Network won't assign address

[Smith]

My brother just bought a Dell XPS M1210 (Windows XP Media). First thing he
did was format the hard drive and re-install windows to clear off all the
pre-installed junk. Everything went okay, until it came time to install the
wireless adapter. The driver on the CD wouldn't even install, I had to
download a newer one off of the Dell website. Once installed though I get my
excellent signal strength but "limited or no connectivity." My listed
"Network Adapters" in device manager are: "Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Network Connection" for wireless, "Broadcom 440x 10/100 Intergrated
Controller" for wired, and "1394 Net Adapter." The router I'm trying to
connect the laptop to is a Linksys WRT54GS.

Now, wired with the Broadcom adapter all is well, I connect perfect. The
Intel Wireless Adapter though keeps saying I have limited connectivity. Says
the problem occured because the network did not assign a network address to
the computer. Can anyone help here? I'm a network idiot for the most
part...the fact that it wouldn't take the old drivers at all makes me wonder
if something is wrong with the onboard adapter maybe? Thanks.

 

[Tore Skogly]

My brother just bought a Dell XPS M1210 (Windows XP Media). First thing he
did was format the hard drive and re-install windows to clear off all the
pre-installed junk. Everything went okay, until it came time to install
the wireless adapter. The driver on the CD wouldn't even install, I had to
download a newer one off of the Dell website. Once installed though I get
my excellent signal strength but "limited or no connectivity." My listed
"Network Adapters" in device manager are: "Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Network Connection" for wireless, "Broadcom 440x 10/100 Intergrated
Controller" for wired, and "1394 Net Adapter." The router I'm trying to
connect the laptop to is a Linksys WRT54GS.

Now, wired with the Broadcom adapter all is well, I connect perfect. The
Intel Wireless Adapter though keeps saying I have limited connectivity.
Says the problem occured because the network did not assign a network
address to the computer. Can anyone help here? I'm a network idiot for the
most part...the fact that it wouldn't take the old drivers at all makes me
wonder
if something is wrong with the onboard adapter maybe? Thanks.

I _never_ format a brand new hard drive in a brand new pc to get rid of any
preinstalled applications. Simply uninstalling them is much better, but I
prefer to leave them alone.

My guess is that nothing is wrong with the onboard adapter. Is your wireless
network encrypted? If so - did you enter the correct passphrase og key when
trying to connect to your wireless network?

 

[Smith]

Yes, I did type the key correctly. My other Toshiba laptop connects to the
wireless netowrk perfectly. And one of the reason for the reformat was that
he had internet connection, but he couldn't connect to AIM. Then, when he
finally could connect to AIM, he lost the rest of the internet.

 

[Mike Walsh]

To get a network address on the PC you must either configure the PC to use a static IP address (on the same subnet as your router e.g. 192.168.x.101), or configure the PC to use DHCP and configure the router to act as a DHCP server. DHCP is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and since things have been dumbed down you might see something like "automatically assign IP address" instead of DHCP. Once you get communication working you should enable encryption.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Yes, I did type the key correctly. My other Toshiba laptop connects to
the wireless netowrk perfectly. And one of the reason for the reformat
was that he had internet connection, but he couldn't connect to AIM.
Then, when he finally could connect to AIM, he lost the rest of the
internet.

Play with the encryption to figure out what's going on. It happens that the
router and wireless card can be incompatible, or by default make
incompatible choices. Some cards support odd key lengths and you have to
compromise to find what matches on the router and laptop. It's a well
defined and implemented standard.. yeah right.

To start, be *sure* that you have changed the SSID as it is more than
possible that Windows will decide to try to connect to the neighbor's router
that has the same default SSID. Don't delete the SSID - this causes more
problems - just change a few characters.

Then turn encription off. If you have security concerns, disconnect the
router from the WAN line and all other PCs. You only need to talk to the
one laptop. Make sure that the one laptop can get an IP from the router
with *no* encryption. Then, turn it on to WEP 64-bit and make one key
only. Connect the PC via a cable so you can get the keys from via the
wired connection and paste then into the wireless client fields. (If you do
this wireless, you lose the key as soon as it changes). If it gets an IP,
disconnect the cable and see what you get. If you can browse, you're done.

Pay close attention and compare the key options that are offered you.

Use only one key. I have seen a model of router (Netgear rangemaster, I
think) that worked great - Unless you filled in more than one of the four
possible key fileds. If you did that, *nothing* could connect wirelessly.

Go step by step and pay attention to what happens as you change each thing.

HTH
-pk