Networking & wireless forum: Wireless Router - Disconnections

Hi all,

I?ve been experiencing several problems with wireless routers over the past few years and thought I?d try asking for advice. I keep having the same intermittent disconnects across multiple computers, having used 3 different routers.

The short of it is that every single router I?ve used has ended up having connection issues over wireless. During these intermittent issues, my computer would no longer connect to the internet despite still being connected to the router with ?5 bars,? an ?excellent? signal. At first, I thought it was an issue with my ISP, but I noticed that I could not even access the router page at 192.168.1.1 ? something I should be able to do even if the ISP?s connection did go down.

I?ve tried basic things:

power cycling the router (which does restore router access for a short time),
cmd -> ipconfig/release renew (doesn?t seem to restore router access reliably),
disabling security on the router (nada),
disconnecting and reconnecting via the network (same as release/renew),
changing the wireless channel (no noticeable difference between 1, 6, and 11)

Thus, I?m at a loss and left wondering what exactly is going on. This happens both through walls and when I?m right next to the router, so I doubt it?s interference from any solid object. And cycling the channel should rule out interference from most other 2.4GHz devices (and I?d think this would make the signal degrade from excellent anyhow).

I?m thinking of buying a new router which will hopefully be better, but I?m losing hope since I?ve yet to encounter a router that doesn?t have this problem and there?s at least 6 reviews for every router Newegg that claim it suffers from similar issues.

Any suggestions?


Routers:
Linksys WRT54G
Netgear WNR1000v2
Netgear DGN1000 (this one?s both a DSL modem and a wireless router)

ISP: AT&T DSL
OSes: Ranged from Windows XP to the now, Windows 7.