laptop can connect to network but cannot access internet or share files or printer

fizzy

I have a desktop connected to a new Linksys WAG354G router (which has replaced my Netgear one which died suddenly) and that's connected to IOL broadband. The internet is working fine on the desktop.

Now, I have my laptop with its Netgear WG511T card which is connecting to the network fine with a strong signal. However, the laptop cannot see any shared folders, share the printer or access the internet connection so it's not much good to me at the moment!

Before my Netgear router died, I could use the internet from my laptop (regardless of whether the desktop was switched on) and could share the desktop files and use its printer.

I have searched at linksys.com and have tried twice to chat online with tech support but it packs up each time so I'm hoping the friendly boardsters can come to my rescue as usual!

I'm not completely clueless about this stuff but I only know a little, and they say a little knowledge is dangerous! I know that when I set up my Netgear network a couple of years ago it was a bit involved, and the Linksys instructions did not seem as clear.

As far as the desktop goes, everything seems to be connected OK and I have only really filled in my broadband account info and turned on WEP encryption (my laptop card does not seem to offer PSK?) and changed the ssid. I have DHCP enabled.

But I did not do much with the laptop. It already had the old network details in the Netgear card software. So, I put in the new details and it connected fine to the network but that's about it. It can't use anything! On clicking the connection properties, it is expecting to be assigned an IP address automatically.

I have searched previous threads and I see others have had linksys issues but I am none the wiser. I see sometimes assigning fixed IP addresses has helped? But, how do I do that?

I figure there is just something majorly wrong -- I have probably ticked some box on my desktop saying bar everyone from using the internet connection and printer knowing me!

*any* advice would be greatly appreciated. we only have one pc with internet access in the house at the moment instead of 3 and the pressure is on me to sort it fast!

Foxwood

fizzy wrote:

Now, I have my laptop with its Netgear WG511T card which is connecting to the network fine with a strong signal. However, the laptop cannot see any shared folders, share the printer or access the internet connection so it's not much good to me at the moment!

There is absolutely nothing in your post indicating that your laptop is "connecting to the network fine". You're not "connecting to the network fine", because if you were, you'd be able to do all the things that you can't do. If you on't have an IP address, then you haven't connected to the network.

As far as the desktop goes, everything seems to be connected OK and I have only really filled in my broadband account info and turned on WEP encryption (my laptop card does not seem to offer PSK?) and changed the ssid. I have DHCP enabled.

Update the firmware on your wireless card. Then DISABLE encryption entirely, on the card and the router, and see if you can connect to your network. If you can, then enable WPA-PSK. If you can't connect to your router with encryption disabled, then you've got a problem!

fizzy

thanks for replying foxwood. as i said, i only know a little - so be gentle

i may have been using the wrong terminology, but on my laptop the taskbar says i do have a network connection - the icon says connected to network, signal strength excellent. the netgear card software says the same thing.

on my desktop, when i log into the admin for the linksys router at 192.168.1.1, and go to admin > wireless > wireless clients connected i see my laptop in the list. it seems to be automatically assigned an ip address ok (the current one it had when i checked was 192.168.1.65 but i am not specifying fixed ips).

so my desktop does know something about my laptop (but cannot see files on it) and my laptop can find the network at least, just not make use of anything on it.

should i still upgrade the firmware and disable the encryption given that i am "sort of" connected? i just want to clarify, because i am afraid of making things worse!

by the way, both machines are using xp sp2 (home on the desktop, pro on the laptop) in case that helps or hinders things...

fizzy

OK from scouting around on other boards I saw that people had issues when using WEP encryption. Their laptops started getting assigned weird IP addresses starting with 169. (or 162?) instead of 192.168.1.x.

I tried giving my laptop a fixed IP but that did not work. Do I need to disable DHCP on router for that to take effect?

Then I disabled security and that worked (thanks foxwood). I can now connect to the internet from the laptop which is a big relief.

However, an unsecured network concerns me quite a bit What can I do to secure things if WEP encryption causes IP address issues and my card does not support Pre-shared key (short of buying a new card unless necessary)?

Foxwood

fizzy wrote:

thanks for replying foxwood. as i said, i only know a little - so be gentle

i may have been using the wrong terminology, but on my laptop the taskbar says i do have a network connection - the icon says connected to network, signal strength excellent. the netgear card software says the same thing.

on my desktop, when i log into the admin for the linksys router at 192.168.1.1, and go to admin > wireless > wireless clients connected i see my laptop in the list. it seems to be automatically assigned an ip address ok (the current one it had when i checked was 192.168.1.65 but i am not specifying fixed ips).

