing and dancing again.

Even though you might not have done anything to upset your software, try updating the driver, just in case there's a newer version out there.

PS - after checking... the original driver that came with the dongle on CD was dated 2006... and the update gave us a driver dated 2009. The dongle was only purchased late last year. So, no guarantee that a more recent driver would say 2011. If there isn't a newer driver available, in fact, the update driver check will just say so.

-Derek

seun · Oct 4, 2011

D, I didn't think of that. Will give it a go. Ta muchly.

JimmyB27 · Oct 6, 2011

Laptop or desktop?
If the former, can you take it somewhere else there's a wireless connection to test the dongle (hur-hur) alone? Say, the library, or a friend's house?
If the latter, do you have a friend with a laptop who can come and test the wi-fi hub alone?

ETA: Or you could take the desktop to a coffee shop that has wifi...

BrianJamesFreeman · Oct 6, 2011

JimmyB27 said:
Laptop or desktop?
If the former, can you take it somewhere else there's a wireless connection to test the dongle (hur-hur) alone? Say, the library, or a friend's house?
If the latter, do you have a friend with a laptop who can come and test the wi-fi hub alone?

Yep, this is what I was going to suggest.

Brian

seun · Oct 7, 2011

JimmyB27 said:
Laptop or desktop?

Desktop. My wife uses an old laptop but it's a piece of crap which hasn't worked properly for ages so it's difficult to do a comparison.

I did the driver update thingy last night; it said it was up to date so I've got a new filter on order from Amazon. Hopefully be with me over the weekend. The connection was terrible on Wednesday night and fine last night. :Shrug:

Replacing my dongle and filter

seun

Horror Man

Fruitbat

.

seun

Horror Man

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

CircusOfCrows

World Famous Basketball Player

seun

Horror Man

dpaterso

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seun

Horror Man

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood

BrianJamesFreeman

seun

Horror Man