Reset Wireless Adapter Automatically


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I have an issue where whenever I download, there is a good chance the internet will drop out and I'll have to reset my wireless adapter through the Control Panel to get things running again.

I am not even slightly knowledgable on network related stuff, so instead of going down a potentially long and frustrating route of trying to sort the issue out, I'm wondering if there is a quick way to reset my wireless adapter without having to go through all of the menus and the troubleshooting menus.

This is a bit of a shot in the dark but is there a way to quickly do it? Whenever it happens having I have to wait for the troubleshooting to discover the problem and then fix it, whereas I know that just resetting the wireless adapter straight away would fix it.

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What OS?

This should work on Vista/7.

To disable: netsh interface set interface <interface name> DISABLED

To enable: netsh interface set interface <interface name> ENABLED

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Just resetting the network card brings things back up? Sounds like some offloading going wrong or something. What about upgrading/downgrading drivers?

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What OS?

This should work on Vista/7.

To disable: netsh interface set interface <interface name> DISABLED

To enable: netsh interface set interface <interface name> ENABLED

I'm on windows 7, where do I type that?

Just resetting the network card brings things back up? Sounds like some offloading going wrong or something. What about upgrading/downgrading drivers?

I think i have the latest drivers but I'll double check.

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I'm on windows 7, where do I type that?

You'd have to go to the command prompt. Click Start - Type "CMD" - right click and choose admin then type those commands replacing the "<interface name>" with WLAN or whatever the name is.

It's a bit complicated I guess, but you should probably be looking for a real solution instead of bypassing the issue. When you say internet drop out you mean you loose all connectivity or just to the internet. Meaning, can you still ping the router or connect to it or you can't connect to anything?\

Which wireless card is this as well?

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Yeah internet dropping or wireless card hanging while downloading should not be happening.. A reset of the wireless card might be a work around but is not the correct path to take.

You need to figure out what is wrong and correct, not some stupid bandaid of resetting the interface.

A quicker way to reset though would be to just disable it and then enable it - this is exactly what that command line is doing, but you can do it in the gui with just click.. Which I believe would be much easier, or you could just create a batch file with the commands and then put a shortcut on your desktop to click.

But again this is not really a solution I would suggest. You really should fix the root of the problem!

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You'd have to go to the command prompt. Click Start - Type "CMD" - right click and choose admin then type those commands replacing the "<interface name>" with WLAN or whatever the name is.

It's a bit complicated I guess, but you should probably be looking for a real solution instead of bypassing the issue. When you say internet drop out you mean you loose all connectivity or just to the internet. Meaning, can you still ping the router or connect to it or you can't connect to anything?\

Which wireless card is this as well?

it can still recognize and connect to routers, it's just the internet that drops.

it's a tp-link tl-wn851n

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Sounds like a simliar problem I had with a laptop, I ended up replacing the wireless card for a new one and everything worked fine after that.

It would randomly drop the wireless when downloading large files/videos/etc after that it would tell you it could see the wireless network it was attached to or that it could see others but it was XP feeding back rubbish information and none of that was actually working as intended.

only fix was to shut down the wireless card (using wifi button or disable/enable in windows) then it would come back to life, drivers etc didn't fix it. New card (as mentioned above) and it all went away :)

Laptop was an old IBM, if that makes a difference

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Sounds like a simliar problem I had with a laptop, I ended up replacing the wireless card for a new one and everything worked fine after that.

It would randomly drop the wireless when downloading large files/videos/etc after that it would tell you it could see the wireless network it was attached to or that it could see others but it was XP feeding back rubbish information and none of that was actually working as intended.

only fix was to shut down the wireless card (using wifi button or disable/enable in windows) then it would come back to life, drivers etc didn't fix it. New card (as mentioned above) and it all went away :)

Laptop was an old IBM, if that makes a difference

i had the same issues using a belkin wireless dongle on my previous computer. i don't think the issue is the card but how the network is set up maybe. i have no idea where to start :s

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"i don't think the issue is the card but how the network is set up maybe."

No highly unlikely -- what could you have setup in the network that would cause the card to reset or hang? Wireless is pretty stupid easy, you setup a WPA psk, or even just OPEN and your done.. There is is nothing to do other than configure the SSID and encryption you want use or not use.

If its crashing, then something wrong with the card/driver or the wireless router. Not any sort of setup in the wireless config that would cause such an issue.

Maybe the card does not like WEP, WPA or WPA2 -- try just open, do you still have the issues? If not then something wrong with there router or card/driver/OS -- if you can connect to the wireless network and it works, then there is not much tweaking or such that could be done that would cause your symptoms.

Other than going open on the encryption -- you could fire up a liveCD and see if you have same issue. if you do not then points to driver/OS issue.

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