My father bought a brand new laptop that runs Vista. When trying to connect to our wireless network the computer says it’s connected to the network but can’t access the internet. The signal strength varies; sometimes it’s a weak signal but the last time I checked it said it had an excellent signal. I tried a couple of things already. I unplugged the router for ten seconds and then plugged it back in and I turned off the Windows firewall. Neither of those worked. Also, my router is a Linksys WRT54G v5. The networking assistant on the laptop had a drop list of router model numbers and it had WRT54G but not WRT54G v5. We selected WRT54G and it didn’t work. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks so much.
If it says that it’s connected to the network, but you still can’t access the internet, there might be something wrong with your modem or with your Internet Service Provider.
I asssume your router connected to the internet through a DSL or cable modem. If so, have you checked whether or not the modem itself is working, and can connect to your ISP? And have you checked whether or not the router is properly connected to the modem?
It is a cable modem. The set up is the router and modem are connected to the desktop computer that I’m on right now and I have no problem getting online. My father bought the new laptop today to replace one an older one. That older laptop was able to get online this morning. We are trying to configure the new laptop and it’s been a pain in the ass. Are wireless networks always this much of a problem?
Try disconnecting the router and connecting directly to the modem. If this works, the problem is with your router.
I have the compact version of this #*^&% router, and this happens a lot. There are two things that seem to cause this issue: 1. it plays up when issuing a dynamic IP address. The only way I can make it work is to turn it off and on again; 2. It seems to have non-standard WPA encryption, that means some computers can’t decrypt. One way I got round this was to change the WPA encryption to a different type, and then use the Windows default wireless control panel, rather than Linksys’s proprietary software. Or vice versa (depending on the wireless card).
At the end of the day, I think the real answer may be “get another router”. That model sucks.
I have this problem with this router too. Usually I have to unplug the router for a moment and it fixes itself. I had to do it last night, actually, and had to go the extra step of repairing the connection on the laptop. I have XP, though.
But, did you try the WHOLE shebang? Turn off all the machines, unplug the router, unplug the modem, power up the modem and wait till all the lights come on, power up the router and wait for all the lights to come on, turn on the machines. And if needed, repair the connections.
WHA! The ol 54G is a fairly solid performer. I have never messed with the compact version, but I have seen more than my share of 54’s steadfastly chugging away.
to OP: Is you other machine On via wireless?
IME the wireless adapters on the machines are far more likely to be picky about their encryption rather than the router being unable to provide a compatible signal. IIRC that router can throw like 8 different combinations of encryption types and levels. Not every wiress card supports the same protocols. Try a more basic form of encryption and see if it has the same problem. Unless you are working from home involving very valuable transactions, massive encryption slows you down far more than it really protects anything
Does it connect when you hardwire it to the router?
I have a Linksys (not that model) and occasionally I lose internet access via wireless even though I can still ping the router wirelessly. Sometimes briefly connecting the laptop to the router with a network cable fixes the problem, i.e. the wireless starts working again.
I have a Linksys wireless router and a Westell DSL modem, which upon the purchase of the router did not want to play nicely together - I got symptoms similar to what you have.
Turns out that both devices have the same default IP address. I changed one of them and the problem went away.
(This was after trying solutions I’d found from the web that were all over the friggin’ map. Changes to all kinds of parameters on both devices that I didn’t really understand, which wound up not working.)
I had this problem, too, then I turned on the little on/off switch on the edge of the laptop to enable wireless.
(hangs head in Luddite shame.)
Yeah, I could hook up the whole system, but didn’t know about an on/off switch. Only took me like an hour to figure it out.
90% of the time it does chug away faithfully, but the wireless part does, regularly, lose the ability to issue dynamic IP addresses. It also failed to hook my Airport Xpress up using its version of WPA-2. I don’t believe Apple uses a different standard for this. I changed the encryption to WPA and the Airport Xpress worked, albeit with totally bursty data transfer: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off - presumably due to the router - rendering streaming audio useless. Unfortunately the move to WPA kicked one of my (three) laptops, the one with a Linksys PCMCIA wireless card, off the wireless network - I could no longer use Windows Wireless to auto-connect, and have had to use the Linksys driver instead (which takes forever to load up and doesn’t remember the network key… grrr…). The Linksys UI says “connected to network but cannot connect to internet” when the IP address problem happens. I’ve done a lot of research on various fora, and the IP address thing appears to be a known problem with the thing.
I’ve pulled that bonehead maneuver too (apparently the switch got nubbed while in the laptop case while traveling). But, in that case, you wouldn’t be attached to the network, would you? It’d say something about the connection being lost or disconnected (“A network cable is unplugged”, even though it’s a wireless network adapter).
Thanks for all the replies everyone. My father called Comcast cable and the guy on the phone said that sometimes Vista just doesn’t work with Linksys, so we’re getting a new router from them. I just hope that this isn’t a scam to get us to buy a modem/router from them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Do you have MAC address filtering set up on the router? I seem to recall that my sister’s Linksys will allow a wireless connection to the router to any computer, but will only dish out an IP address if the MAC is registered.
Vista doesn’t work with a lot of things, but most manufacturers have uploaded new drivers by now. Check the manufacturers website for Vista fixes. You might save yourself the cost of a modem.
I don’t think so, but how would I check that?
You nailed it in one. There were some linksys routers that shipped with setup software that was not vista compatible, most of them had a sticker on the box with the URL to download the new software. The routers themselves worked just fine under vista. Otherwise there is nothing special about any given router and any given o/s. AT&T likes to say you cannot use their service with anything less than XP too which is total BS, its just that their little autoinstallers only work in XP. Once a router is setup you can plug in pretty much anything.
You might wanna have a chat with linksys, I have never seen two of their pieces of hardware that would not work together like that. I have setup 4-5 wireless networks in the last month alone and I love their stuff. You may have a defective until that could be RMA’d.
Well one caveat, MAC locking.
Many many ISP’s look at the mac address, if the mac address has not been cloned from the puter you set up the internet with, it will not want to connect to the internet but the local network will still be fine.
The same thing happens when people neglect to switch the sign in info on those little speedstream DSL modems. A wrong password or username typo in there and everything looks perfect, just no internet.