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New laptop, having trouble with WiFi

I've recently changed jobs and have a new laptop (Dell D620). When I try to connect to my home wireless network, I get a connection, but I cannot get an IP address. The little computer with the "roaming" dot runs for a while, and then it times out.

I tried this with a public wireless AP and it doesn't time out, but I never do get the IP address, DNS, etc. It just shows a successful connect and then nothing.

I've tried connecting to my home network with other devices, with no problems (have been doing this for several years, now). I have WEP enabled, but MAC filtering turned off. I'm positive I'm entering the correct WEP key.

OK, so maybe the built-in WiFi in the laptop is broken. So, I tried installing a Netgear PC Card (one that I've used many times with another laptop) with the latest drivers and software. Same result!

So, I'm thinking that maybe there is something in the way my new employer has the laptop setup. What could this possibly be? Before I go bugging our tech support (who will take away my laptop for several days while they determine if the machine is physically broken), I want to see if there are other things that might be the cause.

One thought is that the machine is "registered" to our company's domain. Would this prevent me from accessing outside networks? Control Panel, System, Computer Name. Under "Domain" is mylocaldomain.mycompany.com. Before I take drastic steps, could this possibly be it? I wouldn't think...

Any ideas?

I've been a WiFi user for several years, now. I've successfully setup several APs/routers, computers, laptop, PDAs, bridges, wireless printer servers, and a ReplayTV. But this one has me stumped.

I'm using XP SP2. Windows Firewall is off.

Thanks.

Reply to
Squeff
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It may sound silly untill you've seen it happen: Numlock enabled?

Reply to
Spete

On 18 Oct 2006 10:24:18 -0700, "Squeff" wrote in :

Probably security failure. Try connecting with *all* security disabled. When using WEP (bad idea -- use WPA instead), enter all keys in *hex*. This is covered in Fast Fixes below. ;)

Reply to
John Navas

I'll give it a shot. The reason I'm use WEP is because I need to connect from some devices (PDA) that simply do not have a WPA option. Wish it did, but it does not.

Reply to
Squeff

"Squeff" hath wroth:

Try again, this time using the Hexadecimal version of the WEP key instead of the ASCII version. There are problems with some products converting from ASCII to Hex. Hex always works.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

"Squeff" hath wroth:

Which PDA? The Funk Odessey client for various PDA's will support WPA-PSK etc. However, it's not free and needs to be licensed.

formatting link

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks, but I have a Sony TH55. PalmOS based, which does not appear to be supported.

Reply to
Squeff

Thanks, but my key is already in hex. In fact, it's a key that's the same in both ASCII and Hex.

Reply to
Squeff

Then hows it know to use hex instead of acsii?

Reply to
Peter Pan

"Squeff" hath wroth:

Impossible. The hex and ascii keys are different lengths.

Type of key Length (chars)

64 bit ASCII 5 54 bit Hex 10 128 bit ASCII 13 128 bit Hex 26

Your PEG-T55 is determining whether the key is Hex or ASCII by the length of the key, not by its contents. The key should be 10 or 26 characters long, which will always be Hex. If it's 5 or 13 characters long, it's always ASCII, no matter what characters you use.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thats impossible. You have an ASCII key which /looks/ like a hex key.

Reply to
Mark McIntyre

What I meant was....

My key is something like 1212121212. That's 10 digits. It's hex.

Reply to
Squeff

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Or, rather, I mean the exact opposite. I have a 10-digit key, containing only numbers between 1 and

  1. Unless you know the length that a hex key vs. an ASCII key should be, you'd have no way of knowing if the 10-digit number was in hex or decimal. Or ASCII.

To be clear, it's 10 digits. I believe that this makes it a hex key.

Reply to
Squeff

"Squeff" hath wroth:

OK, that's WEP64 in Hex and should work. So much for that theory and back to square one.

Could I trouble you to disclose the maker and model of the access point or wireless router to which you're trying to connect?

Since the unspecified model wireless router works with other wireless clients, I can presume that it's not defective. Are you *SURE* that you've disabled MAC filtering and IP filtering? The fact that the Netgear card and whatever is in the Dell D620 both do not work seems to point to a functioning MAC or IP filter. Try temporarily turning OFF encryption in the unspecified model wireless router and see if it works. If it does NOT work, then you probably have a MAC or IP filter enabled somewhere.

If you don't have a huge number of configuration tweaks and forwarded IP ports, you might wanna just punch the reset button and start over.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

My router is a NetGear WGT624.

As far as clients, I've tried the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility and NetGear's own. Neither have worked.

Yes, it works just fine from my ReplayTV (via NetGear Wireless Bridge), to my wireless print server (DLink), and my Clie TH55. Just tried all of these.

Anything's possible, but I double checked at the MAC filtering is off. No IP filtering.

Will be trying this next, however...

On my attempts tonight (with MAC filtering off, but WEP still on), I get the following:

It connects and I'm able to get an IP address. This is better than before (so I'm not sure what's different). I'm then able to get to a site (e.g.,

formatting link
albeit very slowly.

Then, the next site I go to, I get "Server Not Found." Then, if I wait a bit, I MIGHT be able to get to the site if I try again. Maybe.

Sometimes, I can't even get to the first site.

This is even weirder!

All the while, I'm told that I have a strong wirless connection (I'm 2 feet from the router).

If I try to connect to these sites from my desktop computer, they come up fast and without problems.

Will try disabling WEP and see if that helps. I'm scratching my head over this one, since it does work. Only sometimes.

Reply to
Squeff

Here's the update.

I retried the NetGear card, re-created the profile, and tried again with that. Works fine. So... I'm sure I make a mistake the first time through somewhere with that. As for the built-in... from my previous post, you can see that it's just plain weird. For now, I'm happy with the NetGear card. My guess is that the built-in has something wrong with it, or it's incompatible with my NetGear router.

Reply to
Squeff

"Squeff" hath wroth:

Sounds like a high wireless data error rate. What does your client computer say is the wireless connection speed?

You mentioned that the ethernet connected desktop works just fine. So, try this particular computer with a directly connected CAT5 cable. Windoze is smart enough to give the ethernet connection priority over the wireless, so you won't need to do any reconfiguration. If the direct connection works normally, then there's only one thing left that might be broken. That's the wireless section on the Netgear WGT624.

2 ft is a bit close. Try backing off just in case there's some overload issue causing the high error rate.

Well, I'm also mystified. I'm trying to go through the possible assumptions in case we missed something. I suggest you concentrate on the router. Turn OFF literally every enhancement and feature turning it into a very basic wireless router. That means turning off Super-G or Turbo-G (I forgot which one is used in the WGT624). Check your WGT624 firmware version to insure it's the latest. Turn off MAC filtering and such. Might as well turn off 802.11b compatibility. Leave RTS/CTS flow control and fragmentation at defaults. Check the log and status pages for any clues. If desperate, punch the reset button and start from scratch.

On the other side of the coin is the Dell D620. What manner of wireless miniPCI card is inside? If it's an Intel card, be sure to get the latest Proset drivers and utilities from the Intel web site: |

formatting link
Proset is much more better than Windoze Wireless Zero Config.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

On Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:31:26 -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

My advice is to save the router settings to disk (over a wired connection or a good wireless connection), make sure the latest firmware is installed, and hard reset the router. I've seen cases where everything looked OK in the web interface, but only a hard reset got the router solidly back in business.

Reply to
John Navas

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