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"Networking help please"

Wireless router has been playing up for the last 2-3 days, randomly disconnecting. It's always done that, but recently it's been frequent rather than occasional. My brother is constantly shouting about it and blaming me, or trying to form some sort of incorrect theory. It tends to happen to him more than me, but it has been happening an annoying amount of times the last few days, possibly 10 times in the last 2 hours.

No settings have changed on the router since it was originally setup about 2 years ago.

Thoughts?

Find someone with an ADSL wireless router that is working and ask if you can borrow it. Only change the ADSL login details on the borrowed router and see how it goes. Ignore your brother as he is just annoyed (weird how broadband becomes a matter of life or death when it doesn't work!?).
Hopefully the borrowed router will work fine. If not then you know that it was working and you have not changed any settings apart from the username and password so it must either be line problems or environmental factors causing the problem.

I already know that the problem is not with the line. The computer I'm on now is my mums, which connects directly to our DSL router and only uses the wireless to transfer files or print jobs between computers on our network. Mum internet works fine.

Well last night my bro asked me how to access the router so that he could have a look. I was already in bed at the time.

This morning I couldn't connect, but later found out what he did, so I adjusted my settings accordingly so that I could get on.

Basically, I was trying to connect using our old settings, which included a WEP key.

What he's done is reset the router to its factory defaults. There is no WEP key, no password to change its settings, an easy-to-work-out IP address for any hackers nearby, no password to stop them changing the settings, and no list of allowed MAC addresses. I set up that list so that even if you worked out our WEP key, you still couldn't gewt on without being on the list.

So yeah, anyone want my personal details?

I'm not happy. I like the fact that it's all working now, so far (will have to see if it goes off again in a minute), and I don't feel defeated because I know he actually hasn't got a clue. He only understood the words "Restore to factory defaults", not the rest of it. We simply must have security. He was always on about everyone in the nearby houses hacking onto our network and causing trouble, despite the fact that I doubt they knew how either, but the fact is, they couldn't, and now, they can, with no effort at all.

We've already had someone on the main road behind the house using our network.

Thoughts now? I want privacy and security.