can't connect wireless pls help

[rdlaing]

My friend came over the other day with her laptop, and said Wow, you have a great high speed connection here. I told her I had dial up, and she showed me how she was accessing the net through a wireless internet connection. So I figured my neighbor must have this connection.

I called my neighbor and sure enough he has a wireless connection he and his house mate use. So I am going to pay a third and start accessing with my windows xp desktop.

I bought a Netgear 54 mbps wireless pci adaptor WG311 v2. And here my troubles began.

I installed the software from the disk and replaced my modem with the wireless adaptor. I ran the Network Connections wizard. Now a little wireless icon appears in the system tray and when I click it the Netgear software comes up.

It says “scanning” and cycles through 1-11 channels in red but finds nothing. Then briefly it found something and became green on channel 11, with a strong signal. But it didn't “stick” and just keeps cycling. Now it doesn't even find anything on channel 11.

The network connections icon – the two computers – just says that no networks are found. When I open control panel network connections, it shows my old modem connection disconnected, then under Network Bridge it shows Network Bridge MAC enabled, 1394 connection enabled, bridged, and then shows Wireless Connection 3 Wireless Connection unavailable. When I select “view available networks” it shows nothing available. I tried both 'ad hoc' and “infrastructure” networks.

I know there is a network here because my friend got onto it on her laptop easily. I thought that all I had to do was install the pci wireless card and it would find the network and I would be good to go. Sigh.

I am a complete newbie to wireless networking and have no freaking idea what is wrong. Do I need to uninstall 1394 or something? I tried all kinds of different settings in a futile attempt at problem solving through brute force.

Help.

thanks

--rd

[Stuey]

I have a few theories. Now, was your friend able to access web pages through the wireless connection, or could she only detect it?

If she could only detect it, here are some possible explanations:

My 802.11b wireless router can enable the following protections:

Mac address restriction where you can list only the hardware devices you approve access to.

WEP security in which each wireless device must connect using a specific "key", or password.

SSID broadcast. A wireless connection is named, and if this name is broadcast, it can be seen by compatible wireless devices. If it is not broadcasted, then it is invisible unless each wireless device attempts to look for the specified SSID.

If your friend was able to detect and access their wireless network, then perhaps it is operating on a standard that your wirelss card is not compatible with.

It might also be a matter or router settings or your wireless card settings. Or there can be anomolous issues. For example, I tried the other night to connect my sister's laptop to my parent's wireless connection. She shares a connection with her friend at school who provided her with a linksys 802.11b card (version 2). I tried and tried but could not connect her laptop wirelessly to the router. It could detect the router correctly but could not access the internet. I have the same wireless adapter for my overused to a crisp laptop, except it's version 3. Five minutes later, I had her computer online.

You will definitely want your neighbors to help you connect to their router. If it still doesn't work, perhaps the range degrades the signal too much. At the very least, if all else fails, the situation is appropriate for a call to netgear's customer service.

Hope this helps,

~Stu~

[rdlaing]

no, my friend was able to connect thru her laptop in my house and surf and download pages and use the web with that connection. that is what is puzzling me.

Right now the netgear icon on the system tray is green. It says it has found a 11mbps connection, which i assume is the connection my friend surfed with. however the network icon in the tray has an 'x' on it and I can't figure out how to configure or whatever to use the connection.

also when i open Network Connections it says 'Network Bridge' and I have no idea what this means.

thanks for your help

-- will

[Stuey]

Well, I checked Netgear's user's manual , but it didn't prove to useful since I'm not directly experiencing your problem. However, it may pay worthwhile to head over here and download the newest drivers for your device.

A network bridge connects two or more computers together to create a local area network in the absence of a router.

Unfortunately I do not know enough about networking, let alone wireless networking to be of much assistance.

In the start menu, hit 'run'. Type in 'cmd' and then after the command prompt starts up, type 'ipconfig'. This is the easiest way to determine if something is wrong. With my linksys router, if my computer is properly connected, it says 192.168.1.xxx. I believe that you should see something similar. (After you make any modifications to the wireless settings, check for an IP.) Once you're assigned an IP, then you should be able to access the connection.

By the way, are you running windows XP, or a previous version of windows? In either case, you might benefit from calling up Netgear's customer service. I can almost guarantee that you are not the first to experience this problem.

