XP Insists on dial up when Lan is connected

[Guest]

I am using a Sony VIAO laptop with XP SP2. I have a cable and wireless link
to a Netgear Router/Firewall/ADSL modem. The wireless card in the PC is a
netgear 401. There is a Dell desktop connected by cable to the same router.

If I attempt to send and receive in Outlook the Sony laptop insists on
trying to dial up even when it is connected to the LAN and status lights are
showing activity.

The wireless icon shows that I am connected but no packets are passing.
The laptop is not picking up an IP address from the router when booting.
The laptop shows an address starting 164. when the router is 192.168.0.1
The laptop is set to "dial if Lan not present"

From the Dell I can see the harddrive on the Sony and vice versa.

I am muddled because I did not expect to be able to see the shared drives
when the IP addresses where in different ranges.

I am also unsure how to set the SSID on the Laptop.

What should I check?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Well, I am no expert with Outlook, but a couple of things come to mind.
Under Internet Options|Connections, make sure it says to "never dial a
connection". If you are using other dialup software (like AT&T's Global
Network, etc.) it most likely should override that. Also, you might want to
try the "automatically detect settings" under the LAN button. You might also
want to try to rerun the Network Setup again for the wireless network on your
laptop, is it already configured for another wireless network? Re the
wireless card, is it configured to "find an IP address automatically"? That
might help. Are you using another firewall in place of XP2's? (don't use
both at the same time). Just my thoughts.