Connected with limited access.

I'll assume Windoze XP SP3.

There's your problem.

Yep. See ending comments.

Yes, but that's not your problem. Those sources of interference are also intermittent, which means you should have periods where things are working normally.

Yes. However, I would do it anyway.

Nope. However, there are a few mice that work at 2.4Ghz. It should say something on the mouse that it's a 2.4Ghz mouse. Even so, they don't create much of a problem.

Thanks for the almost complete description of the setup and symptoms. Your problem is WEP encryption. It has a nasty problem where the ASCII to Hex conversion is ummm.... rather creative. There are at least 3 different ways to convert the 13 character pass phrase into the 26 character Hex equivalent, all of which are mutually incompatible. In addition, WEP security is easily compromised and has been deemed obsolete.

I suggest you abandon WEP and switch to WPA2-AES PSK (pre-shared key). If the Actiontec 704-WG does not support WPA2, then try WPA encryption. Use a pass phrase with at least 20 characters to avoid a brute force attack. For the average home user, something like: ILikeSlimeyGreenToadsForDinner is probably sufficient. Yes, you will need to reconnect with the other computers that use your wireless network.

Also, to make the WEP to WPA transition painless, please change the SSID from Actiontec to something like: 1234 Yellow Brick Road or something recognizable. The idea is to help other isolate potential sources of interference. It also makes it easier for the other machines to connect since the original Actiontec SSID will not be seen. Therefore, the wireless client won't try to login with the old WEP pass phrase, and fail. With a new SSID, it will start from scratch.

Thanks, Jeff. Will absorb your note and get back to you. .

I am somewhat reluctant to contradict Jeff since I will almost inevitably get a good kicking in a minute:) - however I thought that "Connected with limited access" meant that - "Connected" - WEP OK and we have registered with the access point. "limited access" - in my experience usually DHCP failure so the interface reverts to 169.... IP address.

Easy to check with ipconfig from the command line. This one is working OK.

C:\\Users>ipconfig

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : mangled IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.7.3.132 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.128 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.7.3.129

You're in luck today. I'm in a hurry (actually in a panic) and don't have time to kick you into submission and agreement. Maybe another time.

"Connected with limited access" means that it did not get a DHCP assigned IP address from the router.

"Connected", in Microsoft lingo, means you have established wireless association (i.e. found the SSID) with a wireless router. It's a little like saying on a wired connection, that the plug was successfully inserted into the socket.

Once "connected" or more correctly "associated", the software will attempt a WEP/WPA encryption key exchange. If successful, it will move on to getting a DHCP address. If unsuccessful, it will retry for about 45 seconds, and then give up. Since Microsoft does not see fit to provide the user with connection progress information, the "limited access" error message merely means that something went wrong between the initial association and the deliver of the DHCP assigned IP address.

Incidentally, some clients, such as Intel Proset, do offer debugging, troubleshooting, and connection progress info. You can also fish the point of failure out of Windoze by enabling debugging, but I'm too rushed to find the URL right now.

This might also be useful: "Troubleshooting Microsoft Windows XP-based Wireless Networks in the Small Office or Home Office"

If it shows 169.254.xxx.xxx, then DHCP assignment was unsuccesful and the clients IP stack has assigned a fallback or default IP address.

connect via a wire, change your routers SSID to someting unique - ANNSROUTER or something - so you can be sure you're connecting to the right one.

I'm surprised it had any that made sense - generally its utterly useless.

Having made your SSID unique, I'd change the wireless channel to something different and try again. If there's lots of similar routers in your area, most likely they're all on the same channel and are polluting the heck out of your neighbourhood.

Yes.

no

NOTE: I am not ignoring you all. I am reading all the responses BUT I want to have all my eggs in row before I jump into making any changes because my other laptop /which works fine now / is in the middle of a critical time right now and I don't want to upset the apple card.

New questions

Can I use a Flash Drive to input the new setting from a XP hardwired to a VISTA laptop? I do know enough to write down all the new settings. Grin

Back to reading the Actiontec booklet.

Later Anne

~ >I am somewhat reluctant to contradict Jeff since I will ~ >almost inevitably get a good kicking in a minute:) - ~ >however I thought that "Connected with limited access" ~ >meant that - ~ >"Connected" - WEP OK and we have registered with the ~ > access point. ~ >"limited access" - in my experience usually DHCP failure ~ > so the interface reverts to 169.... IP address. ~ ~ You're in luck today. I'm in a hurry (actually in a panic) and don't ~ have time to kick you into submission and agreement. Maybe another ~ time. ~ ~ "Connected with limited access" means that it did not get a DHCP ~ assigned IP address from the router. ~ ~ "Connected", in Microsoft lingo, means you have established wireless ~ association (i.e. found the SSID) with a wireless router. It's a ~ little like saying on a wired connection, that the plug was ~ successfully inserted into the socket. ~ ~ Once "connected" or more correctly "associated", the software will ~ attempt a WEP/WPA encryption key exchange. If successful, it will ~ move on to getting a DHCP address. If unsuccessful, it will retry for ~ about 45 seconds, and then give up. Since Microsoft does not see fit ~ to provide the user with connection progress information, the "limited ~ access" error message merely means that something went wrong between ~ the initial association and the deliver of the DHCP assigned IP ~ address.

Actually, if doing static WEP with open authentication (which is the most common static WEP flavor), then, in the case where the client's and AP's WEP keys don't match, the client will be fully and stably associated to the AP, and the symptom will be that all transmissions between client and AP will have decrypt errors.

Thus, with a Windows client, you should indeed be "connected with limited access".

(As opposed to static WEP with shared key authentication, where the client will *not* associate if configured with the wrong key.)

Cheers,

Aaron