I bought a 2820n in Feb 2009 and it's given good service until earlier this year. I definitely had some line problems which BT sorted but now the router itself seems to be unreliable and nothing I've tried seems to work. As best I can tell it only affects the wireless side - the wired side remains stable. But wifi connections drop at random and/or throughput goes to zero. The laptop (Win 7 or XP) will indicate 5 bar signal strength but I can't even log into the router, much less access the internet. A laptop reboot changes nothing. Yet an ipad still has good access. I've tried FW 3.3.7.1 (the latest version - v clever version control to have two FW versions with the same rev number!) and 3.3.5.2 with no apparent change. A reboot of the router also seems to have no effect. Any suggestions as to where to go from here?

Seeing as it used to work and a reeboot does not make any difference it could be a loose connection to one of the arials, if you keep knocking them the connection inside becomes loose. Or more likely it's interference from a DECT phone or another wireless AP etc.. Have you done a check to see if there are any other neighbours AP on or near your channel? Are you using bluetooth devices to connect to the laptop, mouse etc. they all share the same frequencies and can interfere. I had similar where I apparently got a good signal but when you put it under strain the throughput dropped right down or the laptop dropped the connection.

Thanks, will check for loose aerial connections as best I can. There is a new DECT phone in the house but the problem pre-dates its arrival and there was a previous DECT phone with which the 2820n seemed to happily coexist.

Nearby access points are on channels 1, 6 and 11 and I'm running on 9. There's no bluetooth in use although the blackberry is probably looking for the car kit but that's been much the same for the past few years.

Each firmware install was done with the *.rst file and a the config re-entered from scratch.

The wireless point sits on a window sill but I have a piece of high-tech card board in place to shade it from the sun, It also sits on a small wire cooling rack to help it manage any heat generated.

Any other thoughts or recommendations will be gratefully received. The wifi problem seems to affect different users at different times - one can fail to connect while the other remains connected blissfully unaware of any issue or can reconnect at will.

One other thing; do other wireless laptops run into the same problem?

If the iPad remains unaffected it is extremely unlikely to be a problem with the wireless radio in the router. My initial thoughts from the problem description scream faulty network card in the laptop, certainly worth checking.

Unfortunately it does appear to affect all of the wireless devices at different times but there are circumstances where one remains working and one or more of the others have an issue. Hence it's quite frustrating. My primary laptop is used at home and at work - at work the connection is stable but at home it's not -hence I tend to rule out that particular laptop being part of the problem.

A couple of other points to consider: is it related to whether the device is connecting in n or g mode? Also do you have green field mode set or the bandwidth set to 40?