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Why does Netgear WGT624 wireless router "lose" the PC but keep the Mac?

I picked up a Powerbook with a wireless card and felt obligated to go from a simple wired router to a wireless one with some wired ports also. I opted for the Netgear WGT624 after having problems with another brand that simply couldn't handle my DHCP broadband service (Comcast). The router will be used for wired access by a Mac running 10.4.8 and a PC running XP. There never were problems with having these two share the old, non-wireless 4 port router.

Anyhoo, I got the router working OK last night, although it is frustrating to have to work with IBM/PCs after being used to the Mac. I used the "Wizard" from the CD that came with the hardware (it didn't even have any software for the Mac), laboriously wading through the numerous steps needed to "teach" the PC how to use or recognize the router. Did not have to keep resetting the router after DHCP lease changes, so all seemed OK. Today, though, the Mac worked OK (as well as the Powerbook),but the PC internet did not.

How can this be? If the router had some DHCP problem, I'd think that

*both* computers would not get a working signal. I tried to reinstall the stuff on the PC, but continually got messages that there was not a working internet connection; this is even while the Mac was getting a good signal (as during my composition of this posting). Is there some pitfall I should know of in having these 2 systems work via a wireless/wired router even though they were both happy and getting along when on the old wired router?

Thanks for any help, Paul

PS- of course, as I typed this, the PC started getting an internet signal, but if anyone can explain what the culprit may be, I'd love to learn in order to avoid future problems with it.

Reply to
Paul Soderman
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Is the PC far from the router? Behind a thick wall? Is there a 2.4 GHz phone in the vicinity? What kind of wireless card? Wireless USB? Give us some more details, please. I have a combined hardwired/wireless network with 1 PC and 2 Macs at home. There was no difference in ease of setup for either. Speaking of which, what a drag it can be to be a Mac user at times. The hoops I went through to attempt get a USB to wireless to work on a Mac were terrible. First I bought a Netcore card, which had crap drivers for the Mac. Then an SMB EZ card, same thing (Realtec drivers). Got fed up and hardwired the Mac (my other option was to fork over 100 $ to get an older Airport card on ebay (the older type). Finally, I got fed up and hardwired the Mac to the D-Link router. The PC, which is upstairs, worked flawlessly with both cards (that I picked up for 15 $ on eBay, BTW). The SMB gets better reception, though. Oh, and I went with channel

7 on the wireless network, seems to work best with my configuration.
Reply to
Nashton

The fact that one computer worked on the router but not the other rules out the router and the Mac. Make sure you factor in distance and any possible interference, then after that recheck all your DHCP client settings on XP.

Reply to
Chris Boyd

Call Linksys tech support.

By the way I have never used any of the software that came with a Linksys device, just point your browser to 192.168.0.1 or maybe 192.168.1.1 and configure it from there.

Steve

Reply to
Steve de Mena

I thought it was hard wired.

Steve

Reply to
Steve de Mena

Both the Mac and the PC are indeed hardwired; the only wireless card is in the Powerbook and it works fine. I had no need to contact Linksys, as this is a Netgear router. The one I had picked up *before* this was Linksys and I had a hell of a time with it having to continuously be reset after not being able to properly handle the DHCP leases. I researched this and learned that it was a firmware problem and felt it was easier to just return it for another brand.

It seems to me that maybe the PC just needs to "get used to" the router, as it did eventually accept the signal without me doing anything more. I have a feeling, however, that this may be shortlived. When checking out the router through the Mac system prefs and accessing the router via the IP address, I first saw that the router was not showing the PC as a hooked up device; when the PC got a signal, I rechecked the router again and saw it as device #2. I saved the settings to a file just in case I need to "refresh" the router, as per the firmware or software which indicates that this can be done.

Am I > Nasht> >> I picked up a Powerbook with a wireless card and felt obligated to go

Reply to
Paul Soderman

On 30 Nov 2006 17:05:34 -0800, "Paul Soderman" wrote in :

Hard to say without more information. When this happen, open a command window; run "IPCONFIG /ALL"; and post the exact output here.

Reply to
John Navas

On your NIC if it is set to "Auto" change it to "100 Full" and if it is set to "100 Full" change it to "Auto".

Steve

Reply to
Steve de Mena

Windows can take several minutes to realise it's got a network connection.

As Steve says, don't bother with any software supplied with the router, just use your browser.

The other thing it might be worth doing is a firmware update on the router.

