Perhaps someone can help? My laptop won't connect to the Internet through my home wireless network, even though other PCs do.
Here's the setup: One computer, running WinXP Home, connects directly to the Internet through a USB modem with Internet Connection Sharing enabled. It also connects (using a powerline network) to a Dlink Access Point. The computer is set to be the DHCP server -- I think that *has* to be the case under Windows XP in this configuration, though I may be wrong.
Other desktops have Dlink wireless cards, also run WinXP home. They get IP addresses from the DHCP Server/ISC computer and access the Internet without a problem.
The laptop runs WinXP Pro and has a Netgear PCMCIA card. It doesn't receive an IP address and reports that connection to the wireless network is "limited" -- this even though the laptop and access point are within several feet of one another. If I manually set the IP address, it reports "excellent" connection to the network. But it doesn't find any web pages, and can't even open the access point's maintenance screen. This problem occurs even when I turn off Windows Firewall on both the laptop and the ISC computer.
Can anyone explain what's going on, please? I've spent hours fiddling and getting nowhere.