HELP - can reach ISP through cable, not through wireless ?

1. Dive into the Sitecom and turn off MAC address filtering.
2. Do you have a default gateway assigned on the wireless client? If Windoze W2K or XP, try: start -> run -> cmd ipconfig The default gateway displayed needs to be the IP address of the Sitecom router. My guess is that it's either 0.0.0.0 or some other value left over from a previous wireless exercise.
3. Try refreshing DHCP with: ipconfig /release (wait about 10 seconds) ipconfig /renew ipconfig (see if you get a decent IP and gateway) If it hangs, your Sitecom DHCP server setup is probably screwed up, or your DHCP client on the laptop has a problem or is disabled.

Nope. You have the DHCP server turned on in both the Sitecom router and the USR 8054. There should only be one DHCP server on your LAN. Turn *OFF* the DHCP server in the USR router/access-point and all will work as expected.

There are about 5 of my posting in this newsgroup, that explains how to convert a wireless router into an access point. Step #2 is always to disable the DHCP server in the wireless router.

Jeff, thanks for replying.

Indeed - this is where the problem was. When I did a ipconfig /all I saw the default gateway on the laptop (wireless client) was set to the address of the wireless router, not the Sitecom router. I had to force this in the wireless card's tcp/ip settings - although DHCP on the wireless router was there was no way to convince the wireless client to get settings automatically from DHCP on the Sitecom. I found this interesting because when I connect the same client to the same (wireless) router with a cable/network card instead of a wirelecc PC card, the client gets the settings from the Ditecom DHCP without a hitch. At any rate, this made the ISP's IP address pingable, and manually setting the DNS servers in the wireless PC card's tcp/ip settings, internet started to work as well.

All's well that ends well. Now catch

e on the laptop (wireless client) was set to the ip of the wireless router, not the sitecom router. I fixed that (had to set it manually, couldn't get wireless to get it from the DHCP on the Sitecom (strange, a wireless connection to the USR router doesn't connect to DHCP on Sitecom while a cabled connection to the same USR router does.)

Now I can ping the ISP fine. However, still cannot surf the net

This one was right on - the default gateway had the address of the wireless router instead of the Sitecom, must somehow be set through the wireless side of things even if DHCP on the wireless router is turned off. It's counter-intuitive as a cable connection through the same wireless router has a different result but hey, this is the weird world of wireless.

Sorry Jeff, I posted my previous message too early by accident and sent a fixed one. This morning I notice that it never got to the server. I also see that I missed one word in the sentence below:

and that was the word "off". During all this testing the DHCP server in the wireless router was off. You see, when I connect the same client to the wireless router through a cable/network card instead of a wireless card all goes well. The client then gets all settings automatically from the sitecom router. The wireless router indeed then works nicely as AP. For some reason I need to manually assign everything when going wireless on this router.

I will search for and read your posts on converting a wireless router into an AP tonight. In the mean time I have a working setup.

Many thanks again,

BN