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Inspiron 5160 wireless to Linksys BEFW11S4 v2 router

I was working on this in another thread on alt.internet.wireless, and I thought I'd retitle it based on what I've learned, in the hopes someone will notice with an answer:

I just got a Dell Inspiron 5160 with a Dell Wireless 1350 mini-PCI wireless card built in. It will not exchange network traffic with my Linksys BEFW11S4 v2 router. Changing the channel on the router has no effect, but this isn't an interference issue anyhow. Keep reading. :)

The router has the latest firmware and has had my old laptop with an Orinoco Gold wireless card connect to it successfull and consistently for two years, and also has a Tivo with a D-Link wireless dongle connecting to it successfully for a few months now. So the router works.

The laptop has the most recent drivers for the wireless card. It also has connected to an unsecured 802.11g router elsewhere in my apartment building, as well as an 802.11b hotspot at a bookstore up the road. So the wireless card works.

They just don't work together. Seeing as the router is a v2, and Linksys has put out a v3 and a v3.2 model since, I'm willing to accept this as a possible plain-ol' incompatibility. But before I run out and buy a new router, I'd like some kind of confirmation.

Dell and Linksys's respective tech supports, as you might expect, were worthless.

So I'm asking: has anyone seen this particular incompatibility? Has anyone seen anything LIKE this particular incompatibility?

Reply to
Chris Lemon
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Are you using any security? Wep, Wpa? If so have you tried with default settings?

Download a protocol analyzer such as ethereal and install it on you laptop. Click start a capture (Note: you will probably have to uncheck "Captrue Packets in promiscuous mode". Turn off the Linksys, then turn it back on. You will be able to see any communication between the two. You may not see the authentication, but look for an association packet and response, IP addresses etc. At least you will know whats going on.

From the ethereal download you need the setup file and the winPcap 3.0. It is best to ftp it to you in binary mode.

Reply to
Airhead

Broadcast SSID and check that there is no MAC address security that you forgot about.

Q
Reply to
Quaoar

No, checked that, and checked again right now for good measure: never touched MAC filtering. I thought of that early on. And I leave SSID turned on. (Bad idea, I know, but I figure, with a WEP key, if someone else in my apartment complex wants to know I exist, let 'em.). I SWEAR I haven't fiddled with any weird settings. The MOST I've ever done was to set up DHCP and turn on WEP.

I AM able to get a connection, sometimes, on Channel 1, but the throughput is pitiful, maybe 3K/second, despite adequate S/N numbers. And that's the same regardless of WEP settings. I've tried it with WEP off, on, 64-bit,

128-bit, it's all the same.

And no matter what I do, when configured for whatever WEP setting I'm testing at the time, the other laptop with the other card is working fine. It is NOT the router, in and of itself.

Reply to
Chris Lemon

i suggest updating the firmware in your linksys router. having done that then reset it to factory defaults and start from scratch. first establish communications and then introduce security. keep in mind that you have a wired network port in your laptop that can come in handy when trying to configure the router.

Reply to
Christopher Muto

Unplug the router. Press and hold the reset button on the back while you plug it in and keep it held in for 40 seconds.

This will reset it to factory defaults. At least then you'll KNOW you haven't changed anything.

Reply to
Tom Scales

Yeah, I don't think it will matter, but in the absence of any better ideas and faced with buying and configuring a new router ANYHOW, it can't hurt to try it, so I will give that a shot this weekend.

I'm also tempted to restage the Dell to the way it was configured when I got it from the factory, again, just to be SURE (since I haven't taken the time to configure it for my use yet, I've been struggling with this), but I'm not sure there's a clean way to do that...the cd's that came with are all install CD's, and I'm not sure if the initial drive image is on a seperate partition on the hard drive...if there is, that's worth a go, too.

Reply to
Chris Lemon

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