Calling any and all Wireless Networking God(esses)

General Discussion (off topic) Anything and everyt
#1

I’ll cut straight to the chase, here’s my dilemma.

A few days ago I started an internship and in the process of trying to connect to their printers I accidentally set up a network with them (I’m assuming). Anyway, I come home and my wireless connection (through a router) is not working. Keeps on giving me that limited/no network connectivity error. I realize I made a mistake and so I perform a system restore. That temporarily fixes it, except for that since I restored it before the last Comodo update, Comodo reinstalled itself (I’m fine with this, and I doubt the firewall has anything to do with my problems, just part of the story). Anyway, come back again today and my wireless isn’t working again. Bah Humbug. This time I attempt the restore trick and I get nothing.

Here’s where it gets interesting. At my internship site I can get wireless and wired connections. At home, like I said, I get nothing. I tried a bunch of techniques I know, I reset winsock, tried the repair function, disabled then enabled wireless, restarted my router, turned it off for a few minutes then on, I get nothing. SoI figured I messed something up pretty bad so I formatted. I know, large step for such a small problem, but I’m me.

Much to my amazement and disappointment, after reinstalling the wireless driver I still GET NOTHING. Interestingly, I can connect just fine to a random weak connection from a neighbors house. It’s my own network connection that s giving me heck.

I’m sure the WEP password is right as I’ve copied and pasted and also manually entered. It’s a default connection straight from reinstall so I didn’t change any settings. A reset of wireless zero network config from the services menu did nothing. I’m at a loss as to whats happening here. Previously, in my 4 or 5 formats on this same computer (yes, I know I’m nuts) the default settings were fine. Now they are to, just not for what I need them for (connecting me to my neighbors, not my own connection).

I’ve narrowed it down, I think, to a problem with the computer. I just don’t know what. My router and its settings must be fine as I’m currently connected via it to the internet on a laptop I have running Linux. So I figure its the computer (but where?). I’m capable of connecting to unsecured wireless network, not my secured one on default settings which in the past were fine.I’m also capable of connecting via wired ethernet.

Does anyone have any ideas? I’m awaiting anxiously. What the heck did I ■■■■■ up this time?

I’m running an Lenovo R60 on windows xp pro sp2 (not updated, no connection to internet to update it). Absolutely no security software installed (actually nothing installed). Just a base xp pro sp2 install. If it’s worth mentioning, before my format it was pretty updated etc. I downloaded this driver: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200bg, 2915abg, 3945bg, 3945abg, 4965ag, 4965agn Mini PCI adapter from the Lenovo site, also the same one I’ve always chosen. I also installed this one for the heck of it all: ThinkPad 802.11a/b/g/n, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter

Let me know if you need any other info from me.

Thanks for any potential assistance anyone can provide.

Dave

#2

A few questions while you are waiting for the God(esses) to descend. Do you know what rules were set up for your printer network? Wondering if a new IP address for that router was involved and fixed up your LAN rules? When you formatted, what did you reinstall afterward? An image or the default system? To make DHCP work and get an IP address, you need to allow UDP traffic in and out between your port 68 and the router port 67, so a block and log at the end of WOS to see if anything is happening might help.
If you are getting the WEP in without an error message and get a connected to reponse, that should be OK.
There is an error in XP SP2 that won’t turn off the “waiting for address” message, but you say you are actually not getting an IP-do you get a local IP instead (like 169.xx.xx.xx), which should happen if you are not being served by DHCP.
Have you looked at your NIC setup? Try assigning your own IP address on the same subnet as your router, netmask 255.255.255.0, default gateway your router address.

Good luck with the God(esses) :wink: I am using Vista, so can’t really remember much about how all this stuff worked with XP.

#3

I can’t tell you how to fix the problem, but once after doing some routine pc maintenance I also got the limited connectivity thing. I had no place else to cnnect from and had to let the professionals at it to get the problem fixed, but they told me that my tcp/ip settings had gotten corrupted somehow. So I would recommend looking into that.

#4

Hey Sded, Tormod, thanks for the responses. Let’s see if I can take these one by one.

