- Jun 19, 2016
- 5
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- 4,520
I've been looking up threads about this ASUS wifi card and it's problem with dropping the network at random. All threads are closed, so I had start a new one. I realize this issue is a year or two old and might not be relevant to most. But I think I might have found a band-aid of sorts that can help someone dealing with this.
My experience is typical with regrades to the network dropping. Under normal use, and at complete random so it seems, it loses connection to my network. The icon in the system tray changes from the wifi radio waves to the globe symbol. Once it changes, you can't see any networks in my area. The PC I originally had this in was a custom build with a Gigibyte Z77X motherboard. With the issues I was having, I thought it might be possible I have a motherboard problem, as I reloaded the OS (Windows 10) already. Last week, I installed it in a Dell Optiplex EX2 mini tower I acquired from work. Needless to say, it's doing the same thing.
When I first got the card, I worked perfectly for the first 6-12 months. Then it developed the problem of dropping the network at random. I've only had the opportunity to use the card on three different networks. The first was with Comcast at home with my own NetGear router (don't remember the model, don't have it any more). I also used it at work on our guest wifi for a short time with no issues. They were Aruba access points with EarthLink as the ISP. When I brought it back home, it was in storage for a few months then put back on the original MB I started with. This is when it started dropping the network. The router in use now is one provided by ATT Uverse, model BGW210. I have not had the opportunity to test it on any other wireless network since this.
As I said, the network would drop while the card was in use. I'd be streaming music on YouTube and Pandora, and I would just stop all of a sudden. Turning the card off and back on in Windows was the only fix without a reboot.
On to the fix... I found a setting in Windows that I thought might have had something that would help. It's accessed in the area that you view your network adapters. It's a check box option named "Connect even if the network is not broadcasting its name". By default, it's not checked. Ultimately, this didn't work...
Another possible fix I found was to run a continuous ping on the PC with the ASUS card from my main computer. I had the ping running 24 hours for 4 days. I observed the ping log and noticed that it would drop one ping about every 100 to 200 attempts. I though of this trick after dealing with an issue at work where we have card printers that drop off the ARP table on our core switch if they are inactive for several minutes. A continuous ping keeps them alive, so I thought why not... I've sense turned the ping off and the PC in question is sitting idle. After about 4 hours, the PC disconnected again. So a continuous ping may have worked. I'm not sure I'd call this a real fix. Still, it's better than having to buy a new card. Since this is my media PC, hooked to my TV, it's not used a whole lot. If you game with this card, I can only speculate how well it will work.
One other thing that I can't figure out... if pinging works, why doesn't playing YouTube videos have the same effect? I can only guess it has something to do with the way the video is downloaded to the PC.
My experience is typical with regrades to the network dropping. Under normal use, and at complete random so it seems, it loses connection to my network. The icon in the system tray changes from the wifi radio waves to the globe symbol. Once it changes, you can't see any networks in my area. The PC I originally had this in was a custom build with a Gigibyte Z77X motherboard. With the issues I was having, I thought it might be possible I have a motherboard problem, as I reloaded the OS (Windows 10) already. Last week, I installed it in a Dell Optiplex EX2 mini tower I acquired from work. Needless to say, it's doing the same thing.
When I first got the card, I worked perfectly for the first 6-12 months. Then it developed the problem of dropping the network at random. I've only had the opportunity to use the card on three different networks. The first was with Comcast at home with my own NetGear router (don't remember the model, don't have it any more). I also used it at work on our guest wifi for a short time with no issues. They were Aruba access points with EarthLink as the ISP. When I brought it back home, it was in storage for a few months then put back on the original MB I started with. This is when it started dropping the network. The router in use now is one provided by ATT Uverse, model BGW210. I have not had the opportunity to test it on any other wireless network since this.
As I said, the network would drop while the card was in use. I'd be streaming music on YouTube and Pandora, and I would just stop all of a sudden. Turning the card off and back on in Windows was the only fix without a reboot.
On to the fix... I found a setting in Windows that I thought might have had something that would help. It's accessed in the area that you view your network adapters. It's a check box option named "Connect even if the network is not broadcasting its name". By default, it's not checked. Ultimately, this didn't work...
Another possible fix I found was to run a continuous ping on the PC with the ASUS card from my main computer. I had the ping running 24 hours for 4 days. I observed the ping log and noticed that it would drop one ping about every 100 to 200 attempts. I though of this trick after dealing with an issue at work where we have card printers that drop off the ARP table on our core switch if they are inactive for several minutes. A continuous ping keeps them alive, so I thought why not... I've sense turned the ping off and the PC in question is sitting idle. After about 4 hours, the PC disconnected again. So a continuous ping may have worked. I'm not sure I'd call this a real fix. Still, it's better than having to buy a new card. Since this is my media PC, hooked to my TV, it's not used a whole lot. If you game with this card, I can only speculate how well it will work.
One other thing that I can't figure out... if pinging works, why doesn't playing YouTube videos have the same effect? I can only guess it has something to do with the way the video is downloaded to the PC.
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