The Mother Board

I am using a Realtek USB dongle with the router directly overhead on floor above. The signal strength is 82% and the link is 100%. I used the M$ZeroCongfig for a while, but it kept disconnecting, so I have switched on the Realtek utility instead. However, the M$Zero icon drops off every 10 or 15 minutes max.

My question: is there a way to disable Zero and only use Utility? Do I do it with Services? And is that my problem, or should I just try another wireless device? Is it this that is not working? (I know it's not the wireless router, because that was working beautifully for a couple of months in another location.) What would cause the signal to drop?

This wouldn't be a problem except that the user isn't computer-sophisticated and doesn't understand -- and she uses AOL, which drops her ("Goodbye") every time the signal drops out, so that even though it comes right back she has to sign in again and of course she loses anything she was writing. And I know everyone hates AOL including and especially me, but she is the client and should be able to use her interface, so I have to make this thing work.

Is there a better way? I tried static IP but that didn't seem to help. Should I just bite the bullet and buy a different USB wireless receiver?

Thx. I had to copy this message because it disconnected on me, so I had to retype this the 1st time. It disconnected this time too, but I had copied this...

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.
--- Groucho Marx

A member of Folding Team number 33258 for a cure for PARKINSONS DISEASE

It should disable automatically when using the realtek Utility, however you can disable it in services..... I would also disable the ability of the operating system to control the power of the USB dongle (can be done through device manager and also in the realtek utility), this can be the issue of the USB device disconnecting... Another thing to do is to clear the internet cache and run Disk Cleanup.... I have experienced this issue with USB dongles before and if it was a PC swapped to PCI card to resolve it... On laptops I swapped out for a PCMCIA card or PCI-express card... USB wifi cards can be flakey...

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I have been programming on computers since the ZX81.
I am an apprentice trained Electronics Engineer with qualifications to back it up.
I have been repairing computers since 1996.
Yet to some people I still know nothing...

Wow, good stuff. I wish I could have been there and gotten this. I am going back in a day or two, but while I would like to make her existing thing work, I also am hedging my bet byuing something off NewEgg. Usually I lose money doing this because I never can sell the thing that didn't work. (Plenty of examples laying around my shop.)

Do you really think I could make the existing setup work? I am so tired; worked all weekend on computers which are going to have to be reformatted due to the latest crap coming around (WinAntivirus 2010, etc.).

I know, whining again.

_________________
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.
--- Groucho Marx

A member of Folding Team number 33258 for a cure for PARKINSONS DISEASE