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Strange: Works, doesn't works, then works

Hello All (sorry if this appears twice. I cancelled the first one because of errors)

After five exasperating hours with three different tech support people from Linksys and one from the cable company, here is the answer:

Gateway had installed a second wireless configuration utility on the new laptop - one from Broadcom - that was conflicting with the Windows wireless setup program. Both we enabled and set to start with the computer. Apparently what was happening after the Linksys Netset software setup the wireless and the computer was shutdown was the Broadcom program would come back on during restart and interfere with Windows' efforts to establish the wireless connection. The result apparently was creation of conflicting IP addresses or something like that. When the wireless worked, the wireless address using the Ipconfig /all cmd was 000.000.000. When it wasn't, it read

169. something - which is apparently the default windows XP one. Blah blah.

Why we have different programs, conflicting programs and all this to do one simple thing seems to me to be just one more example of how this computer tech stuff is too far in its infancy. Imagine if we had these problems when we got our new car home --- "If you are having trouble making the car actually go, make sure the duplicate transmission shifting strategy corresponds to the selected engine. Please open the engine diagnostic hatch and disable the Cruxmulch overdrive modular drive lockout and reposition the crank engine piston ring slave to the lowest groove. Then close the hatch, crank the engine three times and reinstall the rubber modulation connecting band. NOTE: The stock random pressure relieve valve installed in this vehicle may not work with the selected drive train. If not, please contact your engine manufacturer for the installation ID certificate read diagnostic utility. Once you download and obtain the tray installation manifest, contact the transmission manufacturer using the numbers listed on the transmission identification placard located behind the dashboard on the left side of the firewall. Ask for instructions for disabling the alternate upload shift regime. After removing all the fuel from the gas tank, press the reset button. If this does not work, call Chile."

Well... at least I got to spend the day talking to people in Rhode Island, the Philippines, Argentina and another place I forgot to ask. The laptop starts up now all nice and wirelessly connected. We now have no interest in or energy for using it.

Thanks to Jeff and to everyone for your assistance.

Reply to
Anthony Giorgianni
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Not really. My web site (8011junk.com) has multiple unrelated users located under it. Mine is:

formatting link
(oops) currently doesn't have a functional index page because I'm moving things from another web pile. Also under the same web site is a friends construction company:
formatting link
several others that are in even worse condition. I call each of these a "web pile" as they do NOT refer to the web site. Each will eventually have their own domain pointing to it. Pile and site would be the same, as you contend, if there was a single index.html in the root directory. However, there isn't. I invented the term web pile to accomidate such distinctions.

Well, yes. I'll confess that I find butchering the language, adding new words, and metaphor abuse, to be entertaining. Last time I checked, English is still a growing language, especially in the technology sector. While the distinction between pile and site is subtle, methinks that pile is both more descriptive and obvious than the term site, which is often interpreted as a physical location by the uninitiated. The use of the term web pile is also growing among the local ISP's which implies some general acceptance.

Also, I've been using the term for quite a while:

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you're the first to complain or ask. Earliest date found is Feb

1999.
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

One must suffer before enlightenment.

Oops.

Well, if you had done the right thing and NOT used the Linksys Netset software to install the router, but simply pointed your web browser to the router, you would have avoided the problem entirely. This is another reason why I never read the instructions. Actually, both the Broadcom and Linksys wireless client programs will correctly disable Windoze Wireless Zero Config, but apparently don't recognize each other. That's rather odd because other wireless client programs, such as Boingo and Netstumbler coexist with the others fairly nicely.

Nope. DHCP is handled by the Windoze IP protocol stack and not the wireless driver. Windoze provides a standard interface to these protocols in the form of NDIS 5.1. More likely, the two utilities were trying to pre-load settings into the wireless card via NDIS that didn't quite agree with each other.

Yep. That's the price we pay for features and functions. The marketplace has ruled over and over that it wants features and functions over stability and bug fixes. The problem is that features and functions get added faster than bugs get fixed resulting in a bloated and buggy mess. Complexity and bugs are the price of progress.

Y'er still a Luddite.

Nice troubleshooting job. Thanks for posting the solution.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks Jeff for all your help. I should point out that we weren't using Netset to set up the router initially - unless Netset is the software that's on the Linksys CD. We did use the CD initially, as instructed. We don't know wireless, and didn't know how else to proceed. (When the CD failed, we turned to the Windows setup. When that failed, we sent to the Linksys support page and found Netset, which was the only thing that could get us up and running - at least for a while.

But anyway, everything was working correctly again today. So we were all set. Thanks for clarifying what was going on.

Reply to
Anthony Giorgianni

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