for me that is. But my husband cannot log on his at all!

We had to turn off and reboot both the modem and router for me to get on.

And we had to unplug him while he was off.

You know I just don't understand any of this! sigh.

Edit...it's been almost 2 hrs...and still running okay... I wonder?
The HouseCall by Trend Micro may have fixed it?
The only red X I have had so far today is this one:

LOL

Now we see the connection to my husband's computer more clearly.

After my HouseCall scan, and DSL/Router reboot...my husband could not connect. I ran for over 3 hours just like the "old days"...how nice it was..

Then I logged off. We did some errands, he came back and logged on his unit...ran it successfully for over 2 hrs.. then went off, unplugged. And I logged back on... CRASH---red X's everywhere.

So we disconnected the router completely. I have been on line now directly out of the DSL modem for over 2 hrs...no problem.

So we went to Netgear website...and I can honestly say I don't understand about 90% of the stuff there. They talk about VPN tunnels, and how many ports/connections will take VPN...it is endless. I always considered myself to be intelligent, and I am totally flummoxed by this stuff....

Now perhaps if hubby's techies can reset his network to work like the other laptop did, we might go back. We might get a new router, if we ever figure out the language, to select one. The tech help from his job will take forever, and no guarantees that they can fix it even (smart enough). So we will plug in each unit with a cable now into the DSL daily. See what happens for a week.

I even found a place
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/compo...ss/Itemid,200/
that rates routers...not that either of us can understand it.

That is where we are today... seems endless...I don't know how much more complexity we can stand as a society with the tech world as it is becoming today!

edit ~~ I hate to say this, but at my old job, we called our help desk, the HELPLESS desk. And that is really
how the Gov't runs its computers. They gave my husband a new unit, new bag, but no cable to connect to
his old printer. New laptops don't have a printer port...they have a USB one. No cables available! So he cannabalized my printer upstairs for now. So I can't print there either. New printers are "coming", but it took over a YEAR to get his new laptop... his smallish harddrive
was totally full...it took forever to load, and work at all. So I don't expect a fix for the NETWORK... I just don't.
Helpless.

My husband found our router on Amazon! There are many comments by users, there, and we are studying them today.

Looks like you have to do something when a new machine is used.
http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-WGR614...7812448&sr=8-1

I wish there were a book~~ routers for dummies!

That first guy's comments sound pretty good maybe if you go back to square one- like if you just got it and followed his steps that might fix things??
I bolded his main points- and broke it into sections, if that might help.

[I see a lot of disgruntled people here who can't connect to the router wirelessly after changing settings. I would like to give a couple of tips.

First of all, make sure you configure the router when you are hard wired. You have to ensure that you are connected to the router via a LAN cable whenever you are making any changes to the router's configuration. This way when the router restarts etc. you will still be connected to it. If you are carrying out any changes to the router through your wireless card, for example if you have changed the WEP encryption code in the router, then once you submit those changes, the router will not let your wireless card connect until your laptop's card is configured for the same WEP key.

So once again, please ensure you carry out changes to the router only when hard wired.

The moment you get your router, I suggest you carry out a firmware upgrade (go to netgear's support site and download the latest firmware for your model from there). Once again follow instructions and make sure you are connected through a cable to carry out the same. Now log onto the router and then do a couple of things.


First of all, rename the SSID to anything you want (eg. Joan's Arc). Then go to the wireless settings, then to wireless access, and click on 'Disable SSID broadcast'. This ensures that the SSID is not broadcast to others around you who have a wireless machine. So when their software searches for a wireless access point all they will see is a blank name. To be able to connect to your network they would have to know the name of your SSID (Joan's Arc in this case) and manually type it in their machines (Highly unlikely that they will be able to think of the same name as you do. You can make your name even harder to obtain by simply using numeric characters in it.. for example Joan's Arc2004).

Secondly, to make it secure use a 128 bit WEP key (this has to be a 26 digit key consisting of alphanumeric and numeric characters. You can use only certain alphabets in small and large case so you need to check that out.

Also remember that you have to feed the same WEP key number in your laptop wireless card software (or the windows wireless settings if you are not using your wireless card's software).

Finally you can ensure that only the wireless devices you specify can logon to your router.

Go to the Wireless settings, then to wireless access setup and then click on 'enable wireless access'... Thereafter click on 'Setup access list'. Once there add your wireless device by using its mac address (the mac address is a unique number given to a wireless device, very much like a phone number- this enables the router to identify the device trying to connect to it). The mac address will be listed on your wireless device and you can also see all the devices that you can allow to connect to your router in the router's configuration window.

(One important note to remember is that if you have already enabled WEP then you will have to first feed in the same key into your wireless device software settings before the router will display it in it's list of devices). Select the device that you want to allow to connect to your router and apply.