In your original post, you didn't say that you were getting an IP address. If you're getting 192.168.1.65 on the laptop, then you should be able to connect to 192.168.1.1 from the laptop. If you can do that, then you should be able to connect to the internet. If you can't, it's probably a DNS issue, and not a wireless problem at all. (if http://www.boards.ie doesn't work, but http://82.195.136.250 does, then you've got a DNS problem.

should i still upgrade the firmware and disable the encryption given that i am "sort of" connected?

Upgrade the firmware - you need to be using a version that supports WPA-PSK. Read all the documentation carefully - can you upgrade from the version you've got to the latest version available, do you have to uninstall your card drivers, etc. I don't have that card, so I've never done that upgrade, but I'd be inclined to trust netgear on this.

Disabling encryption is simply a debugging tool - you always go back to basics when stuff doesn't work, and then add complications in one at a time. If stuff isn't working with ecryption turned off, you know that you're only wasting your time debugging your encryption. Alternatively, if stuff does work when you turn off the encryption, and doesn't work when you enable encryption, it's a safe bet that you did something wrong with the encryption.

Once you're sure that you can access the internet from the laptop, re-enable encryption.

Don't worry about the connection between your laptop and PC until you've verified that the laptop is connecting to the internet propely - if you can hit google from the laptop, then you know that the problem between the laptop and the PC isn't a networking problem, it's a security/firewall problem. Networking betweek XP Home and XP Pro is notorious for being a pain in the arse (it works fine for some people, others have problems).

fizzy

thanks for the helpful info foxwood.

it appears that my desktop was assigning my laptop the right ip but my laptop was picking up a weird one instead...

at least without security, everything is working - internet, file and printer sharing.

i should have thought about getting rid of the security early on but i though that if the security was going wrong then i would not be able to connect to the network at all. in configuring my router, i was able to detect other networks nearby and that freaked me out a bit so i was conscious of securing things!

my laptop has a netgear card and my sister's has a belkin one and both just seem to know about wep encryption. so i'll have to try and upgrade them as you suggest and hope it does not break everything.

in the interim, i see that the linksys router config lets you limit access by MAC address - if I only allow the 2 laptop MAC addresses will that offer some protection or is that a Mickey Mouse method?

Foxwood

fizzy wrote:

it appears that my desktop was assigning my laptop the right ip but my laptop was picking up a weird one instead...

Your desktop shouldn't be involved in assigning IP addresses - the router does that. If you're running some sort of DHCP server on your desktop, you shouldn't stop it.

fizzy wrote:

at least without security, everything is working - internet, file and printer sharing.

Boards ate my 2nd answer last night - filesharing is a separate issue, and can be broken even when networking s fine, so you need to get the networking working first. In this case solving te networking problem solved the filesharing problem.

fizzy wrote:

i should have thought about getting rid of the security early on but i though that if the security was going wrong then i would not be able to connect to the network at all. in configuring my router, i was able to detect other networks nearby and that freaked me out a bit so i was conscious of securing things!

my laptop has a netgear card and my sister's has a belkin one and both just seem to know about wep encryption. so i'll have to try and upgrade them as you suggest and hope it does not break everything.

in the interim, i see that the linksys router config lets you limit access by MAC address - if I only allow the 2 laptop MAC addresses will that offer some protection or is that a Mickey Mouse method?

It should only take 5 minutes to update your firmware - just read the directions carefully. (Don't know about the Belkin, but I'd be happy to trust NetGears upgrade advice).

MAC address filtering will prevent your average neighbour from connecting to your unencrypted network, but disabling SSID broadcast will be even more effective in that regard. If they don't see it, they won't be poking around. (It's not hard to see a network that doesn't have a broadcast SSID, but it's not something most people do).

fizzy

thanks for all your help foxwood. i won't broadcast our network ssid and i'll take the plunge and upgrade the firmware for both cards soon!

RangeR

Interested to know who you got on or if you need any further assistance?

fizzy

i have not done the card upgrades but all is working grand for me now.

the linksys forums are supposed to be quite good at http://forums.linksys.com/linksys?category.id=Routers_and_Access_Points
but as usual boards was sufficient