wireless networking

  • Thread starter Thread starter jarsek
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J

jarsek

Had to re-install XP then SP2 shortly thereafter.

The Netgear USB wireless device WG111 is picking up a signal described as
"excellent", I have entered the WEP key and this was verified and yet
windows is reporting that the Internet is "limited or non-existent" also it
says "unable to assign the client an IP address... please contact your
administrator" (or words roughly to that effect). IE7 shows the standard
Could not find Page message you get if there is no Internet. The device
worked fine with a previous installation of XP!

I'm really puzzled - why would there be a problem if the signal strength is
"excellent"?

If anyone has any ideas on this I sure would be grateful to hear what you
have to offer.

Many thanks indeed!

Jim
 
jarsek said:
Had to re-install XP then SP2 shortly thereafter.

The Netgear USB wireless device WG111 is picking up a signal described as
"excellent", I have entered the WEP key and this was verified and yet
windows is reporting that the Internet is "limited or non-existent" also
it says "unable to assign the client an IP address... please contact your
administrator" (or words roughly to that effect). IE7 shows the standard
Could not find Page message you get if there is no Internet. The device
worked fine with a previous installation of XP!

I'm really puzzled - why would there be a problem if the signal strength
is "excellent"?

If anyone has any ideas on this I sure would be grateful to hear what you
have to offer.

Many thanks indeed!

Jim
Click to expand...

The fact that the key is entered correctly doesn't necessarily mean that you
have successfully connected to the router. The key type must also be
correct, and there are a number of other options such as WEP 2, with AES or
TKIP. Not all adapters support all options, and of course you need to know
how things are set on the router.

And, one of the usual options is to enter four successive wireless keys,
which can be the same or not. This turns out to sometimes be relevant

If you have full control over the router and the network, you might want to
make note of the settings, then clear them all and use no key, just to
determine that the hardware works. Then turn encryption back on. Connect
by wire to the router and copy and paste the key from the router into a text
file, with the SSID and the precise encryption type. Save this, and use it
to copy back to your wireless adapter setup.

However, since you mention that you have a Netgear, I can tell you of a
defect I found in a Netgear router, that I have never seen appear on any
other brand.

That router worked perfectly, and the wireless worked properly - UNLESS all
four key entries were filled in. If that was done, *nothing* could connect
via wireless. The immediate solution was to enter only one key.

Test the wireless connection with a login to the router only, not going past
it. Buried in the messages regarding the failure to login or in the
driver diagnostics, you should be able to find some sort of log that tells
why the connection was not successful.

More details as to the precise circumstances would probably be helpful.

HTH
-pk
 
Are you using Wireless Zero Configuration? Is WZC connecting to your
network...or to someone else's? Make sure it's connecting to your
network, and then make your network the preferred network.
 
Patrick Keenan said:
The fact that the key is entered correctly doesn't necessarily mean that
you have successfully connected to the router. The key type must also
be correct, and there are a number of other options such as WEP 2, with
AES or TKIP. Not all adapters support all options, and of course you
need to know how things are set on the router.

And, one of the usual options is to enter four successive wireless keys,
which can be the same or not. This turns out to sometimes be relevant

If you have full control over the router and the network, you might want
to make note of the settings, then clear them all and use no key, just to
determine that the hardware works. Then turn encryption back on.
Connect by wire to the router and copy and paste the key from the router
into a text file, with the SSID and the precise encryption type. Save
this, and use it to copy back to your wireless adapter setup.

However, since you mention that you have a Netgear, I can tell you of a
defect I found in a Netgear router, that I have never seen appear on any
other brand.

That router worked perfectly, and the wireless worked properly - UNLESS
all four key entries were filled in. If that was done, *nothing* could
connect via wireless. The immediate solution was to enter only one key.

Test the wireless connection with a login to the router only, not going
past it. Buried in the messages regarding the failure to login or in
the driver diagnostics, you should be able to find some sort of log that
tells why the connection was not successful.

More details as to the precise circumstances would probably be helpful.

HTH
-pk
Click to expand...

Thanks Patrick - but I'm fairly certain that it's nothing to do with the key
or the router. There is only one key entered - the same as when used in the
previous installation of XP. This is a windows issue (unable to assign the
IP address). I tried ipconfig /release all and ipconfig /renew all (at the
command prompt) but these were both rejected.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to respond so quickly!

Jim
 
jarsek said:
Thanks Patrick - but I'm fairly certain that it's nothing to do with the
key or the router. There is only one key entered - the same as when used
in the previous installation of XP.
Click to expand...

I'm not referring to entering the key in XP. It's in the router firmware,
which can be reached by a browser on any OS.

