Ethernet works, wireless doesn't - why?

Factual Questions
1

I’m housesitting for a relative for a few days, with comes with internet privileges, just BYO-laptop. Unfortunately, I am having a bitch of a time establishing a wireless connection to her D-Link DIR-625 router. I can see the network, I can connect to the network, (it’s not a question of having the right password, in that case I couldn’t connect at all) but the Windows XP Wireless Network Connection properties say that I have “Limited or no connectivity” and I can’t load any web pages or ping any address outside the network. I have no problems reaching the internet when connected to the router by ethernet cable. (And I have no troubles with other wireless networks.)

I don’t have admin access to the router, and I’m not able to reset it to gain access (I was told when I called the relative to not change any settings). But I hopefully that this is a problem that can be resolved on my end by changing settings in my laptop? (The setup page for the router, which I can view but not change in User mode, says something about a “Add Wireless Device Wizard,” but of course I don’t have permissions to run that.)

Has anyone ever heard of something like this before?

2

You could re-set the router but that sounds like a no-no in the current scenario. There are also firmware upgrades for the unit that are to solve compatibility issues with certain wireless chip sets, but as these may re-set the settings and require re-configuration I would imagine they are also verboten.

Just live with a cable for a bit .Iit’s far easier than dealing with freaked out relative who thinks you screwed up their net connection. If you have your own wireless router you could easily takes theirs off line and use yours for a few days and avoid the problem entirely. If your notebooks connectivity is being handled by an manufacturer’s applet vs windows itself, removing it and relying on windows to mediate the wireless connection is usually a higher success strategy than relying on the applet as most wireless router firmware is designed to be interfacing with XP’s native OS wireless IO.

You might also trying upgrading your notebooks wirelss chipset to the latest BIOS version and using windows update in non- express mode to get he latest XP drivers for your laptop’s wireless card.

3

Does it acquire an IP address? Have you tried configuring that manually?

You can use MS’s Resource Kit WNTIPCFG.EXE

4

It sounds like the wireless access is locked down to prevent bandwidth theft. You probably need to register the MAC address of your laptop with the wireless router. To do that, you’ll need admin access…

5

But the OP can connect to the wireless network, at the link level if not the IP level.

I have had the same issue with my switch - through a cable everything works, but on wireless I sometimes mysteriously lose the internet connection, even though I can still see the internal network. I have tried all sorts of things, updating drivers and firmware left, right and centre, and it still doesn’t work reliably. I just put it down to wireless LANs being immature technology, and reboot the box. If you can’t do that then you may be stuck with network cables.

6

Not exactly: he can see that the network is there, but cannot connect to it. The network has not been hidden, as would often be the case - and should be for security - so he can see it, but it’s rejecting his attempts to connect.

7

Sounds like a DNS issue to me.

8

My wireless router does this all the time, with my laptop that it “knows.” All I do is unplug the router and plug it back in. This is not the same as a hard reset - no settings are lost.

9

Then I must be interpreting the OP’s “I can see the network, I can connect to the network” differently to you.

10

It could be that the wireless router is not assigning DHCP via the wireless link (or maybe you have a static IP address on your wireless adapter but not on your wired adapter).

When you are connected to the wired network, click Start, then Run…
type **cmd **and click OK
This will start the CMD shell.
Type ipconfig /all

look for a line that says Ethernet Connection Local Area Network (or something like that), and identify the IP Address.

Then disconnect the cable, fire up the wireless and do the same, looking for the Wireless Connection IP Address. If the two do not have the same initial three octets (probably 192.168.0.xxx) then your wireless connection is not configured correctly to work.

Go to Control Panel, open the Network Connections. Right click on the Local Area Connection, select Properties, select the* Internet Protocol* and hit Configure. Take a note of the settings, then do the same with the Wireless Adapter. Make sure that the two are configures the same. If that does not work, try assigning the IP address you get from the wired adapter as a static address on the Wireless adapter.

Si

11

Thanks for the replies, folks…

Astro, I am using Windows to manage the wireless connections. Using the cable is okay for short periods, but it’s a big house and I have a puppy to watch, and I really didn’t bring anything to do other than the laptop. I’d like to get this fixed now, before the three weeks I’ll be here in April.

Sailor, I’m not getting an IP address. I tried configuring it manually, but my aunt did say that it’s set up to assign them dynamically, so I think that’s a symptom, not the problem.

Quartz, no, the network is password-protected, but I have the password. Everything’s cool there. It’s just once I’m connected - and I can connect - the rest of it doesn’t work.

Ximenean, see reply to Astro, while using the cable is possible it makes my stay very tedious.

beowulff, and what can I do about that?

ZipperJJ, I really don’t want to take the chance that that might reset the settings, sorry. My aunt is scary.

si_blakely, I know that my laptop’s wireless connection is working fine, I use it at home all the time.
Does it help anyone’s guesses to know that if I plug another wireless router into my aunt’s router, it works just fine? Unfortunately my roommates depend on my router at home for their internet to work, and I’m not sure if I can abuse OfficeDepot’s return policy to “borrow” a router like I did last time, and my pockets aren’t so deep I can buy a new router just for this.

12

Your wireless connection is fine - I didn’t suggest otherwise. What your problem is, is that the way it is configured (which works with your router, and others) is not compatible with the way your aunts wireless is set up. Neither setup is wrong, but since you can’t fiddle with the router, you can reconfigure (temporarily) your wireless adapter. You just need to figure out what those are, and the steps I gave you should help.

Si

13

Try deactivating your notebook’s onboard XP firewall and see what happens. The router will have a hardware firewall so you still have protection.

14

If you don’t have an IP address, you need to fix that before moving up to higher networking levels. The router is probably configured to dole out IP addresses but only to certain, known MAC addresses.

If you don’t want to to mess with the router, you could try setting your MAC address to be the same as your Aunt’s PC’s address. That way, as long as both are not online at the same time, the router will think your PC is hers.

The MAC address is hard-coded into the network card, but windows uses a registry key to store it in software.

If you have access to her PC, do an IPCONFIG /ALL command and note down the “Physical Address” of her WIFI card.

Instructions for editing your MAC address to match can be found here.

If you don’t have access to her PC, and you can’t change any router settings, you are probably SOL.

15

Windows XP Wireless Network Connection properties say that I have “Limited or no connectivity”

XP’s wireless manager isnt very verbose. The assumption that you just need an IP is probably wrong. This is also the error you get when the wireless manager is using the wrong password. Id recheck the wep key/wpa passphrase. The XP wireless manager or perhaps some drivers really dont differentiate between the link and network layer.

Can you get into the router? You should be able to see the wep/wpa key.

16

I’ve fixed these issues by right clicking on the network connection, and selecting “Repair”.

17

I have had the exact same symptoms as the OP on several occasions and it was always this. In one case (with McAfee IIRC) I had to completely uninstall the firewall software to get the computer to allow the connection. Sheesh! (and, yes, I do understand how firewalls operate and how to allow internal IP addresses, etc)