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Coffee shop wifi will not give me IP address, but gives everyone else IP address. But static IP works!

I'm sitting here in my favorite coffee shop, noticing people working around me with their laptops. They're all connected to the internet. I have a Dell M90, with a Dell Wireless 1490 Dual B and WLAN Mini-Card (Microsoft's Packet Scheduler), Windows XP SP2. I set up my connection using all the defaults -- WPA-Personal (PSK).

Anyway, terrific signal strength, I have the password, the network ID is broadcast. BUT - the router refuses to give me -- and only me -- an IP address. With Ethereal/Wireshark in promiscuous mode, I can see packets flying all over the place on my adapter. I can see my computer sending "DHCP Discover" packets every 3 seconds. But the router NEVER sends a packet in reply. Nobody else here is at all sophisticated -- they're using the default OS wifi settings, DHCP, etc.

However, if I set my IP address to a static address, I can use their network just fine. Everything's peachy.

What the heck? This is a new coffee shop, new router equipment, my laptop is new -- why would they refuse me (or my NIC type, or god knows what category they might be using)? I tried every other combination of wifi settings, to no avail.

Nothing works. Help!

Reply to
Jennifer R
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Jennifer R hath wroth:

Well, I'll assume that your M90 connects to other wireless access points correctly.

Does the coffee shop really use WPA-PSK encryption? Very very few coffee shops and public hot spots use encryption. Are you sure that "password" you're using is for WPA-PSK, or might it be for a login splash screen once you're connected?

If you wanna double check, try this DHCP test tool:

If you get a DCHP offer as a reply, then there's something screwy with your XP IP stack. I've seen DHCP failures with XP that I could not fix. However, it was where all DHCP would not work with any wired or wireless router (and required a registry cleaned to fix). This seems different. I've also seen VPN shims and failed spyware removals mess up the DHCP client. However, again it should fail with all wired and wireless connections, not just one, and apparently that's not the case here. Weird.

Any clue what they're using for a wireless router? Deploying new routers, with antique firmware seems to be a common practice. Methinks this is the most likely culprit.

Have you tried to reboot your M90? I've found that running Wireshark sometimes causes my various NIC interfaces to go nuts which requires a reboot to clear.

Also, are you perhaps spoofing your MAC address on the wireless card. That's usually harmless, but strange MAC addresses (i.e. all zeros or

1's) can do odd things.
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Typically, I go to the counter and ask them to restart the router. "Because it seems to be down" usually works. Who are they to argue whether it's working for other people, since they are not on their computer actively going to Myspace, or wherever it is baristas go to these days. What might have happened, as what happens from time to time with my friends, is the router seems to have a long DHCP lease time, and only a small number range of IP addresses it's willing to give out. That's typically from not knowing how to properly install a public access point, or at least one that will encounter more than 50 MAC addresses a day, or however long the lease lasts. Attempting to fix the issue may be more difficult, and perhaps requires more social engineering on your part. Perhaps they run a router that happens to be a DD-WRT compatible device. TFTP a better alternative for them and make it, well, better!

Sorry for the block of text.

Reply to
dualdflipflop

Oh yes -- even this coffee shop's other store in another part of town.

It would appear so. No splash screen (presumably in a browser). I tried other options for encryption and the 25-letter password they gave me (composed of three english words) was only appropriate for WPA- PSK and perhaps one other encryption type. Sorry, I'm not there now so I can't remember what the other form was. I work a lot from coffee shops and typically there's NEVER any configuration other than the password, therefore they seem to use the most user- and barrista- friendly wireless configurations, seemingly just the router the phone company supplies (the phone company this week is called AT&T, formerly SBC, formerly Ameritech, formerly Ohio Bell).

Thanks! I'll give it a try.

Most coffee shops don't hide their router -- you can point a browser at the gateway address -- e.g. 192.168.1.254 -- and really go to town viewing all the status pages.

I reboot probably weekly. I'll try that from the coffee shop and then try to connect. Good suggestion.

I don't think so. I'm writing from a different laptop so I can't confirm. Everything on this laptop -- bought only in July -- is pretty much as-installed-by-Dell.

Reply to
Jennifer R

Very interesting -- if they're using the default from-the-phone- company installation, it might not be configured for public access. I never thought of that

Sadly, there's probably nobody associated with the coffee shop who knows ANYTHING about wifi. You ask them about the lease time and they'll tell you 24 months, water and sewer extra. :)

Reply to
Jennifer R

Jennifer R hath wroth:

That would probably be a 2wire router. I'll guess a 2801HG. Those usually come with the latest firmware and seem to have few problems. However, I did have some problems with old Intel Proset drivers on a laptop and this router when in WPA2-PSK-AES mode. Worked fine with TKIP encryption, but wouldn't connect in AES. Then, I updated the Proset driver, and the laptop lived happy ever after. I never did figure out if it was actually the driver, or if I had fixed something corrupted in the installation.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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