Good luck

[rdlaing]

i ran ipconfig. there are a bunch of ip addresses but the one after dns suffix for each is blank.

yes I am running xp.

I am trying to use a wireless card to get onto my neighbor's wireless router for his internet connection. my friend did this the other day no problem with her laptop, like going into an internet cafe with wifi or whatever. i am completely puzzled why this is so difficult to pull off.

netgear wants to charge me $ for support.

i will try to download the new version, there is something it says about windows sp2 compatibility. that is a good suggestion, thanks.

-- will

[Stuey]

Originally Posted by rdlaing i ran ipconfig. there are a bunch of ip addresses but the one after dns suffix for each is blank.

I don't understand what you mean by this. There shouldn't be more than one ip address. I suppose if you were connected to several internet connections at once, but is that even possible?

ipconfig looks like this on my system:


Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1


Again, there are three things that in my experience have gone wrong with wireless connections.

1: Security settings do not match. Since your friend was able to connect, this is not an issue.
2: Wi-fi settings are incorrect.
3: Router and wi-fi adapter are incompatible.

I do not know the remedy for the 3rd case. Ask your neighbors what brand the router is. If it's not too late maybe you can return the PCI card for a model of the same brand as the router. Perhaps a linksys or d-link PCI card or USB 2.0 card will yield better results.
If your wi-fi settings aren't correct then there are many places online including here that you can look for help. Windows should have found the wireless signal and connected right away. I know this may sound silly, but have you rebooted since you initially configured the wireless card? If the icon in the system tray is green, then maybe rebooting is all that is needed?

In network connections, right click on the wireless connection and click 'show icon in notification area when connected'. There should be a little computer icon next to the system clock on the bottom right hand of the screen. From here, click on view abailable wireless connections. If nothing is listed then your adapter isn't finding anything. If you see a connection then you should be able to connect unless a setting is wrongfully configured. If your computer recognizes a connection, right click the icon and hit 'status'. It should show you input and output activity. If packets are sent but not received, then there is no two way communication between adapter and router. (From the status display, you can easily get to the wireless connections and the adapter properties).

I don't think I can offer anything else of value at this time. Microsoft's website might be able to assist you with wireless configuration settings and what the different options mean.

[glc]

Wireless reception in a different house is going to be iffy at best. You may need a high gain directional antenna for your adapter, aimed at the router.

You did not run the network wizard correctly - that's why you wound up with the bridge. You need to choose one of these 3 I believe - connect to the Internet directly, through a hub, or through a residential gateway. You are NOT connecting through another computer or sharing your connection. I never use the wizard, I just set the TCP/IP on the adapter to obtain IP address automatically. Remove the bridge and disable the 1394 connection.

[rdlaing]

thanks for the suggestions, all.

i donwloaded and reinstalled the latest drivers but no help. after fiddling with settings it is now giving me a connection and a mac address and 100% strength. the icon is green.

We are actually all in the same building, just different apartments. My friend connected with her laptop no problem. the other apartment is about 8-15' away through one or 2 walls.

I have disabled the 1394 connection in network connections, it now says Disabled.

yes I have rebooted, good suggestion.

I re-ran the wizard and no longer have a network bridge. Now it says Dial Up and my modem (which i am using to get to pc mech) and then Lan/Hi-Speed it says 1394 disconnected and Wireless Connection 4 Wireless connection unavailable.

ic config looks like this:

ppp adapter rcn
connection-specific dns suffix:
ip address 12.23.23.23.
subnet mask 12.324.23.234.2
default gatemway 123 232 32323

ethernet adapter wireless gateway 4
media state disconnected

I have the dial up ppp still installed just so I can reach pcmech, but this problem was the same when I disabled it. i will try this again though.

please keep the suggestions coming and I will keep trying on my end.

thanks a lot, pcmech is a lifesaver.

-- rd

[rdlaing]

still not working...

when I ran the Network Connection Wizard, it said that the netgear wireless card was disconnected. Which is very strange because the icon is right there glowing green.

It's as if the netgear installed but is not talking to the networking service in xp or something. very strange.

if anyone can give me a hand with this I would appreciate it. I am going to consider returning the card to CompUsa and try a new card and see what happens.

thanks for the help!

--rd

[glc]

Are you trying to configure the wireless using the Netgear utility, or using Windows?

