New HP can see but won't connect to network

I just bought a HP Pavilion laptop. At home I have a linksys router that all
the computers in the house connect to for internet access. When I tried to
connect with the new laptop it saw the network but when it tried to connect
to it it couldn't, and afterwards the whole network stopped working, I had to
disable the laptop wireless card, unplug the router and turn off the cable
modem and then turn on the modem and replug the router to get it to work on
the other computers again.

This happens every time I enable the wireless card on the laptop. It has to
be disabled for the network to work at all. It's very frustrating as all the
other computers (3 desktops and 2 laptops) work just fine. I made sure the
setting on the laptop were the same as the rest, but it still won't work.

The laptop has a Broadcom 802.11b/g wlan wireless card. The router is a
linksystem wrt54g. I'm running windows XP media center with all the updates.

A side note, I was able to plug the ethernet cable into the laptop and it
works great (that's how I updated it), in fact I'm writing this on the
laptop. I've checked settings, updated drivers, and looked through some of
the newgroup posts with similar problems with no luck. Any ideas?

 

Hi

The content of the following pages might help.

My New Wireless does not work - http://www.ezlan.net/wireless.html

Wireless - Basic Configuration: http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Config.html

Wireless Security - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.html

Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

Sorry that didn't help. I'm wondering if it's a faulty wireless network card.

 

Hi there,

I just want to make sure of something before I start my response.

You stated that "I made sure the setting on the laptop were the same as the
rest, but it still won't work."

Do you have DHCP or Static Network?
Did you set the IP address of the WLN card to the same as your router?
Maybe your Wireless LAN Card is set to the same IP address of your router.
This would cause the problem you had with this:
"it saw the network but when it tried to connect
to it it couldn't, and afterwards the whole network stopped working, I had to
disable the laptop wireless card, unplug the router and turn off the cable
modem and then turn on the modem and replug the router to get it to work on
the other computers again."

When you connected your wireless LAN card, it and your router were
"fighting" to have the same IP address and your router shutdown as it thought
it was getting MAC spoofed.

-------------------------------
The other connection problem you're having with your laptop is common one,
by my standards.

What is happening is that most new laptops have at least two network
adapters. This is usually:
Wireless (802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g) and
Wired LAN (100BaseT/10BaseT) connections.
Some laptops also have firewire too.

What the problem is, is that windows doesn't like to have both WIRED and
WIRELESS connections enabled at the same time.

It confuses IE, for example, when connected to wireless connections your IE
will try to connect through the WIRED connection instead of the wireless
connection.

The solution to your and many others problem is very simple.
just follow these workarounds for ensuring either that only one network
adapter is active at any one time, or that the majority of the network
traffic flows over the desired network adapter.
--------------------------------------------------

Connecting to only a Single Network
Although simultaneous connectivity can have its benefits as a fault-tolerant
way to maintain a connection to an intranet, it can also be viewed as a
disadvantage for the following reasons:

• Having two network connections uses up two Internet Protocol version 4
(IPv4) addresses. In some networks, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP)-allocated IPv4 addresses are scarce and a client computer should only
be using one at a time.

• With two connections, it becomes more difficult to determine the
connection over which network traffic is flowing.

• For some wireless infrastructures, wireless bandwidth is relatively scarce
due to a small number of deployed wireless access points (APs). Therefore,
wireless connections should only be used when a laptop is roaming and away
from its docking station.


At this time, computers running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 do not
have the capability to automatically disable the wireless network adapter
when the Ethernet adapter is plugged into a network and to automatically
enable the wireless network adapter when the Ethernet adapter is unplugged.
If you do not want simultaneous connections to both wired and wireless
networks, you must manually enable and disable the connection to the wireless
network, the procedure for which varies with different releases of Windows XP
and Windows Server 2003.

For computers running Windows XP with no service packs installed, Windows XP
with SP1, or Windows Server 2003 with no service packs installed, you can
manually enable or disable the wireless network adapter from the notification
area of the desktop or from the Network Connections folder. To enable,
right-click the wireless adapter icon and then click Enable. To disable,
right-click the wireless adapter icon and then click Disable.

For computers running Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Server 2003 with SP1,
you can use the same procedure to manually enable and disable the wireless
adapter. You can also use a new feature in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server
2003 SP1 to connect to your wireless network manually, rather than
automatically.

