Windows 7 and xp wireless router connection problems.

Here is the situation.

I have a HP laptop running XP-SP2 with built in wireless.

My oldest daughter has a Asus laptop with wireless running 7 and my youngest just purchased a new HP with wireless.

We have a Asus desktop running 7 and a cable router with wireless access that is hooked to the desktop.

Everything was hunkydory until my youngest was setting up her laptop and got the info from me for the WEP key and password.

Then everything on my laptop and my oldest's laptop went to crap.

We get disconnected and are just barely getting 5 Mbps where before we were both getting 54 all the time.

The youngest is always getting 54Mbps.

Her laptop is the closest to the wireless router but it should not be stealing that much.

I went and stuck the router as high in the living room as possible so the signal could broadcast down and it is just a little better.

The problem is I think is the way my youngest set up her wireless.

She is not very computer savvy other than facebook and she set up a wireless network which we do not have!

I have just my wireless device connecting to the router and I have not checked my oldest's but I think she does too.

Other than having 4 computers with three wireless,there is no network set up no sharing nothing.

I can not find her wireless device on her computer to just connect it to the internet and eliminate her BS network.

Am I wrong or is this the only way to set up windows 7 for wireless?

I have changed the channel on the router but it does not seem to help.

And last but not least MS Vista and MS Seven both suck big time.

I am not a gamer and I don't need all those bells and whistles.

XP is fine for me and they will pry this XP laptop from my cold dead hands.

And don't talk about SP3 I did that and had to do a complete re-install.

And just sticking with the basics,I have NEVER had a reliabily with any of my HP products-EVER.

And all my laptop drivers are up to date.

So keep your personal opinions to yourself.

[edit on 17-7-2010 by Oneolddude]

Apologies, but I read your post with a bit of a smile.

I do live in an environment where we have a router with both hard wired and wireless clients. I am no expert, but I suspect most of your problem is related to the fact that your daughter has set up her own network.

I would congratulate her on her computer smarts, get down on one knee, take her hand in yours and request her to disable her network so that you can integrate her into the family's network and hopefully things will get back to normal.

Agree (with assessment, not groveling) that the Win 7 private network has most likely taken control of the router as the master computer. The sluggish speeds the rest of you are getting is the leftovers once 7 has gorged itself on connectivity.

You didn't mention what happens when your youngest get further away from the router.
You also didn't mention what happens when you get closer in proximity to the router.

I would suspect something with IPv6 in Windows 7. You may try disabling it on your youngest daughters PC.
www.addictivetips.com...

reply to post by Oneolddude


Without knowing more details I'd suggest you perform the standard IT/Telecoms fix; remove all wireless networking settings from all computers, reset your router, then connect to it via an ethernet cable and then start from scratch.

Try that and then let us know how you get on, ensure you remove ALL wireless networking settings from ALL computers.

As a side note I'd recommend you upgrade to Service Pack 3 on your XP machine and I'd definately not be using WEP for your wireless network encryption; it's far too weak and can be cracked in minutes.

Use WPA2 encryption instead!

Edit to add: When I said start from scratch I ment reconfigure your routers wireless networking settings and create a new network, you can then attempt to connect each machine to the network individually.

[edit on 11/8/10 by Death_Kron]