Very odd... Sky confused too!

[Edz11]

The wireless internet worked fine with my laptop then out of the blue I could not connect wirelessly but could using the ethernet cable. My first thought was that "my nephew has hold of my laptop so he's messed things up with the settings". So I call round to my brother's with my laptop as he's got Sky broadband (he lives 100m away). I put his network key in when requested and "hey presto" instant speedy connection wirelessly. Far faster than mine is at the best of times. I mentally apologised to my blameless nephew.

I go back home and ring Sky. They check out everything but can't resolve the wireless problem. They say there was an exchange problem and resolved it on the fone. But - I can't even talk to the router wirelessly but can with the ethernet connection! They the decided to send out a new router as an inability to talk to the router means there's a problem with it - but I just installed the new one and have exactly the same problems. Ethernet OK but not wireless. Signal strength excellent.

So I borrow a friends laptop. But even using his I cannot connect wirelessly(apart from one brief flash of Google news) and cannot talk to the router wirelessly with either laptop but can if I use the ethernet.

Both laptops work fine at my brother's house on Sky wirelessly. Back home one laptop can very occasionally connect for a brief period wirelessly. The other not at all.

So;
1) I have the network keys correct (very brief connection to Google news)
2) The signal to the router must be fine otherwise I wouldn't be able to connect with the ethernet cable.
3) Both laptops work OK round the corner at my brother's who has Sky BB.

Any idea what could be causing this?

[PaulSky]

Could be channel clash, interferance, cordless phone base too close to the router.. etc. have you tried changing channels on the router and is there anything close to it that might be impacting the signal?

[googleme]

Could just a simple reset on the box, hold the reset button in for about ten seconds then try to connect again. This has happened a few times to people I have spoken to, just a simple reset works, Just like paul says also change the channel on the router as well.

Connect using ethernet, then in the web bar in explorer 192.168.0.1 The login is admin password sky

Go to the wireless settings and change the channel to another channel.

Changing the channel I have only needed to do this a few times, but has fixed the issue.

[Edz11]

Sky support had me change channel right away. The router has "channel 6" printed on the side. Changed it to channel 11 via the ethernet. No difference... The reset button was the first thing I thought of.

Even went down the end of the garden with the laptop in case the signal was too strong! - no change. Nothing in the house that's radio at all. But, I hadn't thought about neighbours and will make discrete enquiries. But surely a channel change would have rectified that?

The very friendly girl at Sky was as mystified as me. I promised not to ring back unless it was outside her shift as she had spent ages trying everything lol

[PaulSky]

Try other channels ( I would start with 13) as anyone in your area who has a wireless router can be impacting your service without your knowledge if they are not broadcasting the SSID. Also any cordless phones, microwaves, flourescent lights etc can impact wireless performance.

[richone54]

why not take your router round to your brothers, and test it there