But, the same settings worked in the previous XP install? Were you using
the same network adapter?
This is a windows issue (unable to assign the IP address). I tried
ipconfig /release all and ipconfig /renew all (at the command prompt) but
these were both rejected.
Click to expand...

It may not be a Windows issue, but a driver or configuration issue, a
mismatch with what the router is providing.

Or, the adapter may be defective or have failed. Can you try it on another
system?

HTH
-pk
 
jarsek said:
Thanks Patrick - but I'm fairly certain that it's nothing to do with the
key or the router. There is only one key entered - the same as when used
in the previous installation of XP. This is a windows issue (unable to
assign the IP address). I tried ipconfig /release all and ipconfig /renew
all (at the command prompt) but these were both rejected.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to respond so quickly!

Jim
Click to expand...

And as Mr. Grey points out, be sure that the router has a unique SSID.
Windows sometimes attempts to connect to a router you don't expect, if it
has the same SSID. If your neighbor bought the same brand of router and
turned it on without changing the SSID either, it's quite possible for your
system to attempt to connect to it instead, and ignore yours.

Connect by wire to the router, change the SSID so that you are certain that
it is not default and is unique (use your wireless adapter to scan for
networks, and enter a name you do not see). Then re-create the wireless
profile and try to connect again.

HTH
-pk
 
Thanks Patrick - but I'm fairly certain that it's nothing to do with the key
or the router. There is only one key entered - the same as when used in the
previous installation of XP. This is a windows issue (unable to assign the
IP address). I tried ipconfig /release all and ipconfig /renew all (at the
command prompt) but these were both rejected.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to respond so quickly!

Jim
Click to expand...

Just looking at the ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew issue: IF
both of these commands were "rejected", I have to ask what is your IP
address? If it is 169.254.x.x, then it's possible you don't have the
router setup to provide DHCP (or have a DHCP server available on the
network somewhere else).

OTOH, if you were given an "access denied" error, then you might not
have admin access to the XP box, which will also stop you from
performing the ipconfig commands.

I agree with another poster that stated to remove the WEP/WAP options
until you are sure it works to the internet. Then turn on the WEP/WAP
options once you are sure. Just a thought.

Good luck!
Mike
 
jarsek said:
Had to re-install XP then SP2 shortly thereafter.

The Netgear USB wireless device WG111 is picking up a signal described as
"excellent", I have entered the WEP key and this was verified and yet
windows is reporting that the Internet is "limited or non-existent" also
it says "unable to assign the client an IP address... please contact your
administrator" (or words roughly to that effect). IE7 shows the standard
Could not find Page message you get if there is no Internet. The device
worked fine with a previous installation of XP!

I'm really puzzled - why would there be a problem if the signal strength
is "excellent"?

If anyone has any ideas on this I sure would be grateful to hear what you
have to offer.

Many thanks indeed!

Jim
Click to expand...
I ran into a similar problem on a service call. I was told the unit had been
"zapped or something" after a network upgrade. I hooked it up by Ethernet
cable to my notebook and accessed it through IE, and everything appeared to
be OK. Still, it wouldn't connect wirelessly. I did a reset to factory
defaults, then set it up to the settings that were in it, and it worked
fine.

Just a thought,
SC Tom
 
Special Access said:
Just looking at the ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew issue: IF
both of these commands were "rejected", I have to ask what is your IP
address? If it is 169.254.x.x, then it's possible you don't have the
router setup to provide DHCP (or have a DHCP server available on the
network somewhere else).

OTOH, if you were given an "access denied" error, then you might not
have admin access to the XP box, which will also stop you from
performing the ipconfig commands.

I agree with another poster that stated to remove the WEP/WAP options
until you are sure it works to the internet. Then turn on the WEP/WAP
options once you are sure. Just a thought.

Good luck!
Mike
Click to expand...

Thanks to Mike, Patrick and Leonard.

The problem is with a computer in another room from the main PC. The main
PC is hardwired to a router and a Netgear WAP (wireless access point) is
hardwired to the router - and other wireless devices work fine (two
laptops). Probably the most bizarre of all is that (with the previous
installation of XP still being useable due to a dual boot [latest XP
installation was put on a seperate partition]) everything is still fine when
we boot up to the previous installation!

The other thing I tried today was to go in to the properties of the wireless
connection, chose TCP/IP from the drop down list of protocols and then
clicked the properties button of that. I then forced the IP to 192.168.0.6
(rather than the default automatic IP assignment) closed that off and
clicked OK. The wireless connection now showed the word "connected" and I
was delighted! However this delight was somewhat short-lived as Internet
Explorer still showed no Internet connection! A ping of www.microsoft.com
from the cmd box timed out indicating no internet connection. I'm still at
a bit of a loss. Perhaps I should be contacting netgear tech support?

Thanks again for all your suggestions!


Jim
 
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