Simviation Forums

Okay I've come up against an odd one and I've not got a clue on it. My friend wants a wireless LAN at home. The main PC is connected to the internet by cable and has no problems. However the laptop (which does work in other WLAN areas) is connecting on start-up but is unable to use the net whatsoever.
Both machines run XP and the wireless router is a Barricade, any ideas?

Make sure you configure the connection with the correct passphrase and Network name.

Try turning off any firewalls that is a common problem.

tried all that. I've never made a WLAN before so I'm mystified....

Do on the command prompt:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Check on the network connections if the laptop has an static IP.

Make sure the routers wireless is not password protected by default.

Disable the hardwire adapter on the laptop and leave only the wireless

Just things to check.

Tried all that Dan. I'm mystified by this problem. I think I'll just start thumping things as that normally works

What happens is you hard wire the laptop to the router? Just want to see if it is able to connect like that, if so. Check out the network adapters (right click My Computer/properties/hardware/device manager) see if one of them has an x or a question mark next to them, you may want to disable from there the hardwire ones, or update the wireless ones.

Other than that no idea man

If I connect it to the router directly then there are no problems. I'll go back tomorrow once I've finished re-reading Wireless Networking For The Mentally Subnormal If I had a brain I'd be dangerous

If you are trying to get to the net and network the computers too, use the XP home network setup wizard on the main machine and as it asks questions, tell it to use OTHER and then select that you connect to the internet through a router. Once that wizard runs it will ask you to make a floppy, have it do so. Then take the floppy and put it in the other machine and run the the exe on the floppy. You have to reboot the machines after it runs.

If that does not get it connected I would suspect a wireless hardware problem. Possibly a conflict between the Windows wireless configuration utility and the one the wireless card may have installed. Had that happen on my new motherboard. I had to disable the one that came with the card and enable the Windows wireless configuration tool, then let it find the router and sign in.

If it dont find the router in the windows wireless configuration utility then I think it would be a transmission or recieve problem. Make sure the router is set up to use DNS automatically or it wont assign an IP to the wireless connection it connects to and you have to do that manually if not in auto DNS mode. I think its DNS, I get confused sometimes with all the different network abrivs. I think the router also has to be set to the same transmission protocol as the card too, aty least thats how it worked here when I played with it.

I learned alot about all this wireless junk in the last month