Wireless router disconnects when laptop goes standby

3

I recently set up a wireless network for my wife's workplace. They have two Acer Aspire 5349 laptops running Windows 7 SP1, connected to a Linksys E1200 wireless-N router (via Atheros AR5B125 wireless network adapters).

Whenever any of the laptops goes to standby after a period of inactivity, its wireless connection is dropped. After waking up, the laptop displays the connection to the router as live, but the internet connection is shown broken. Disconnecting and reconnecting to the router does not help if the laptop in question is the only active one on the network - in this case, our only known remedy is rebooting the router. If there is another laptop connected and active though, disconnecting and reconnecting to the router solves the problem.

At home we have a similar wireless setup, only with a Linksys WRT54G router, and the problem so far hasn't occurred here. So to me it seems this may be specific to the E1200. Unfortunately Google hasn't turned up any hints.

Both networks have WPA2 AES security and MAC address filtering enabled, and the laptops are set to connect automatically on startup. No Linksys specific applications are installed on any of the laptops, only the standard OS wireless feature is used to connect. The router firmware was updated at the time of the network setup, a few weeks ago. Both laptops are connected to the power plug most of the time.

Any help or hints would be appreciated.

Péter Török

Posted 2012-08-20T14:01:02.797

Reputation: 306

Have you updated the firmware on the router? You may also want to check for updates to the laptop's chipset drivers and wireless drivers. – dangowans – 2012-08-20T14:44:42.757

@dangowans, yes, as I mentioned above. Laptop drivers were also updated about a month ago, when I installed Windows. – Péter Török – 2012-08-20T14:56:27.980

The router, it's then connected to a DSL modem? Cable? – dangowans – 2012-08-20T14:58:36.637

@dangowans, DSL modem. – Péter Török – 2012-08-20T19:45:20.940

Are the DSL login credentials configured on the router or the laptops? – dangowans – 2012-08-20T23:35:40.350

@dangowans, on the router. – Péter Török – 2012-08-22T10:09:54.630

Answers

2

There's a really good tutorial on setting up DSL on a Linksys router using PPPoE on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6chQdDbVclg

It looks like there are two radio buttons under where the user name and password are entered. One is "Connect on Demand", the other is "Keep Alive". Try Keep Alive. It sounds like the connection is dropping when there is no traffic, and this may solve that problem.

dangowans

Posted 2012-08-20T14:01:02.797

Reputation: 1 774

Thanks, this seems to be the culprit! I switched to Keep Alive and wait for a few days to verify whether this solves the problem for good. – Péter Török – 2012-08-23T19:47:32.713

Glad to hear this solved your problem. – dangowans – 2012-08-23T20:25:22.590

1

It is a known behavior for the wireless connection to drop when a device goes to sleep.

Here is a possible solution for you to try - Windows 7 Wireless connection drops after PC has been in sleep mode

CharlieRB

Posted 2012-08-20T14:01:02.797

Reputation: 21 303

Asked: 2012-08-20T14:01:02.797

Viewed: 3 944 times

Active: 2019-03-19T19:34:01.387