Wireless Network Woes

deadl0ck

Hi all,
I'm trying to get my Desktop PC to connect to my wireless router, but I'm having major issues.

I have tried both a wireless USB Dongle, and a wireless PCI Network card. I am sticking with the PCI card as I'm read of a lot of USB Wireless adapter giving trouble.

Anythow - on to the issue: The card is installed OK. I'm using Windows Zero Configuration (I've also tried the wireless network software that came with the card), but I'm seeing the same symptoms. Basically, the card is not being assigned an IP address.
Windows in Seeing the network and I'm supplying the security keys and I get this :

So basically, Windows is telling me I have a connection, but it's not working

From the command with ipconfig I get :

[PHP]Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1[/PHP]

So - all that's being listed is my built-in Ethernet port - It's not even seeing the wireless card as active. (I have also tried it with my ehternet cable out and it's the same - it's just I need it in now to make this post)

When I used the bundled software to make the connection (instead of Windows Zero Config) it also thinks it's connected, but when I look at the details there is no IP, Gateway or DNS listed - they are all blank.

It seems like the drivers are there, but for some reason it's not being assinged an IP address.

I've done some googling but it's hard to find relevant info (maybe I'm using the wrong keywords...), and when I have, the problem other people had like mine was resolved by a reinstall of windows - not really a solution I can consider....

Anybody got ANY ideas ???

Dorsanty

Sounds like you are using DHCP to get the IP address from the wireless router.

Can you try with static IP configured?
Then test by trying to ping the router's IP address

deadl0ck

I've tried that.

I've assigned all settings manually, and plugged out the ethernet cable.

If I type "ipconfig" I get:

[PHP]Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
[/PHP]

If I ping the router (192.168.1.1) I get:

[PHP]Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),[/PHP]

The wireless icon in the system tray is still telling me I'm connected with Good signal strength....

deadl0ck

OK - got it sorted.

I had to "Show Hidden Devices" in my device manager in XP.

This is a menu item, but it doesn't show all hidden devices - you also need to add a system environment variable called "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices" and set it to "1".
The you see ALL hidden devices.

I could see all previous network adapters that were installed and I uninstalled as many of them as I could (I wasn't allowed uninstall some because windows was telling they may be needed for boot up even though they didn't exist). Any I couldn't uninstall, I disabled, until all that was left enabled was my ethernet port.
I then rebooted and reinstalled the Wireless PCI Card drivers and it all worked !

It took about 2 hours of googling to come up with this, so hopefully the solution can help someone else out also...

dub45

Thanks for posting that very interesting!

deadl0ck

Yep - it's amazing the amount of crap that still exists under device manager after you've removed/uninstalled the related hardware....