Intermittent Connection Resets

[Terp81]

We have an Airport Extreme base station plus an Airport Express WDS node. Using this wireless network are two Windows PC's and two Mac's. Up until last week everything seemed to work fine.

What changed? We went on a trip and my son took his Windows PC along. At one of the stops he tried to connect to the hotel's wireless network. He couldn't. We finally connected via ethernet.

Now, here at the house, we frequently (but unpredictably) get connection problems such as "Connection Reset" or "Looking For..." etc. In addition, some pages load only partially (simple text, no images, no layout, etc.)

The problem seems worse when my sons machine is using our Internet connection. It seems that I can work with no problems until he and I are both online (but not always... for example, he's on right now, and so am I).

The other odd thing about our setup is that our high-speed provider uses a Static IP address. I've spoken to them, and they claim their is no problem with their network. I guess I believe them.

Help? Suggestions?

Steve

 

[Satcomer]

There is a new Trojan for windows machine (a variant of an older one) that is floating around. So you might would want to check that system out.

On the Mac machine are you seeing the same connection resets when your son is not using his windows machine? Plus what Mac are you using and what OS X system do you have? Have you reset the Airport machines? What does the Airport Port Extreme report?

 

[Terp81]

Thanks for the reply. Here is the information you asked about:

I'm fairly certain, though not positive, that it's not a virus or Trojan Horse. That machine has virus protection software, which is run regularly. In addition, I just discovered that the same problem is evident when the only other Windows PC in the house is used simultaneously with a Mac.

I only see the connection resets when one of the Windows PC's are actively sending/receiving info from the Internet AND one of the Mac's is also actively sending/receiving info from the Internet. If my wife and I are the only ones browsing (we both use Mac's) we do not see the problem.

I use a MacBook Pro. My wife uses a Mac Powerbook G4. Both Mac's are running OS-X 10.5.1 with the latest updates.

I have reset the Airport Extreme and the WDS Remote Airport Express many times trying to solve this problem.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "what does the Airport Extreme Report?" I don't see any errors, but I can't say that I know where to look. The status light is green on both Airports.

One addition item: I'm running both Airport's using WEP security, but I don't suspect this since I was also experiencing the problem with no security. Since we live in a farming community, I don't have much worries re: someone stealing bandwidth. When I first saw this problem, I suspected that someone was doing just that: stealing an IP address, so I switched to WAP2 security, then tried WEP (hoping THAT might affect the problem). Nothing has helped yet.

Any more questions, or suggestions?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Terp81]

My problem is solved! But it wasn't anything I tried earlier... The answer was...

Delete the network settings from the last hotel we stayed in!

How in the world that affected my connections at home, I don't know. But, I was asking my son if he could see if anything was different about that hotel connection and he said, "You know, I've got all these connection profiles that I never use, I should just delete them." Which he did. Now... No more Connection Resets or Looking For problems. We are back to coexisting with that Windoze PC.

So thanks for the help.

Steve