Ever since I put openSUSE 10.2 on this laptop, as far as I can remember, I am constantly being disconnected from MSN. I know people who have me on their list find this annoying, but the only solution is to disconnect and not use it. Not a very good solution, unless you’re lazy and don’t care about figuring out what’s causing it.

Yahoo doesn’t seem to be affected, so I would think that cancels out the wireless, or does it? Maybe the Yahoo server doesn’t detect this if I haven’t been offline for long. MSN might detect it right away. I’ve tried as many clients as I can find and it doesn’t matter which one I use, it still happens. So, that cancels out the clients. Or does it? Did Microsoft change something in their code?

I do know that when browsing, sometimes my wireless connection does go out and I have to wait just a little bit (one minute at the most) before I can continue. But I am never disconnected from Yahoo or MSN as far as I can see. But maybe there is a slight lag so the messenger doesn’t detect this right away. My signal is perfect, so that isn’t what is causing it.

I can’t seem to find anyone else with a similar problem. I’ve looked all over hoping that I’m not alone. But, it seems that I am! My guess is that it is my wireless, but why is it cutting out like this? How do I fix it? Is it caused from using ndiswrapper for the driver (which happens to be the correct driver for this card, in case you’re wondering)?

Can’t blame the wireless card, because I know it works just fine in Windows. I’ve tried a web messenger. Meebo and I still have the same problem, so we can’t blame a client.

I don’t even think I need to plug in the network cable to determine that it’s a wireless issue on Linux. I’ve had the feeling all along, but didn’t want to rule out other possibilities. And since there is only one spot in the house that I can plug the laptop in, everyone, including myself will have to deal with me being disconnected again and again until I can do more research on this issue and hopefully resolve it!

Of course, this could go a lot faster if someone knows why this could be happening and point me in the right direction. Just remember, I’m not using Windows.