Wireless Networking

[Guest]

Hey guys,

I just recently had to do a clean install of Windows XP SP2 on my laptop
because of a virus. When I did this, all hell broke loose.

First off -- My wireless card found my wireless network, and after I typed
in the Network Key it said it was connected but took forever to "acquire
network address." After a prolonged period of time, it came up with a yellow
exclamation point saying limited or no connection.

When I ran cmd, ipconfig I realised that I didn't have an IP address. I went
to the Network Properties and manually gave it an IP address and everything
else. Once that was done it was able to connect at 54 MBPS.

In the task manager, I had two icons for connections -- the Ethernet icon
with a big red x because it wasn't connected and the wireless connection.
However, the wireless connection -- even though it says it's connected --
wasn't flashing light blue to dark blue as it always used to.

I connected to the net via my ethernet cable and updated my wireless card
driver, thinking that was the problem. Nothing happened.

I released the IP address hoping that my wireless card would get one
automatically (like it used to) and again it did not -- I had to manually
assign an IP address and everything else.

Is my wireless card -- which was built-in to the laptop -- fried, or is it
human error somewhere?

If someone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Jorge

P.S. Sorry this is so long, but I felt like I should tell you everything
that I know so someone could maybe find it easier to help me.

 

[Lem]

Hey guys,

I just recently had to do a clean install of Windows XP SP2 on my laptop
because of a virus. When I did this, all hell broke loose.

First off -- My wireless card found my wireless network, and after I typed
in the Network Key it said it was connected but took forever to "acquire
network address." After a prolonged period of time, it came up with a yellow
exclamation point saying limited or no connection.

When I ran cmd, ipconfig I realised that I didn't have an IP address. I went
to the Network Properties and manually gave it an IP address and everything
else. Once that was done it was able to connect at 54 MBPS.

In the task manager, I had two icons for connections -- the Ethernet icon
with a big red x because it wasn't connected and the wireless connection.
However, the wireless connection -- even though it says it's connected --
wasn't flashing light blue to dark blue as it always used to.

I connected to the net via my ethernet cable and updated my wireless card
driver, thinking that was the problem. Nothing happened.

I released the IP address hoping that my wireless card would get one
automatically (like it used to) and again it did not -- I had to manually
assign an IP address and everything else.

Is my wireless card -- which was built-in to the laptop -- fried, or is it
human error somewhere?

If someone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Jorge

P.S. Sorry this is so long, but I felt like I should tell you everything
that I know so someone could maybe find it easier to help me.

The "information" messages that Windows produces with respect to
wireless connections are highly misleading. If you can't get an IP
address from your router automatically, I suspect that when you set the
static IP you are not actually connected to it, regardless of what
Windows says about 54 Mbps.

When you manually set the IP address, do you include in the "everything
else" a subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS server? Assuming you did,
try PINGing your router (should be the default gateway IP) and try
connecting to your router in a browser. I suspect you can't.

If you can "see" your network in the list of available wireless networks
(you're sure it's yours, because you configured a unique SSID, right?),
then the odds are that your wifi card is working properly.

Your problem sounds like you are entering an invalid encryption key.
The best way to test for this is to access your router's configuration
pages using your ethernet cable and DISable ALL security, including
encryption key, MAC filters, and any other type of filter you may have
set up. Now try to connect wirelessly, with the wireless adapter set to
obtain an IP address automatically. If you can, then re-setup your
security. If not, post back the results of ipconfig /all.