Signs are good, but WAN no good

I've had my two PCs networked for almost a year. Every problem that has
arisen I could resolve, until now. I have a 2000 pro machine connected to a
Netgear MR814v2 router via Ethernet cable and an XP home PC connected via a
Netgear MA111 wireless USB adapter. Due to a recent problem with the XP rig,
I had to restore it to an earlier configuration. After reinstalling the
software several times, the XP PC still cannot get on the network. It shows
to be connected to the access point, but it is invisible to the 2000 pro
machine and will not connect to the internet. I have tried renewing the IP
address with ipconfig, as well as stopping and starting the Zero
Configuration Utility. When I run the network repair utility, it fails with
the message "cannot renew IP address" displayed. My network is NOT set up as
a host-client network. I have been all over the internet, and although I have
found similar problems, I have not found a viable solution yet. Any help with
this problem would be greatly appreciated!

 

Dear Netnut,

I assume that this machine is not getting an IP address. It appears that
your router also serves as a DHCP server, thus your address would come from
the wireless connection. Could you please run: "ipconfig /all" from this XP
machine to make sure that your wireless NIC is indeed _not_ getting an IP
address?

It would be very helpful to see the events from the Eventlog. Please open
the Event Viewer ("eventvwr" from the command line) and check to make sure
that there are no error events coming from your USB wireless network card.

Whether or not there are errors, I would first recommend that you update
your wireless network card driver from the manufacturer's web site. Most
wireless problems are due to problematic drivers. Download the latest
version from the manufacurer's web site and try that before continuing with
my suggestions.

You did not mention what type of security you have on your wireless network.
This type of problem you describe could also happen if you misentered the
WEP key, for example. I would re-check that key value if such is the case.
Better yet, disable wireless security on your Access Point and remove the
Access Point from the Preferred Networks list on the XP machine (in the
"Wireless Networks" tab of the network card's properties window). If you
can get an IP address and connected to the Internet, etc. after removing the
security from the network, then there must be some problem with that part of
the configuration. After that is done, you could attempt to configure both
the AP and the client for wireless security.

Service Pack 2 shows more information about Wireless Networks that are in an
unuseable state and makes it easier to debug them. I reccommend updating
when convienient, as there are also important security fixes that help
protect your XP system.

Brian Wehrle
Software Test Engineer

Microsoft Corporation

 

Hi,

same problem here (it used to work now it doesn't)... a Win2000 laptop
connects to the wireless router (via cable) and gets the good IP address
range (as well as connecting to the Internet). The WinXP desktop doesn't,
both wireless and via cable.

I tried to put a fix IP address within the good range for the desktop, I can
ping the router I can ping the laptop, I can ping the ADSL modem connected to
the router, but I can't get on the internet, neither see in the browser the
web config page of the wireless router or the ADSL modem.

Basically it all works fine with the Win2000 but not on WinXP... it all
changed all of a sudden, until 2 days ago it worked. Could this be caused by
the SP2? I think my girlfriend installed it on the desktop...

thanks in advance for any help

ciao Luca