Netopia Router, connection issues & confusion!

--amadeus--

Hi,

I am having problems with my wireless network and it has me totally baffled - all help appreciated!

I have a wireless Netopia router in the house, connected to eircom b/band. In my home office I have a laptop running Vista and a desktop running XP. The laptop is connecting and running fine.

The desktop always used to connect and work but now it's not. I had to re-format the HD and re-install XP. I have put the drivers back on for the card (Belkin G network card). I can enter my routers IP address and view the configure screen so I am able to connect to it. The desktop is also able to collect an IP address using DHCP from the router, though I now have a manual IP address set on it.

From the troubleshoot screen I can test addresses using the desktop PC and all is fine. But if I enter a URL I get an "Opening..." message in the status bar and eventually it just timesout.

I have tried pinging from the command prompt and it resolves the URL to an IP address but again reports a timeout.

As I said it always worked before and my laptop has no problems. Using the desktop I can connect to the router but no further. Any bright ideas because I am stumped!

Thanks!

MarkR

If you can access the routers config page, I'd concentrate on your TCP/IP settings on the desktop.

The static ip should be fine, but check your gateway is set to the routers ip address.

--amadeus--

Yep, all fine there.

Router IP is 192.168.1.254

Desktop settings are:

IP: 192.168.1.250
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.
Gateway: 192.168.1.254

DNS: 192.168.1.254
Alternate: 213.94.190.236

I have a different network config for the domain in the office (the DC has an addy of 192.168.2.253 and the LAN has that set as it's default gateway but as it's on a different network and has worked in the past I assumend thats not the problem?)

Are there any strange firewall settings in XP?

MarkR

Nothing in xp that will block internet access, have you installed any firewall? Try setting your dns to the ones listed in your modem's config page. I don't think you can leave them as auto while using a static.

Can you put on dhcp for a minute to test?

--amadeus--

The 2nd DNS server address above was from the router, I left the router itself as teh primary DNS but had no joy.

Reset so that teh wireless settings are all DHCP allocated (192.168.1.1 with router as DHCP/DNS and gateway). Still no joy - won't open any pages and a timeout if I try to ping but I can open the routers config screen.

Aggghhhh!!!

--amadeus--

I'm now trying a different tack - have put the wireless card into the server, it's connecting and I can browse from here. I have shared teh connection and reset the IP address of the desktop to the new (192.168.0.1) address of teh server. I can ping the server by name and browse files on it's shares from teh desktop so I haver connectivity to it.

BUT I STILL CAN'T BROWSE!!!!

Aggghhh!

I need to get the desktop to route it's internet through the server. Please can someone tell me which part of teh keyboard I need to hit with the hammer to make this work!

Thanks!

allybhoy

Can you try some other troubleshooting, first of all leave it on DHCP, if the laptop\server is working off DHCP then it should be fine, also is it possible for you to use a CAT5 cable,even though the server was working off wireless its best just to try and rule out every scenario. Try access the internet with a CAT5 cable, if it works its the wireless adapter, so try and ping your loopback, ping your router's address, you should get a response, then try and ping an external address without using DNS, so try 159.134.248.17. If that works but you still cant browse try and get an updated version of the driver. If internet access doesnt work with either wired/wireless check to see if for some reason a proxy is enabled. open IE, then >tools>internet options>connections>Lan settings. Make sure none of the boxes are ticked in here. If still no joy post back.

--amadeus--

Thanks for the post...

At a client site today but:

also is it possible for you to use a CAT5 cable,even though the server was working off wireless its best just to try and rule out every scenario.

Can't do that easily - the desktop is in my office at the foot of my garden and teh router is in the house - it's about 40m away. I do have some long CAT5 but I don't think I have any that length. I could lug the PC up to teh house but that's a bit of a last resort. Particularly since I can access teh routers control page from teh desktop, so I can actually connect to it.

so try and ping your loopback, ping your router's address, you should get a response, then try and ping an external address without using DNS, so try 159.134.248.17. If that works but you still cant browse try and get an updated version of the driver.

I haven't pinged teh router (since I can connect to it) but I am able to ping internal servers. When I try to ping external by domain name it resolves to an IP address but then I get a timeout. I think I tried pinging by Ip yesterday and I got a timeout but I'll check when I get back. The driver is teh latest one - downloaded fresh off the Belkin website yesterday.

If internet access doesnt work with either wired/wireless check to see if for some reason a proxy is enabled. open IE, then >tools>internet options>connections>Lan settings. Make sure none of the boxes are ticked in here. If still no joy post back.

Checked this yesterday and all boxes are unticked.

I'm pretty convinced that the problem lies with the desktop PC, but not in the IP settings. It's almost as if external communication was being blocked somehow. When I get back and get a chance I'm going to try another PC but it is getting very frustrating.

allybhoy

Ok, well if u havnt got any long CAT5 fair enough, but I would try and find some as this would narrow it down to an adapter issue or a general networking issue. You could also try a trace route command to see where the communication is breaking down, like if its even getting to your default gateway. It might also be worth checking out your services, if its just a standard XP SP2 installation this website gives a list of what should be started by default. Hope its some help.....

http://www.ss64.com/ntsyntax/services.html

If everything checks out fine that investigate your router, have a look at the log page and see if you can see any traffic coming from the pc's ip and see what its doing with it. I had a similar problem with a new pc a while ago and it turned out that the router was blocking the traffic coming from the pc for antivirus reasons, however that was a sonicwall.