GOD I HATE NETWORKING!!!!! ok, got that out...now for the problem. my girlfriends house has a wireless shared cable internet connection. and neither of our laptops will connect to it. although her bother's and mom's laptops work fine. Sarahs: Dell with dell PCMCIA wireless network card, worked fine for months, then it was at my house and my laptop wasn't working, so I installed PeoplePC (dial-up service) on it, and now it doesn't work. when you plug in the card, the card is detected, and the dell program recognizes the network signal. but in window's network connections page, nothing shows up. doesn't matter if I try to create one or not, nothing shows up there, I can't even get in far enough to enter the WEP key. also, the network icon doesn't show up in the system tray. this remains true if I plug it in directly to the router. Mine: old IBM thinkpad, Linksys PCMCIA wireless card, no linksys software installed, just driver. also worked fine for months. I don't think I changed any settings since it worked last. It connects to the network, windows icon shows up and says excellent connection. but it's not talking to it, no packets exchanged, cannot connect to anything in my browser. I have not had a chance to take it up to school to see if I can connect to the network there. If I go into the network status window, and click he support tab, the Address Type, IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway are all unknown. and I can't click the repair button. also, if I run ipconfig in the command prompt on either computer, it doesn't give anything, it just says "Windows IP Configuration" with no information below it. I tried making sure it had all the correct protocols installed and whatnot, but it all appears to be normal. I'm out of ideas....anyone?
Sarahs: in the windows wirless network properites under wireless networks check the box that says "use windows to configure my wireless network setting" Yours: is dhcp on? Router: is dhcp on?
What is your wireless router? I don't think it's DCHP since you can resolve IPs. If you plug directly into the router and it doesn't work, then I don't think it's your PCs at all, but the router itself. Can you access the router? Most of them you can by going to 192.168.0.1 and setup things. I work as a Technical Support Engineer for corporate firewalls, so I'm well versed with this crap
What OS's are they running? Since you are talking repair I am assuming XP home or pro or Win2k... It is possible that the peoplepc install messed with tcpip, hence your lack of info on the ipconfig. Easiest way to start is fresh, note all the stuff installed (protocols, and clients). Remove all of them, reboot and reinstall and reboot again. Then resetup the WEP connection. BTW which router is it?
1) the command is 'ipconfig /all' in the dos cmd window. That should give you the status of the NIC on each machine. 2) Configure the router first, with a cat5 plugged directly in to the router. Ensure dhcp is enabled, and the router is pulling an IP from the cable router. 3) Ensure the correct NIC drivers are installed for the wireless card(s) on each laptop, check with a working wireless connection. Keep in mind that some old wireless cards will not support new 128 WEP or WPA connections. I would NEVER reccomend any connection app. that comes with a network card. Use windows to manage your wireless (r-click on wireless card > properties > wireless network tab > check "use windows to configure my wireless network settings"). <== directions are for Windows XP. 4) Connect to wireless.
router works fine. the desktop is connected via a wire, and sarah's brother's and mom's computers both connect just fine. it's a linksys, wireless-G tried the /all command aswell....same result no driver change for the cards. the WEP key worked fine a month ago. I can't get to the wireless network properties on sarahs... what's dhcp? windows xp on all. media center on the desktop and bro's laptop, home on sarahs and her moms, and pro on mine. I uninstalled peoplepc from sarah's computer, with no result. and my computer used to work with peoplepc installed...
Do both of the workstations that do not work have external wireless cards? I understand that they used to work correctly, but do they still? Have you tested each machine on a working wireless network? Are both of the working machines connected via hardwire to the router, or is one using wireless (indicating that the router side wireless works)?
both laptops are connected wirelessly. although that's a good point, the 2 that work have internal cards, and the 2 that don't have PCMCIA cards. but despite that, both of them connect wirelessly, and work fine. so I've been assuming the router is fine.
How about the installs of the external cards? Have you reinstalled those/tested them with a working wireless? That might narrow down your problem..
Sarah's doesn't connect at school either. I haven't had a chance to try mine... haven't tried uninstalling/reinstalling...will try that this evening.
OK, I'm at school right now, and my laptop is working fine. don't know if this was the case at Sarah's place (specifically, I don't know how I didn't catch it...), but my TCP/IP internet protocol was disabled on this computer. I re-activated it, and it seems to be working fine now. DOH! Sarah's still won't connect, however. I re-installed the wireless card's driver, and now the wireless network connection shows up on the network connection page, but it won't detect anything. it's 6 inches from my laptop's wireless card and I'm sitting 4 feet from a signal booster in the student lounge, and it says nothing detected....
bump, just to make sure it wasn't the card, I installed my linksys one on her computer...same problem. installs fine, the wireless network shows up in my network places, but it won't detect anything. ipconfig /all says 'Media disconnected' among other things....
did you unistall the people connect software. it sounds kinda like sarahs problem started after that was installed. sometimes things make now sense. IE: my latop i can connect everywhere to a wireless network (school, friends, ect...) but never at home????
I did uninstall PeoplePC. tried that first, and it didn't help.... Sarah's doesn't detect a wireless network at her house (where my laptop shows 3 available), or at school...
wierd. well you know wifi is based off of magic. so don try to understand it when it works and when it doesnt. atleast that my theory. so i just use ethernet cable its fast anyway.
Sounds like the pcmcia controller on her machine is faulty. Either that, or the chipset drivers (drive all the integrated peripherals) aren't installed correctly or got corrupted.