Hope this helps to a certain extent to configure your routers. Trust me, this is an amazing router and if you are having connection problems, it most likely is due to the settings in the router- not because the router is faulty.]
comments copied from - http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-WGR614...7812448&sr=8-1


If you skim thru all of the reviews it sounds like they either work well or break and drop connections, how old is yours?

might be simpler to buy a new /different brand router and see if that fixes the problem??
- if not you can always return the new one { make sure to buy at a store that have an easy return policy
-just in case}

I found the firmware upgrades...ours is 1 yr old, and a v6. It has 3 upgrades.

My son had an out of town guest all weekend and couldn't come here.
He is going to try next weekend. He read the updates, and said he better do
them.

He also found us a LinkSys one on Amazon, that we will probably buy if we
cannot configure this one properly. The 1:1 ratio of 5 star:1star he says he thinks this happens due to factory manufacturing errors. The LinkSys one
has ratio of 2:1 in favor of 5 star. He said that when doing those downloads, you have to be careful and save settings etc. So he offered to do it.
He is giving me 512 more RAM and a new bigger harddrive if he can find a good price on the latter for Xmas. We have 60gig, and he doesn't like the noises it is making, so he wants to replace it before it dies.

I don't think I have a virus/trojan anymore. That was a possibility. So I am relieved at that.

Tomorrow my hubby will power up the dreaded Gov't thing and I will lose my desktop again. So I am practicing my typing on the laptop, upstairs that does run on the wifi okay. It is certainly FASTER on EBay I have to admit however.

That router language is worse than medico speak IMO... It totally flummoxes, me. I have to read it about 20 times to make sense of it.

But slowly we are getting there. Having a hardware thing that only works "sometimes" is confusing. You'd expect it to fail totally but I guess routers are not like other hardware? <shrugs>

My husband's boss (manager) called early this morning.

He contacted some internal managers about our computer problem.

Guess what? The "new generation" computers that are being distributed
this month to agents, have a new security setting hidden inside that
prohibits more than one computer on an internet line. So in fact
his unit is sabotaging our system! I was calling it "the devil" and in reality
IT IS!

Not even the techies know this yet. Why put everyone thru the wringer like
this? I am so PO'd I can't even find words appropriate. A hand gesture
maybe?

So now we consider a SECOND DSL for his phone line? And pay for THAT out
of pocket monthly?

So it may not even be a problem with the router. I am concerned that the interference lasts so long during the day, after my husband logs off. It seems to contaminate the whole circuit. Yesterday was nice, he never logged on once. He works flex often because some programs he has to use are clogged up during business hours. And when Calif logs onto his network, he often cannot use them at all. So he will do stuff at odd times, and that really then screws ME up!

Oh, WOE... I am so angry GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

There should be some taxable write off since it would be a work/business only line- I'm not a tax expert at all though.
I'm not surprised about the extra security thing - but that they didn't know is ??? well let's just say big business - one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing
wasteful wasteful - all that wasted time for everyone....

Specifically the IRS.

He is not allowed to declare any business expenses. That is what was decided, by upper management.

When the Oklahoma bombings took place...the various gov't agencies decided
to send people out to work at home. Most of the agents who are in the field,
are only home part of the time. (about 1/2) .
They thought that it would show favoritism to allow for deductions (and the IRS does not like home offices anyway)... so they said in return for no longer commuting to the office and for all the money and time saved, the employees could foot the bills.

Not everyone chose a separate line for the phone. We did for privacy. We have a answering machine, and printer fax that we pay for too. He does have a telephone card, with a code, to use for his phone use beyond the basic
service. (long distance etc). But it looks like we might get another DSL depending.

What really bothers me is that this was not given in the beginning. It really
messed us up, and many kind, generous people like you, Jo, offered help.
Now we just have to decide if our router is permanently disabled by that devil laptop. I can only run well when plugged into the DSL directly anymore.

Also we might get a wireless for the desktop...that might fix the conflict.
The laptop upstairs runs fine, as long as this cable desktop is off. When I turn it on, the wifi goes down now. So we might just get wifi for the desktop and leave the devil unit on cable (its wifi is disabled for security).

This has been agony and worry since Dec 6th. Worrying I had infections/trojans etc. It is the WORRY that could have been avoided.! Sheesh.

edit~~ I just got an email from my son....he doesn't believe it. Thinks it is a LIE... some trick.
He asked around work and they said they had never heard of this (software company) . (one computer blocking the others).
I think it might be true 50/50...maybe some new military program or FBI thing.
Or some sick manager's idea of a passive aggressive joke... either way it punishes us!

Today was computer surgery. So far so good.

However the DSL conked out due to wind for a while and was confusing the
repairs. We ended up with getting a new router...this time a Linksys one.

I have a new 350 gig hard drive, and 512 more RAM ..things are much faster now.

I just hope it lasts...crossing fingers.

It was a battle for my son... he was glad to go home!