XP Wireless Networking Issues

[Guest]

I am working on two separate networking issues at once and am ready to throw
all computers out the window. Chuck has been graciously helping me with my
wired problem at work, but this concerns my wireless LAN at home.

I recently purchased a new computer, running XP Pro SP2 and have an older
computer running XP Pro SP1 (I kept getting errors when trying to upgrade so
left it go.) The new computer is wired to the wireless router and I'm having
no problems accessing the internet. The old computer has a wireless NIC and
it's showing a connection to the wireless network and an excellent signal in
the adaptor, but I cannot connect to the internet and have a 169... IP
address. I have tried the Linksys and NetGear wizards, but both are unable
to connect properly to the network.

The new computer has Norton Internet Security installed and the old computer
had Zone Alarm, which I removed, and is running Avast as an anti-virus.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this networking problem? I have spent
so many hours on these issues and truly am ready to give up.

Thanks in advance for any help -
Rhonda

 

[Eric Renken]

I am not a big fan of the Norton Internet Security I have had problems.
Does the wireless card see the access point? You can download a program
like NetStumber from www.netstumbler.com if you can't tell from the wireless
card. You should be able to go into your Network connections right click on
your Wireless Network Connection (your wireless nic) and select View
Available Wireless Networks (SP2 only).

Are you positive your access point is acting as a DHCP server or do you have
something else on your network giving out DHCP addresses? What type of
access point/router and wireless device for your computer are you using? Do
you have security enabled on the wireless WEP or WPA? If you do you need to
make sure you have those setup on the wireless nic before it can get an IP.

 

[Guest]

Eric -

Thank you so much for your response. Yes, the wiress card sees the access
point and it is identifying the correct wireless network, even saying it's
connected at excellent strength. I re-entered the security code and made
sure the router was set as the DHCP server and both computers were set to
obtain DHCP automatically. I did make one mistake in my first post - my old
computer is running XP Home SP1, not Pro as I originally stated.
My access point is a Linsys WRT54GS Speed Booster Router and my NIC adapters
are NetGear USB2 adaptors.
My newest computer is hardwired to the router through the original PCI NIC,
and the old computer is using the NetGear adapter.

What I can't figure out is how the old computer is seeing the network, and
says that it is connected, but can't obtain an IP address. It has 169... and
I tried releasing and renewing, but when I release it comes right back with
the same IP and when I try to renew it times out. So I'm sure that I'm
unable to connect to the internet without a valid IP, and for some reason it
can't obtain the IP from the router, even though everything is set correctly
(as far as I know anyway.) And the problem I'm having is with the old
computer that as of right now has no firewall installed at all. The only
thing it has is Avast Antivirus. I was waiting to get the internet
connnection settled before installed NAV/NIS on that computer also.

Again - thanks for all of your help -
Rhonda

 

[Guest]

Try the Linksys KB. This is from Answer ID 582:

"Click on the Start menu and click on the Run option.
When the “Run†window appears, input cmd into the “Open†field.
When the “DOS Prompt†appears, input ipconfig /all and hit the [Enter] key.
If you have a “Auto Configuration†IP address
Check to make sure that you don’t have WEP enabled on your Access point. If
you do you’ll need to configure your adapter for WEP (see article Answer ID
749 for more information).
If WEP is not enabled on your Access Point, please see if WEP is enabled on
your Adapter (see article Answer ID 749 for more information).
If you have an IP address (If you have a Linksys router this would most
likely be 192.168.1.xxx)
Check in the “DNS Servers†area and see if you have anything in there, if
not, type in ipconfig /release and then restart your computer. Repeat the
steps 1 – 3 for checking the DNS again, if you still don’t have anything
then please see the article Answer ID 534 for information on setting up a
static IP address.
If you do see DNS, please see the article Answer ID 721 for information on
fixing the problem."

The Fixed IP address option has worked for me in the past to solve this
problem

 

[Chuck]

I am working on two separate networking issues at once and am ready to throw
all computers out the window. Chuck has been graciously helping me with my
wired problem at work, but this concerns my wireless LAN at home.

I recently purchased a new computer, running XP Pro SP2 and have an older
computer running XP Pro SP1 (I kept getting errors when trying to upgrade so
left it go.) The new computer is wired to the wireless router and I'm having
no problems accessing the internet. The old computer has a wireless NIC and
it's showing a connection to the wireless network and an excellent signal in
the adaptor, but I cannot connect to the internet and have a 169... IP
address. I have tried the Linksys and NetGear wizards, but both are unable
to connect properly to the network.

The new computer has Norton Internet Security installed and the old computer
had Zone Alarm, which I removed, and is running Avast as an anti-virus.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this networking problem? I have spent
so many hours on these issues and truly am ready to give up.

Thanks in advance for any help -
Rhonda

Rhonda,

The good news is that even with no firewall, the old computer is safe. It's
behind a NAT router, and until it successfully connects to the internet, nothing
can touch it.

The bad news is that in April, Microsoft will start forcing everybody to upgrade
Windows XP to SP2. Be prepared.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2aumng.mspx

Do you know that the NIC in the old computer is good? Do you have the latest
drivers for it? Is it showing a good signal, or a good signal to noise ratio?
If the former, it could be confusing signal with noise. Some wireless drivers
display signal level, when signal to noise would be a better thing to display.

Some folks here have had trouble getting DHCP settings with corrupt LSP /
Winsock, and have found resetting their LSP / Winsock helps.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=318584
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=811259

If XP RTM or Service Pack 1:
1. Backup and delete the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2
2. Reboot.
3. Open the network connections folder, right click your network connection, and
click Properties.
4. Click Install | Protocol | Add.
5. Click "Have Disk...", type "\windows\inf" in the box, and click OK.
6. Click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", then click OK.
7. Reboot.

Give LSP-Fix <http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm>, WinsockFix
<http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=257>, or WinsockXPFix
<http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html> a shot.

If no help yet, reset TCP/IP.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=299357

Start - Run - "cmd". Type "netsh int ip reset c:\netsh.txt" into the command
window.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

[snip]
The bad news is that in April, Microsoft will start forcing everybody to upgrade
Windows XP to SP2. Be prepared.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2aumng.mspx

I think that statement is a bit too strong, Chuck. I'd amend it as
follows:

In April, users who have enabled automatic updates (the recommended
setting) will have their systems automatically updated to SP2.

Microsoft won't be forcing anyone to do the upgrade. Users who select
any of these settings can refuse to install it:

Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them

Notify me but don't automatically download or install them

Turn off Automatic Updates
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
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