You will probably need to cleanup your registry, or your tcp/ip protocol is hosed. First try these easy things. A few things to try, remove the wireless card, uninstall the linksys software completely. Re-insert the wireless card and see if windows detects the card and gives you an icon in the bottom right corner where you can right click the icon. If that icon for the wireless card is there, right click and go to "Open network connections" You should see your wireless card listed in the network connections. Over in the left box, click "create new connection" Click NEXT Select "Connect to the Internet" Select "Setup my connection manually" Select "Connect using a broadband connection that is always on" Select "Finish" If that doesn't work, go to your start button, type regedit hit enter when the registry console pops up, go to EDIT and select FIND type peoplepc and hit enter if you find entries for peoplepc in the registry pm me and i'll send you a nice little registry tool we use to cleanup unwanted items in the registry. This should take care of the problem. The other thing you can try is booting up in safe mode, (boot up the PC and start tapping the F8 button, a list of options will show up , select "Last known good configuration" and see if you can see a wireless net work that way.
yep, when I insert the card, the icon in the Tray does show up. I can click to open network connections, and the card does show up....now. I haven't tried creating a new connection since then though. I will try that again. I did try going to a previous configuration...and that didn't help. although I did it through the windows wizard, not by booting into safe mode.... I'll try the other things tomorrow.... Thanks a ton for helping out! you say the tcp/ip protocol could be hosed...could that be fixed by uninstalling and then installing it?
Certainly, uninstall then install Protocol>Microsoft Tcp/IP but I would try those others first. Have you tried running adaware to see if it picks up the peoplepc stuff? http://dw.com.com/redir?pid=1039960...://www.download.com/3001-8022_4-10399602.html
yep, adaware didn't pick up anything... and I do have some experience with the registry....I'll be careful.
Just make a quick backup of your entire registry, let me know if you want that program to cleanup your registry and ip tables
OK, finally got some time to work on it again. trying to add a connection didn't change anything... There are a few registry entries connected to PeoplePC. so I would like to clean it up. another strange thing. if I open the wireless network properties, and there is no "Wireless networks", or "Authentication" tabs.
And people wonder why I would rather use Linux/Unix than windows .. at least if something goes wrong, I know what I did to break it ... :hsugh: did you get this cleared up?
Ignore ^^^ Nathan. He had major winblows problems recently. Linux rules!!! FC6 here. Well and a few other running my servers. Sure hope you get that figured out Chux.
hahah you silly people... You got the gender wrong in that picture. I don't think the same thing holds true for girls who like unix ... but i have seen some pretty .. nasty looking unix girls ..
yea, if you're attracted to a chick who can make linux/unix work....you need help. I consider myself a bona fide computer geek and I can't make linux work and no, I didn't get this cleared up, that's why I bumped the thread :ugh: AND, I don't blame windows, I blame consumer-grade computers. my Thinkpad has been running Windows for years. Works awesome. 10 year old laptop carried in my backpack to school every school day for the 8 or so that I've had it. it works perfectly, dial-up, broadband, whatever. It never ran this good with any version of Linux that I've tried on it. anyway....anyone have any ideas?
I AM a chick who can make unix work.... but that's ok.... I don't have any new ideas as to why your card would not be working right now, the only idea I can come up with is what has already been said: that pplpc (which is sucktastic anyway) messed up some things with your registry, and that is why you're having trouble with this. I would also try the dhcp idea - but if that is not working then I don't know what to say. Did that guy ^^ ever send you the file to clean up your registry? I really think doing that would fix the problem, better yet, uninstall all the drivers, clean out the registry, and then reinstall the drivers! - it should work like a brand new card again. If that isn't working, then I will blame windows and be done with it ... or blame a faulty router. hmmmm ... Is there any chance (since someone mentioned that it doesn't have dhcp) that your router is not assigning IP addresses that way, but rather it knows which MAC addresses it should be recognizing, and that is why it's not working? (meaning, its already been programmed into the router manually by a tech, or by hand via some networking setup interface?)Has it worked in this location previously? it seems like this network has more security than the normal user would even need ... but I could be completely wrong too.
:bowdown: :bowdown: I've tried....unix just doesn't make sense to me No, I haven't gotten that registry clean-up tool yet, but I haven't pm'ed him yet... The problem isn't on the router side. There are 3 networks within range at her house, and I've taken it up to school too, and it won't even DETECT any of them. I open the 'view available wireless networks' page....and it says there aren't any, click refresh, and it doesn't even think about it. It's so weird, Because I'm running PeoplePC on my laptop, installed from the same CD, and it works fine. with either network card. yet Sarah's dell doesn't work at all, with either card. same symptoms either way.
With either one? Darn ... I was gonna suggest that I just give you a new pcmcia card, but if hers is not working with either card, then it's not the card's fault ... this *is* really strange, it's hard to figure out without seeing it
ISPs usually only allow 2 active IPs at a time. I don't know if anyone has addressed that already, I didn't read through the whole thing. Have one (or both) of the other pcs that can access the network shut down and see if the others can connect. I'd start there before getting any deeper into anything else.
has nothing to do with it. I can't get close enough for it to be an issue. the computer won't even detect a network, much less connect to it. Thanks Hallywood for that program....I got it, and ran it. but found no change. Here's the really strange part. I've got it to the point were I can access the wireless network properties window, but only half of it. Here's the one on my computer: and the one on hers: notice there is no 'Wireless network' tab. where I would find the 'Let windows configure my wireless network' checkbox....
Why does hers say "wireless network connection 2" ? :eek4: but yours is "wireless network connection" ? That's strange .. is that image from her pc?
huh....what do you know...you're right. could that be contributing to the problem? and yes, that image was from her computer. the name was just a default. not sure why it went to '2' but you can quickly and easily change the name....
