No net connection after reboot

[John]

I have four PC's connected together in a home network.
One PC, an IBM 300PL desktop, runs Win2k Pro and it works just fine.
Another one, an IBM NetVista desktop running WinXP Home, also works
fine. But I am having intermittent problems with the other two PC's.
One is an old Compaq Presario desktop that runs Win 98 SE, and the
other one is a new Dell Inspirion Notebook computer that also runs
WinXP Home.

They are all connected together via a Netgear MR814 V2 wireless
router. All except the notebook are connected to their NIC cards with
cables, and the notebook uses a Dell True Mobile WLAN card. The Win98
PC uses a D-LInk DI530 NIC.

The problem is that after I reboot either the notebook computer or the
Compaq, not always but often when I first try to connect to the
Internet I get an error message that says that there is no network
connection available. It gives me the choice of either trying again or
canceling. When I try again it always connects the second time. If the
first thing I do is try some other app that needs a net connection
such instant messaging or my IRC client, it simply does not connect
and I am forced to open my web browser first, then go through the
above mentioned routine where I have to try again to get a connection.

Once I get connected, then it's fine until I reboot again. Then the
problem may or may not happen again.

If either PC goes into the sleep mode, there is no problem. It only
happens after a reboot.

This has me puzzled. As far as I know my settings are exactly the same
on the PC's that don't have this problem.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank a lot.

John

 

[Brian Oakes [MSFT]]

The problem you are probably seeing is it takes a little bit to have the
wireless card become active and sync'd with the access point. Then the
network stack has to begin to use the connection. If getting the connection
active takes too long you will see this problem.

With those nics, there isn't much that I know of to modify most folks just
leave the system up for another 30 seconds or min before they try and access
the Net. Usually that is long enough.
--

Brian Oakes

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.
Please reply to the newsgroup so that others may benefit.