Wierd Problem with Linksys WRT54GX router

The usual fix for this is flash the router with the latest version of the firmware. That usually fixes access problems with sites with a machine behind the router while other machines don't have a problem with accessing the same site.

Duane :)

I will go online this PM and get a copy of the latest firmware and see if that fixes the problem. Even this laptop has no problem when it is using ethernet only when it is wireless.

thanks, I will let you know

Bruce

Okay, I upgraded the firmware and still the same problem. I cannot connect to msn home page or get mail from yahoo. 404 page not found... :-(

Let me give eleminate some more things. I have gone through all of the settings in the Linksys setup, disabled the firewall, disabled firewall in laptop, removed the wireless adapter in device manager and let it reinstall, checked all setting in ie, tried lowering security setting in ie.

And the machine works when it has a wired connection, other machines wired or wireless have no problems at the site and this same wireless machine has no problems with wireless when accessing other sites?

Duane :)

All of the other machines are Desktops that are hard wired via ethernet. The laptop is the only machine that I have that is wireless at this time. Am planning to set up another desktop on wireless for one of my daughters in the next week or so, but would like to get this problem fixed first.

Bruce

My suggestion here is to go get that wireless card for one of the desktops and see what happens. If that desktop machine is not experiencing the same problems as the laptop, then you can focus in on that laptop. Have you reloaded the wireless driver of the laptop card?

Duane :)

Yes I have reloded the wireless driver on the laptop. I just received a wireless PCI adapter today for a desktop so will try it and see what happens.

Bruce

Google for winsockxpfix.exe to correct corruption in the TCP/IP stack.

I think I finally found the problem. The new wireless PCI card I received in the WEP settings offered either 40 or 105 bit encription and the card in the laptop had to be set to either 64 or 128 bit. Therefore, I disabled the WEP at the router. Now both the laptop and the desktop can connect to any site. I don't understand why, I assumed WEP was to prevent other people from connecting via my wireless connection.

Thanks again for all your help.

Bruce

Well that's one reason that WEP is used. But the other reason is to stop someone from spoofing the traffic between the wireless card and the wireless router as it encrypts the air traffic. I guess it all depends on your situation but should get that WEP going using a strong key. The better choice is WPA. The bottom line is don't do anything of a financial nature with the wireless machine connecting to a bank site to do Home Banking or where account number, user-id or password must be used to access a site. You should use a wire connection.

No such thing as a strong WEP key, WEP is weak whatever key you choose. Tools like aircrack just don't take that long with an ARP re-injection.

Not forgetting that banking transfers should be protected by SSL and therefore the weakness of WEP shouldn't be an issue in the first place. Though yes, you're right, caution should be exercised to ensure that the certificate is from the site that is trusted and not from an untrusted site attempting a MITM attack.

David.

I had a similar problem with Belkin routers using the Airgo chip set which I believe is what the Linksys WRT54GX uses. I spent a great deal of time on the phone with Belkin tech support and after three different routers they struck out. I was unable to access common sites, e.g. Microsoft Windows XP update; Intel video driver download pages and some secure financial sites.

Al