I can't tell you how to fix the problem, but once after doing some routine pc maintenance I also got the limited connectivity thing. I had no place else to cnnect from and had to let the professionals at it to get the problem fixed, but they told me that my tcp/ip settings had gotten corrupted somehow. So I would recommend looking into that.

Appreciate your response but the professionals around where I live aren’t exactly professionals. They’ve ■■■■■■■ more things up for me than they have fixed and just want my money (which I don’t have much of these days). So they’re out of the question.

Do you know what rules were set up for your printer network?
I didn't actually end up setting a network for printer so there were no rules. I used the windows printer setup and did it that way.
Wondering if a new IP address for that router was involved and fixed up your LAN rules?

I doubt it, the only way I can connect to the printers is via ethernet. But maybe. Even so, shouldn’t a format take care of that?

When you formatted, what did you reinstall afterward? An image or the default system?

When I formatted I installed the default system. First my original xp home, then upgraded to xp pro. I’ve always done it like this with no problems. After install the only other thing I put in was the wireless driver from IBM. Everything else was stock, if you will. I just upgraded to XP SP3 via Ethernet at work. And yes, my wireless at work still can connect to the internet just fine.

To make DHCP work and get an IP address, you need to allow UDP traffic in and out between your port 68 and the router port 67, so a block and log at the end of WOS to see if anything is happening might help.

I have no firewall right now except for the Windows one. I haven’t installed Comodo Firewall (though maybe I should get around to it) so nothing should be blocking those ports, right?
In any case, the routers port must be open because three other computers in the house are working with no problems through it. What’s a block and log at the end of WOS… I think you got me there.

There is an error in XP SP2 that won't turn off the "waiting for address" message, but you say you are actually not getting an IP-do you get a local IP instead (like 169.xx.xx.xx), which should happen if you are not being served by DHCP. Have you looked at your NIC setup? Try assigning your own IP address on the same subnet as your router, netmask 255.255.255.0, default gateway your router address.

I’ve gotten that error plenty of times that says “waiting for address” when I’m actually connected. And formatted at least once before I learned to live with it. You are right, I don’t think I am getting an IP. I think DHCP is setup automatically (if you’re saying this is the problem that its not setting up automatically then no, I don’t think I do get an IP).

I haven’t looked at NIC setup, mainly because I’m nowhere near that technical. I can attempt to assign my own IP. We’ll see I guess.

Thanks for the help!

Any other tips?

#5

To set up your NIC-go to network connections (whatever it’s called in XP), right click on your NIC and select “properties” to see what you are using on the network. There should be an entry for TCP/IP V4 and a bunch of other stuff that normally doesn’t matter. Right click on tcp/ip, select properties again and you should get a popup that says to select your IP automatically, select DNS servers automatically (both from your router). You can put in your own LAN IP there, along with the netmask and gateway/router address. For example, if your router is at 192.168.1.1, you should be able to use something like 192.168.1.15/255.255.255.0 with gateway 192.168.1.1. For DNS servers, you can use 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 to see if things will work.
Another thing to try is turning off WEP at the router and see if you can connect then. If you have WPA, using that seems to have fewer connection problems.

#6

Thanks for the tips. Turns out I knew where NIC was without knowing what it was :slight_smile: I’ll check that stuff out tonight when I get home from work and get back here as soon as I can. This is just an unbelievable stroke of bad luck.

Thanks again
Dave

#7

Ok, lets add to the mystery.

My sister has an IBM also from our school just like mine. A model lower than mine (R59) I think. She’s having the exact same problems connecting that started at approximately the same time.

What gives?

EDIT

Ok, so lets recap. Linux computer still works with wireless.

Windows computer does not. Sisters windows computer does not.

Anyway, I rebooted the main machine again and the router and now both Windows PC’s work fine.

PLEASE SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS!!! How did the PC with Linux continue to work when two computers running Windows on exact same network failed to work. With a reboot of the main machine they all work. What happened? What glitch? Where? I’m flabbergasted and curious. The fact that its fixed is not good enough, I want to know why and I’m contemplating attempting to break it to find out… please help stop the madness…

Dave