Wireless making me think about SMASHING my computer!!!

ARGGHHH!!! I'm going insane. I can feel the vein on my forehead throbbing. I just caught my finger on the case and now it's bleeding INSIDE the skin.

I don't know what to do, I've been prancing around like a ballerina trying to get this SOB to connect, the router's now perched at 14 degrees north-north-east, parallel to the Orion constellation and has been blessed several times by at least for different denominations of holy men.

I am going insane. Up until this morning the wireless network was working 'relatively' fine. But not now, oh no. I'm using a Belkin Wireless G USB Network adaptor (F5D7050) and trying to connect it to a BT Home Hub (which is actually an effing router).

So, this afternoon, I'm 'chatting' on MSN. Very important conversation and all. Well the 'wireless' disconnects... then it reconnects... SLOWLY after about 10 minutes of me clickclickclicking on that stupid little icon with the red X over it. I hate that red X. What a smarmy SOB it is.

Yeah, so, it reconnected, then 10 minutes later it did the same thing; disconnected and reconnected after about 10 minutes. Did this little bloody dance for about 2 hours. By this time, I was so desperate to communicate with the world I was using my TELEPHONE!!! That's how freaking desperate I was.

So I go to get some fresh air, before I stabbed my own eye out with the USB dongle, and when I get back, there is NO CONNECTION whatsoever. Wireless dongle can't see any other networks consistently. By that, I mean it sometimes sees the odd other network, but never my own, and NEVER for more than 10 seconds. Most of the time I get:

No wireless connections were found in range.

Make sure the wireless switch on your computer is on.
To see an updated list, click "Refresh network list."

Which I do, then THE SAME MESSAGE COMES UP!!!

The wireless hasn't been working since about 4pm and I AM GOING INSANE.

Can anyone help? The network was previously configured using DHCP, WPA encyption, SSID and key codes are correct. My wireless router is just not visible now from my computer. I even switched the USB dongle to another one; same dice.

I need some help before I put the router in the microwave and before I climb in the washing machine.

I think I'm going insane. Did I mention that?

for the time being, get along enough cat5 and hard wire the sucker, at least then you shouldn't lose your connect while you figure out what's up.

my lappy went bonkers on the wireless a while back, thought it had gone south, hard wired it temporarily, turns out that a recent bios update switched the radio off in da bios, found that out when i updated the bios yet again two days ago, switched it back on, instantly all was good again.

as far as the USB wireless goes, it ain't my favorite, USB 2.0 can have some problems all by itself....

it may be the USB wireless 'g' is going south. have you run the diagnostics that came with the unit yet?

baldy

Lol, i shouldnt laugh but i empathise with your insanity as some problems can drive me up the wall as well, i was being driven mad tonight by a grounded mobo, trapped screw, grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Finally found the prob at least!

Anyway, just editing as when i started writing baldy hadnt posted but as baldy said, try using a different wireless adaptor or device to rule that out, once you done that but it is seeing other networks ..............

To get your equipment back up and running try a power reboot of your homehub, if this doesnt help on the back of the homehub there should be a small pinhole reset button, press in while on and then boot your computer. If this doesnt work see below

Initially when it was being intermittent have you checked your connections on your homehub and more importantly down to the phone jack where it plugs in. There should be a microfilter for your phone and homehub before plugging in to the jack on the wall. Check its all connected. If you still have problems try the homehub on its own plugged straight in to the wall, no microfilter or telephone. If it works fine then it should be down to the microfilter (very common to pack up easily, replaced a friends yesterday).

Still doesnt work plugged directly in to the wall? Then plug your filter, homehub and phone all in and call 151 to run a line test. If it doesnt find a fault then it will transfer to the operator, ask them what your gain is set at (usually 2 or 3). Ask them confidently to raise it to 4 or so and they will so long as they've not been chewing on raw meat

Finally if cables available in your area switch as soon as you can, its cheaper, their technicians know what a telephone line/cable line is! (ive unfortunately worked with bt staff/contractors before and know how stupid they can be) and you get better customer service (unlike bt where i had to tell the technician at the local exchange what asdl2+ is, muppet alert!!). Yes anyway as you can tell i dont like bt, you could try technical support from them but it might push you over the edge! Unfortunately all BT customers have to suffer from crap service and inflated prices (prices not their fault and set to change as market share quotas have dropped but i still think cable will always beat them on price)

Give all those steps a try in that order and post if you solve it or still having probs and need further suggestions.

i just noticed your location. i have the answer for you and you'll be quite pleased (i hope).

if you on the ADSL network via BT's IPStream and DataStream then you'll be pleased to know that it is NOT YOUR FAULT. :D

The problem is actually 2 fold;

1) BT were having a network wide problem pretty much all day yesterday. BT usually state on their status page the exchanges and phone numbers affected. But this announcement was as general as you can get;

20 December 2006
01:07 PM
Network problem
We are aware of a network problem which may be affecting access to the internet in certain areas. Our engineers are working to resolve the problem. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Now that problem was been recorded as being resolved and all should be ok.

I was having exactly the same problem last night.

2) Here is also possible explanation, but more generalised. With the recent round of BT upgrading their exchanges for 8mbit (got my upgrade for free woot). There have been reports that people are getting frequent drops in connection, especially during the 10 day upgrade period when the exchange trys to work out what the max stable speed is for you. The problems are actually mirroring what happened around this time last year when we got our round of 2mbit upgrades. Things got ironed out over about 2-3 weeks.

So sit back. Have a cup of tea and relax.