Hi

I can log into LFS fine and my wireless internet connection is fine but when i load up to a server (doesn't matter which one) it randomly losses connection to the server but when i want to go back into the server again it loads up fine but again it randomly disconnects for no apparent reason. I can get about 2 minutes of racing time before it disconnects, although my actual internet doesn't disconnect

I dont think this is LFS at fault because the same happens to me in COD4

Has anybody experienced the same problem as i am? If so do you have a solution?

Thanks!

Wireless internet = death for online games.

Too many packets lost, games tend to go "OH HAI, U R NOT HERE, OK BAI!"

Thanks for the reply!

I have an update on the problem; LFS seems to run ok when i have my laptop running on the battery but when i have it plugged into power it disconnects from the server after about 1 minute. I cant see how this would affect the game (or internet) when i play LFS.

I have changed my power options and there is no difference.

Wireless can be fine, so long as you're not a million miles away from the access point. I use wireless for all games, and apart from a bit of lag in CoD4 on PS3, I don't have problems with anything else. Move your router around a bit if you can to increase the signal. I found raising mine by a few feet gave me a good 10% signal rise

I saw a complaint about wi-fi on external power vs. battery earlier, but I only had a quick glance while looking for something else. I can't see how it would make a difference unless you moved the laptop. If anything, I'd imagine it would be better on the charger, due to less "energy saving" shizzle.

Thanks for the relpy!

I put my laptop next to the router and it didnt make any difference to gameplay but i have noticed that LFS runs better on battery than on the charger for some reason that i cannot fathem.

The laptop is new, the main specs should be fine: Core 2 duo - 2ghz, 4gb ram, 256mb ati mobility radeon HD 3450, 160gb hard drive etc etc.

My old desktop pc was about a 10th of the spec of this one lol and LFS lagged a bit but it wasn't too bad so this pc should run it no problem. That pc was also on wi-fi but with a wireless adaptor.

Can you think of any software you might have installed that uses a lot of network traffic?

Watch how the network traffic is effected in task manager with no apps running when you plug and unplug the charger, if you notice a jump in traffic sending and receiving then you can say for sure it's software related and begin to narrow down which service is attached and using resorces on charge mode.

Failing the above i'd take a wild guess that it's some sort of unfortunate complicated electrical/radio interference being given off by the cahrger or battery, try remove the battery from the notebook and see, might be the battery in the notebook eating itself...

is a strange one for sure...

Edit:

Some wireless cards drivers have power saving options that can only be set from the network card properties tab, take a look see in the properties...

Thanks for the reply!

I cant really think of any software that will use the wi-fi, I have tried closing all the internet required programs to see if that makes a difference, but it didnt.

When I removed the battery from the laptop, LFS worked ok with the power supply plugged in but when I put the battery back in, it disconnected after about 15 seconds.

I looked at the 'Networking' tab in 'Task manager' while plugging and unplugging the power supply and it didnt 'jump'.

I tried changing the 'Minimum power consumption' to 'Disable' (i assume it is the same as the XP version of 'power saver mode' in that menu) and it didnt do anything to the wireless that i can see

Quote from Mike246 :

Thanks for the reply!
When I removed the battery from the laptop, LFS worked ok with the power supply plugged in but when I put the battery back in, it disconnected after about 15 seconds.

...the only explanation must be a dodgy battery. It is best to discharge the battery and leave it a drawer or something untill such a time when you know you'll be on the move and need the battery the next day charging it the night before. Laptop battery's loose their ability to hold a charge if they are in a constang state of charge, if you got three hours of work from the battery when the laptop was new after a year or so you might only get 10 minutes out of it.

I'm guessing the battery is over charging and playing havok with the radio signals on your wi-fi card(especially if it's an internal card), if the laptop is still under warranty bring it back to the store and ask for a replacement battery and show them whats going on.

You are welcome

Sounds to me like the wireless "card" is polling for a better connection to the internet and goes flipping through the channels to see. Typically this happens exactly once every minute and happens regardless of the fact that your connection to the internet is already fine.

It's possible that it decides *not* to do this while running on battery, since it consumes a little extra power while it's polling for a different router/access point. Alternatively it may decide to do it despite being on battery, and thus suffers a power drop and connection drop as a result. Could be either or both.

The challenge is in finding this setting in your wireless setup and disabling it.

Thanks for the reply!

Is 'polling' the correct term? And when you say it's a challenge to find this and disable it, do you know roughly where i could find it?
It's not in the 'Wireless mini-card properties' that I am aware of.

It's a real technical term, but the user interface may have 'simplified' to something else.

If you're using XP, try turning 'Wireless Zero Configuration' off. You can do this from Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Turn it off only after you get a wireless connection. If you disable it completely, you will not be able to connect to the internet at all.

What you could do is make a batch file from which you can turn it off without opening Services every time:

Quote from wzc off.bat :

net stop "Wireless Zero Configuration"

The "Wireless Zero Configuration" must be typed exactly like that or it won't work. If you need to restart WZC sometime after turning it off, you can do that from the same Services window, or use the command net start "Wireless Zero Configuration".

If you're using Vista, I have no idea

Yeah I am on Vista.

I found something similar called 'WLAN Autoconfig' and I clicked on 'Disable' and it didn't do anything to the game play.

Thanks for the reply!