To manually disconnect from your wireless network, right-click your wireless
adapter icon in the notification area, and then click View Available Wireless
Networks. From the Choose a wireless network dialog box, double-click your
currently connected network. You will be prompted with a message asking
whether you want to disconnect from the wireless network. When you select
Yes, you will be disconnected. The status of the wireless network in the
Choose a wireless network dialog box changes from Connected to Manual,
indicating that you must manually specify when you want to connect. To
manually reconnect to the wireless network, double-click the name in the
Choose a wireless network dialog box. You can also configure the wireless
network for an on-demand connection by clearing the Connect when this network
is within range check box on the Connection tab for the properties of the
wireless network.
------------------------------------------
Traffic Behavior when Simultaneously Connected to Both Wired and Wireless
Networks
The following is a summary of the network traffic behavior when a computer
running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 is connected to both a wired and
wireless network (hereafter referred to as a multihomed computer):

• For traffic initiated by other computers that are neighbors of the
multihomed computer, the traffic flows over the network adapter attached to
the common subnet. For example, if a neighboring computer on the
Ethernet-based subnet of the multihomed computer initiates traffic, the
traffic flows over the Ethernet network adapter.

• For traffic initiated by other remote computers (located beyond the
locally attached subnets), the traffic flows over the network adapter
corresponding to the destination IP address chosen by the initiating
computer. For example, a multihomed Windows XP-based computer will register
the IP addresses for both wired and wireless network adapters in the Domain
Name System (DNS) using DNS dynamic update. When another computer queries for
the name of the multihomed computer, it will get both of the multihomed
computer's IP addresses in random order. The DNS client resolver in Windows
XP chooses the first IP address in the list returned by the DNS server.

• For traffic initiated by the multihomed computer for neighboring
destinations, the traffic flows over the network adapter attached to the
common subnet. For example, if a neighboring computer is on the
Ethernet-based subnet of the multihomed computer, the traffic flows over the
Ethernet network adapter.

• For traffic initiated by the multihomed computer for remote destinations,
the traffic flows over the network adapter associated with the currently
chosen default route in the IP routing table, unless there are additional
routes to the remote destination.


Assuming that the multihomed computer is running mostly client applications
and accessing servers on remote subnets, most of the traffic of the
multihomed computer is in the last category (traffic initiated by the
multihomed computer for remote destinations).

TCP/IP for Windows determines the current default route from the following
criteria:

• Select the default route that has the lowest metric.

• If there are multiple default routes with the lowest metric, choose the
default route corresponding to the network adapter that is highest in the
binding order. To view and modify the binding order, open the Network
Connections folder, click Advanced, and then click Advanced Settings. The
adapter binding order is displayed in the Connections area of the Adapters
and Bindings tab.

By default, TCP/IP for Windows determines the metric for the default route
by using the Automatic Metric feature, which assigns the metric to routes
associated with the configuration of an adapter based on its link speed.

Table 1 lists the combination of wired and wireless technologies, their
associated automatic metrics, and the resulting chosen default gateway
adapter for a multihomed computer running Windows XP with SP2.

Wired | Automatic | Wireless | Automatic | Chosen default
|
technology | metric | technology | metric | gateway
adapter |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10BaseT 30 802.11b 30 Uses
binding order
10BaseT 30 802.11a/g 25
802.11a/g
100BaseT 20 802.11b 30 100BaseT
(wired)
100BaseT 20 802.11a/g 25 100BaseT
(wired)

Table 1. Combinations of wired and wireless technologies and the chosen
default gateway adapter

As everyone can see from the table above, if there is a 100BaseT/802.11g
connection and the LAN cable is pulled out and wifi is enabled, then the
computer will try to connect through the WIRED LAN, which is why these
problems are happening!!..


To override the automatically calculated metric for the default route of a
manually configured IP address configuration, specify the default route
metric from the advanced properties of the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
component.


I hope this lengthy response answers your question and clarifies the
networking situation....

My simple answer is this...lol...right at the end...Make sure only one
adapter enabled at any one time and use DHCP unless your confident to make
more secure settings, eg Static Addresses. That's it.


Aust-Tech

 

Thank you both for your replies. On a whim I updated the routers firmware and
tried again, and now everything works! We bought the router several years ago
and hadn't thought to update the firmware since it worked great until now. I
hope this helps other people if they ever have the same problem. Thanks again!

 

I have the same issue with an HP 2000-427CL and a Broadcom 4313GN wifi adapter.

If I remove all security on the router I can connect but as soon as I implement WEP, or MAC address security I can not connect.

It did resolve itself I assume with driver updates but now I have another new of the same model laptop and am going through the same thing again!!!!

HP is of no help on it's forums!

 

I have had the same problem since I bought HP Pavillion G6 ... I solved it by doing the following:

Installed Windows 8 (Fresh installation - Not upgrading Windows 7) and then it automatically installed the drivers.

Now I can easily connect to my Wireless network but the problem is that sometimes the speed goes down then I have to switch my wifi off and then on. It works fine after that.

I have also posted on the HP forum. You can see the info there.
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware/Broadcom-4313-Wifi-Problem/m-p/1587015