The wireless I've done with XP SP2 is very simple, it's all done by Windows. The balloon usually pops up saying that one or more wireless networks are within range, click here to connect - and it brings up a list of available networks. Highlight the one you want and click the connect button, and if there's a security key needed, it will ask you for the key. You do NOT need the Netgear utility running and you do NOT need to run the %$#&^% wizard, all you need is TCP/IP on the wireless connection. All you are doing by running the wizard is adding more inactive wireless connections to the registry.

[rdlaing]

thanks glc you may be on to something.

when I install the netgear card it says something like " to use the netgear utility instead of windows click this." I tried both ways, using windows and using the netgear software and both don't work. When I click under properties "use windows to configure" 2 of the tabs disappear under the netgear software, but windows still says disconnected and does not find any available network.

it says 'wireless connection 4' under the network connections, which does mean that the previous installs / configurations are still there in the registry. this might be screwing things up?

right now it says the wireless card is disconnected and it doesn't show any networks available in the windows balloon.

how do I make sure tc/icp is enabled on the wireless connection? I have searched around in all the properties, etc and I think it is enabled.

Is there a way that I can remove everything from the registry, un-install everything and start from scratch -- with a new card? this is really frustrating, because yes, it is supposed to be 1-2-3 easy to access via a wireless connection.

Unless someone has some solution for this, I think I am going to return the card and start with a different card. My concern is that I totally uninstall all of the previous configurations from the registry/etc so that they don't interfere when I try this again. (Unfortunately I don't have System Restore enabled on this machine.)

I did by the way try to just plug the card in, not install the netgear software, and then boot the computer and see if it would find an available network, but this did not seem to work.

thanks everyone for your help on this, this is frustrating me a lot.

-- rd

[glc]

Right click on the wireless connection and select Properties. The TCP/IP box should be checked, its properties should show obtain an IP address automatically. Using Windows and not Netgear, if there's nothing showing in range, there's a driver or card issue. You can TRY right clicking on the connection and selecting Repair.

What brand and model is your neighbor's router?

[Stuey]

There still exists the fact that the card might not be compatible with their router. If their router has an 11mbps transmission, it could be at least two years old. I mentioned my problem with an older adapter and a newer router. perhaps there lies a problem with your new adapter and their old router.

I honestly think that you should flip off your adapter and try a different brand/model. I just too a look at the linksys customer support page and they have live-chat assistance. So that's an alternative to Netgear's pay for customer service policy that you mentioned. I suppose that D-link and Belkin might have decent customer service departments as well. But of course if you go back to compusa, let's hope that 2nd time's a charm.

~STU~

[glc]

Forget Belkin - you will have better luck with Linksys or D-Link. They both offer live toll free phone support, but they aren't too friendly about helping you connect to a different brand router.

[rdlaing]

Ok so I replaced the netgear card with a linksys card.

installation was easy and the windows wireless configurator recognizes the card etc.

however, now it is behaving as if there is no network available!

Since my friend was able to get onto the network from my house with no problem whatsoever, I can only conclude one of two things:

this brand of card is too weak to pick up the same network signal that my friend's laptop card picked up.

I didn't install it right or something.

Does anyone think my first conclusion could be possible -- that the linksys card isn't powerful enough to pick up a signal that the laptop card got no problem? (the netgear card found a signal too, but seemed to drop it sometime and I never was able to connect).

Suggestions?

THANKS

--rd

[foolishone]

Feel free to dismiss it immediately if it has been asked/checked.

Are sure that on the router end it is not denying you. They have allowed another user to connect, put your MAC address in the routing table ( if used ). Maybe they disable wireless broadcast since your friend got through. Did they tell you the SSID to look for, the subnet they use, ip numbering that they use? Do they have logs set up, can they check to see if they router has been sent anything from you? Can you ping the router? I don't think channel wise anything is wrong. Maybe they have chose to disable either B or G cards, and only except one or the other? (My Linksys has that option.) I wonder if the router can, what's it called, tracroute or something your computer? Are you try to connect with an IP that is not in the allowed range, or are you receiving it via DHCP?

Heck are you sure that it is their network and not some other guys network in some other room?

^fo

[glc]

Quit buying cards till you find out what kind of router they have and how it's set up.

[Stuey]

At this point, I'm running out of ideas. Ask your neighbors to help you since they had to do it on at least one of their computers. Another far far fetched theory is that there are two wireless connections hitting your apartment and after your friend connected to one, they realized it and secured the transmission.

