My computer (a Dell Inspiron 1525) has always been finicky about connecting to wifi networks. It gives me an error message every time I boot up the computer since not long after I bought it. But I've generally been able to make it work, often with very good connection speed. Recently, however, it's gotten so bad that after I type this message, I'll have to hold the computer up a foot in the air and wave it around until I catch a signal long enough to post it.
At first I thought it was the network. I live in a basement and the signal is coming from upstairs, from a friend who shares his connection with us. My computer says the signal is weak and I can only connect in certain places. However, my flatmate can connect just fine on his mac - and with full signal to boot. If I place my computer in the exact place he keeps his, I still don't get any signal. If I do get something, I have to keep the computer in *precisely* the same spot, because if it shifts even a little, I lose the connection and I can't get it back even if I put the computer back where it was exactly.
There used to be spots where I could get a connection fairly reliably. Sometimes it would move, but for the most part I was ok. Over the past few weeks, however, this has disappeared. It seems completely random if I'm able to connect anywhere at all, and when I do, it's only for a few minutes. (Bye bye online games and skyping with my family who lives overseas.) Today it's even worse - I can only connect for a few seconds at a time. My flatmate has the same strong signal as ever, so obviously the problem lies with my computer. And yes, I have tried turning it off and on again.
Does anyone know what the problem could be? I tried updating the drivers for the wireless controller but it did no good. Is the hardware busted somehow? If so, is this an expensive thing to replace? Further complicating things, I bought this computer in the USA and now I'm in Prague, so I have no idea if I can get spare parts here or if I'd have to buy a whole new laptop (with a Czech keyboard and all that as well). I have NO money right now (like, just barely scraping by on paying the rent in my unheated, dark basement flat), but I don't know what I"ll do if I can't use the internet at all. It's the only leisure activity I have at the moment, and I'm at a particularly stressful period in my life right now and I could really do without this extra stress and the denial of my preferred variety of stress relief.
Hmm... I just did a search and discovered a lot of people are having problems with this model. They are all getting the error message. On the other hand, I see no complaints of actual connectivity issues. Some people suggest downloading a particular new driver (which is not listed as the most up-to-date driver, but people say this one works better) but I can't keep my fucking connection long enough to download it, as it's 70 mb and I'm getting about 8kb/sec for about 2-3 minutes at a time before having to play find-the-signal again...
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Topic: Wifi Troubles (Read 1063 times)