Nightmare Netgear

visigoth

I am trying to setup a wireless home network for a friend...

Equipment by Netgear:

DG834G 54 Mbps Wireless ADSL Router
MA521 802.11b Wireless PC Card

PC is connected via Ethernet running XP. Laptop is running on XP.

Laptop is toshiba with inbuilt wireless, which just never worked, so the netgear card was slotted in and the software loaded.

The card is picking up the wireless signal - which can be seen when it scans, it detects which channel is is set to broadcast on, and can detect the signal strength etc, etc. But will not connect to the actual wireless broadcast. I have tried to change every setting on the router to allow access, but everything has failed. I am at my wits end with this, as my own Netgear Wireless Network was setup in about 10minutes (of course, I am using the USB Wireless Keys and Windows 2000, so there may be something in XP that I am just missing)

My friend is connected to EsatBT, and their tech support doesn't support the wireless router, so no help there. Netgear's website is no help at all (even with the new firmware installed), as I have tried to follow the instructions, but no matter what, it just doesn't seem to WANT to work.

I'm pretty sure it's some kind of mistake I have made with regards to access, because when the laptop is connected to the router via ethernet, it can SEE the shared folder from the PC, but cannot actually access it, or go online.

Any suggestions on what mistakes I may be making here?

I tried to find a website with a step by step guide... no luck yet.

ANY help at all, any suggestion would be appreciated. I'm damm sure it's my own limited knowledge stopping me from overcoming this challenge.

spongebob

put them in the same workgroup , call it HOME .

share folder with everyone in HOME and see then

M

Blaster99

That's fairly unlikely to be the problem. Sounds like an authentication problem to me.

Can you explain in a bit more what you're actually doing? In XP there's usually a pop-up that comes up with the SSID (in the bottom right of the desktop) and you can click on that go through the connection mechanism. I presume this is what fails. Have you disabled all security in the router, like WEP? If not, do that and then it should work. If you disabled WEP in the router, XP should warn you about connecting to an insecure network. Make sure you haven't enabled MAC filtering in the router either. This stuff is normally not rocket science so most likely you've setup something wrong in the router.

dub45

Given that you seem to have made a lot of adjustments to the router might be a good idea to reset it to default and begin again.

i have that routher working with two pcs, an Imac and a powerbook on clicksilver and it was no problem to set it up and get it working and I am very much a beginner on this sort of thing I can assure you.

Just a point have you disabled the 'old' built in wireless card on the toshiba?

Does the pc connect to the net ok via the netgear?

i was very impressed with the level of support with the netgear particularly having the support beside the various options in setup was very helpful.

visigoth

Blaster99 wrote:

That's fairly unlikely to be the problem. Sounds like an authentication problem to me.

Can you explain in a bit more what you're actually doing? In XP there's usually a pop-up that comes up with the SSID (in the bottom right of the desktop) and you can click on that go through the connection mechanism. I presume this is what fails. Have you disabled all security in the router, like WEP? If not, do that and then it should work. If you disabled WEP in the router, XP should warn you about connecting to an insecure network. Make sure you haven't enabled MAC filtering in the router either. This stuff is normally not rocket science so most likely you've setup something wrong in the router.

I disabled all security, like WEP, and the laptop said "Available network etc.," But when XP's pop-up came up, and I chose to connect even though it was an unsecure network - it still would not connect.

fatherdougalmag

Are all devices set to talk the same talk with regard to ad hoc/infrastructure? That caught me out when I was setting up initially. My laptop could see my router but wouldn't connect. I needed to switch my laptop to infrastructure and things started working.

visigoth

Yes, they are setup to talk the right talk.
I've tried resetting the router, and not tinkering with any of the settings, only inputting the EsatBT settings, and disabling the secuirty... damm inbuilt wireless wouldn't connect this way, and the card wont either.
If it is the inbuilt wireless conflicting with the netgear card, will it do any good disabling it? or would it be better of connecting WITH it's inbuilt wireless? (see if I can try AGAIN to get THAT to work)

halkar

Did you upgraded your firmware? I think latests is 1.05 and 1.06 is on it's way I beleive. Upgrade to 1.05 and reset if you have not done so. If still does not work try changing channels. I had troubles with default channel 11, changed it to 6 and working like dream.

All the best :cool:

visigoth

How do you reset the router properly?
Is it simply a matter of poking the tiny "reset" hole on the back?

fatherdougalmag

(Not entirely related but the Toshiba laptop I have - Satellite 2410 - has a switch just above the floppy drive so that you can enable/disable it).

visigoth

fatherdougalmag wrote:

(Not entirely related but the Toshiba laptop I have - Satellite 2410 - has a switch just above the floppy drive so that you can enable/disable it).

Thank you for the advice, I was however refering to the netgear router. Thanks though!

fatherdougalmag

Sorry. Should have been clearer. I was referring to the laptop's apparently fecked built-in wireless adapter.

As you were.

visigoth

You know what, you may be onto something! Thanx.

Message ends.

fatherdougalmag

Furthermore, if you want to eliminate it completely without a doubt, it should be possible as it might be a mini-PCI card which can be removed up flipping the laptop over and removing one of the panels.

However, if it's a Centrino-based laptop then the wireless is integrated into the chipset. In that case, you'll probably need to muck around in the BIOS/hardware config.

mustang68

If the wireless didn't work originally on the laptop then the addition of another wireless card won't solve the situation. First of all, uninstall the wireless card; all of the software too.

Make sure your on-board wireless is enabled (in network properties), check the box to let windows handle the connection, turn off the firewall for that connection.

On the router make sure that WEP isn't on and that the wan light is lighting.

Try the laptop with a friends/internet cafes connection, this will tell you if its a problem with the laptop.

Good Luck!

posiedon

I have a similar setup to what you describe, bought a Netgear Wireless router, and connected using toshiba laptop wirelessly + with cable (XP). Other machine using Win2000 was also connected by the cable. I just switched everything on including my wireless network on the laptop and everything was working fine. the laptop has a Centrino, and never had any problems.

However I did buy a belkin router the same day as the Netgear one, but I spent hours trying to get it to work, ultimately I rang Belkin and they decided from whatever lights were showing that the router was infact broken in the first place. The Netgear one was good to go as soon as i switched it on though. maybe your router has problems? (polite way to say bust)

If you're seeing other PCs on the network then you're sorted in terms of all your hardware i think, you'll just need to check your network settings for the PCs and probably best to reset the router and start again there, sounds to me like you've done a whole lot of messing with it. I've found that unless you allow sharing on the folders, other users can't get into them over the network. Mind you I never really use the Networking much ecept to share the internet around.

fiacha

i have the same router and pc card. i had to download the latest card drivers from netgear before I could get the laptop to connect. same thing, I could detect the access point but could not make a connection.

halkar

visigoth wrote:

How do you reset the router properly?
Is it simply a matter of poking the tiny "reset" hole on the back?

Yep, it is in the manual which is in the cd as a pdf file. Make sure you upgrade the router with cable, onky takes few minutes and after reset you need to add your login details etc. I have the same card in the laptop and i use windows wireless not the netgear one that came with the card. Took me 10 minutes to configure 2 desktops, 2 laptops and Ipaq with cf card on netgear. It is a great router, i did have drop outs but changing the channels solved it. So far so good.