But yea, the best thing to do is to enlist their help. They shouldn't mind since you're gonna be saving them some money.

[rdlaing]

thanks everyone, good and intriguing suggestions. (I like what Stuey83 says about the possibility that it was someone else's network that is now secured up!)

I called my neighbor to get the router info and should hear back from him soon. I am also thinking of asking my friend to bring her laptop over again so I can get info on the network she it tapping into and how she is is set up.

--rd

[Stuey]

No Problem. Let us know how it turns out.

~STU~

[rdlaing]

i still can't find their network.

the network notification icon appears in the system tray with an X on it; when i click it it shows no available networks.

is there any chance my friend's laptop has a better wireless card, and my card is just out of range?

is there any other configuration I should do?

are there any services that might be disabled or something that could prevent finding a network? I looked through all the services and they are all manual or automatic except for a couple that are unrelated to this (performance logs, secondary log ons).

I am puzzled. Truly puzzled.

Under configure for the card there is a section for ssid. I tried to put a random # in, then switched it back to what it was to begin with, blank, but now it says "the value must not be blank." Hmmm.

--rd

[glc]

You are wasting your time till you talk to your neighbors as I already indicated. You need their SSID and any encryption key - and the model of their router would really help here.

You do realize that your own high speed Internet would be almost as cheap as your dialup account, right?

[rdlaing]

Dialup costs me $14/month; my share in three way split of hispeed will be $12, so that is why I'm doing it, can't afford not to really (have to figure in cost of wireless card though).

Here is my NEW mystery:

Just now I fired up the comp and the wireless notification icon tells me Signal Strength Very Good! It found a connection! It says connected. 11 mbps, lots of green lights.

But get this: I can't get onto the internet with the connection!

I can get on with dialup fine, but when I disable dialup it says it is sending packets but receiving zero. I tried disabling Zone Alarm, no good.

Any suggestions? I think I am getting closer, but this is ridiculous. I have to solve the mystery as to why the connection suddenly appeared (perhaps my neighbors have been stupidly turning off their router? Perhaps there is some intermittent emf interference?). I will call them tomorrow and see if anything is different.

Any suggestions as to why I can't surf the web even if my wireless connection says connected at 11mbps?

thanks!
--rd

[Stuey]

Check that you have been assigned an IP address. Perhaps their router assigns static IPs instead of dynamic IPs, and your computer is setup to be assigned an IP, or the reverse can be true.

Don't worry; once this works, it'll have been worth thr trouble.

[rdlaing]

stuey, can you explain? I don't know what you mean. My neighbor is not sure how to get into the router settings.

do i run ipconfig or something?
thanks for help
--rd

[Stuey]

The router settings can usually be found by typing in an IP address such as 192.168.1.1 . That might shed some light onto the situation, or it may not. I'm sorry that I'm not much of a help, perhaps more people will see this thread and apply their know-how.

The most likely cause of your problem stems from either the router settings or your network configuration, there's no way I can tell from here.

[dtro]

As GLC stated, you need to find out about that signal coming from the router. You need to know what kind of security they are using. If there is no security, you should be able to click your windows utility and it should list available network(s) and simply connect.
Actually if you ARE connected, you can access the router yourself although making any changes over a wireless connection is NOT recommended and probably not very ethical.

It always amazes me that people unknowing just broadcast there network to Joe Blow.

[Stuey]

They can't have any wireless security enabled b/c rdlaing's friend was able to access their wireless connection and access the internet w/o entering any security information, or even the SSID. So from that information, it's safe to say that their wireless connection was and still could be w/o any security measures at place.

[dtro]

^^^ that makes sense.

and I bet that router still has the default password.

[rdlaing]

Ok folks, I got this to work!

Thanks to Linksys technical support. I called them 4 times and they were prompt and helpful each time.

Here is the deal: my neighbor had to go into his router to change the channel setting from xxxx ghz to yyyy ghz or something. That helped deal with some kind of emf or radio interference we are getting.

Sounds simple now, but it took a while to figure out!

Because the router is next door and not in the same apartment as me, I couldn't do trial and error on the router settings. It took the support person telling me exactly what to have my neighbor do, then calling them and tellign them to do it.

Thanks to everyone who helped me with this.

Now I'm going to learn how to set up security on this network.

--rd