<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
      type="topic" style="problem"
      id="net-wireless-disconnecting">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="net-wireless"/>
    <link type="guide" xref="net-problem"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.4.0" date="2012-02-19" status="outdated"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.10" date="2013-11-10" status="review"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.18" date="2015-09-28" status="final"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Jim Campbell</name>
      <email>jwcampbell@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Phil Bull</name>
      <email>philbull@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>

    <desc>You might have low signal, or the network might not be letting you
    connect properly.</desc>
    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

<title>Why does my wireless network keep disconnecting?</title>

<p>You may find that you have been disconnected from a wireless network even
 though you wanted to stay connected. Your computer will normally try to
 reconnect to the network as soon as this happens (the network icon on the top
 bar will display three dots if it is trying to reconnect), but it can be
 annoying, especially if you were using the internet at the time.</p>

<section id="signal">
 <title>Weak wireless signal</title>

 <p>A common reason for being disconnected from a wireless network is that you
 have low signal. Wireless networks have a limited range, so if you are too far
 away from the wireless base station you may not be able to get a strong enough
 signal to maintain a connection. Walls and other objects between you and the
 base station can also weaken the signal.</p>

 <p>The network icon on the top bar displays how strong your wireless signal is.
 If the signal looks low, try moving closer to the wireless base station.</p>

</section>

<section id="network">
 <title>Network connection not being established properly</title>

 <p>Sometimes, when you connect to a wireless network, it may appear that you
 have successfully connected at first, but then you will be disconnected soon
 after. This normally happens because your computer was only partially
 successful in connecting to the network — it managed to establish a connection,
 but was unable to finalize the connection for some reason and so was
 disconnected.</p>

 <p>A possible reason for this is that you entered the wrong wireless
 passphrase, or that your computer was not allowed on the network (because the
 network requires a username to log in, for example).</p>

</section>

<section id="hardware">
 <title>Unreliable wireless hardware/drivers</title>

 <p>Some wireless network hardware can be a little unreliable. Wireless
 networks are complicated, so wireless cards and base stations occasionally run
 into minor problems and may drop connections. This is annoying, but it happens
 quite regularly with many devices. If you are disconnected from wireless
 connections from time to time, this may be the only reason. If it happens very
 regularly, you may want to consider getting some different hardware.</p>

</section>

<section id="busy">
 <title>Busy wireless networks</title>

 <p>Wireless networks in busy places (in universities and coffee shops, for
 example) often have many computers trying to connect to them at once. Sometimes
 these networks get too busy and may not be able to handle all of the computers
 that are trying to connect, so some of them get disconnected.</p>

</section>

</page>