Reply to
Peter Hayes

On Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:05:34 -0500, Paul Soderman wrote (in article ):

I've always simply ignored any such 'Wizard' and simply configured the router by hand. Q: what's the router's NAT-side IP address? Linksys routers typically are set to 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 at the factory.

Are you running WinXP on the WinBox? If so, do you have the firewall turned on? Is the WinBox set to use DHCP?

you did ipconfig /all to determine the IP on the WinBox, and then ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew to clear the lease and grab a new one, right?

Possible lease problem. Do an ipconfig /all on the Winbox. Do an ifconfig -a on one of the Macs and compare the inet line to the output of the ipconfig. See if both the Mac and the Winbox are on the same subnet.

Reply to
J.J. O'Shea

I'll be trying these suggestions when I get back to the home computers; also just wondered whether there may have been an installation problem with the PC with anti-spyware or adware programs getting in the way of the computer accepting the router signal. When I used the CD/Wizard to install, I'm not sure that I recall an option to turn off anything that may have been turned on automatically. If this may have caused a problem, however, I still don't understand why the PC would have used the router OK initially, or even why the signal "came back" for awhile last night (it then went out again).

J.J. O'Shea wrote:

Reply to
Paul Soderman

Because it's a Windows PC. It's little issues like this that make Macs stand apart - they mostly just work.

Reply to
Jolly Roger

I think that I've narrowed down the problem to the PC running Norton Protection/Anti-Worm. I'll be posting another inquiry regarding that solution under the topic "Configuring Norton Anti-Worm Protection on PC to run in harmony with Netgear WGT624 wireless router".

Thanks for all of the help and suggesti> >

Reply to
Paul Soderman

Jolly Roger wrote in news:2006120112293812712- jollyroger@nullorg:

And all PC's mostly just work also.

Most of the time it's operator error.

Reply to
DanS

...says the clueless Windows user...

And not surprisingly - Windows users are used to blaming themselves for their computers shortcomings, right? ; ) Seriously - anyone who believes Windows PCs work just as well as Macs is likely talking out of pure ignorance.

Reply to
Jolly Roger

lol

Ahh, the 1980's. "..and I ra--ann, I ran so far away-ay.."

TJ :))

Reply to
TJ

Jolly Roger wrote in news:2006120118362679465-jollyroger@nullorg:

Sorry, not a clueless Windows user. No problems here.

If so, then why did my XP install, done in late 2001 (a Win98 upgrade, not even a clean install), never did SP1 or SP2 (only a few individual security patches done), run almost flawlessly until this past summer when there was some catastrophic electrical event that took out 2 hd's, a PS, and a mobo IDE channel ?

Those MAC vs. PC commercials on TV kill me. 'MAC does (whatever) better'. It's not MAC or Windows that 'do (whatever) better, it's the software you use. If you have the same piece of software written for MAC and for PC, what's the difference ?

Reply to
DanS

First - ask Microsoft ! It's a standing problem that they don't supply the same set of fonts for the Mac and the Windows version. Take the Lucida font family, that contains 6-7 fonts on each platform, but only

2 of them (or was it 3?) are the same font. Now let's guess what happens when you show a Powerpoint presentiation made on a Mac on a system running Windows - or vice versa. Well - essentially it's not the same piece of software, though you would think so, when both are called Microsoft PowerPoint, right? People thend to blame the Mac, when they should blame Microsoft.

Basically, Office:mac 2004 is crippled compared to Office 2003 - No Access, no Outlook (OK -we have Entourage), no Publisher, no Infopath. Instead, in the Pro version, we have Virtual PC.

Second, one of the points in Apple's ads is pointing out some very easy-to-use pieces of software that are not available for Windows.

That *you* have managed to get your XP install run run almost flawlessly for 4.5 years says more about you than of Windows. As you state, you're "not a clueless Windows user". Good for you.

Reply to
Asterix

The OS is Software. OSX is BETTER software than is XP (or even Vista AFAICS).

Reply to
George Graves

Ever try to move data between MacOS and a PC program? Microsoft seems to make it hard lots of times. Got a web site done in Publisher or a database in Access?

Open software written to run on XP, Linux, MacOS X, or Solaris is another matter. Apache running on any of these systems could serve web pages without problems. But I wouldn't have my 80-year-old mom or my

18-year-old nephew use vi to write letters.
Reply to
Michael Vilain

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