I bought a linksys Compact Wireless G router and brought it home, under the impression that it would work for my Dell laptop and Mrs. Dewgrrl’s new MacBook Pro.
I used my laptop to configure the router and set the key, etc.
The Mac’s airport picked up the signal, the key was accepted, and it connected without a problem.
My Dell on the otherhand…detects the wireless connection (along with my neighbors) but when I type in the key and hit ‘connect’, it just churns away for a few minutes and then dumps me back on the the ‘Wireless Network Connection’ screen without connecting me.
I rebooted, and it is still not connecting.
I’m using the old Lucent Technologies Orinoco 11Mbit/s Gold card that was provided by my employer, along with the laptop. It is the card that I have used (successfully) to connect wirelessly since I’ve had this laptop. At work, at Starbucks, at the airport, at conferences, etc.
On the setup page under Wireless, there a Wireless Network Mode. It should set to mixed because the card you are describing is an 802.11B rather than an 802.11G card like current ones. The router is backwards compatible with it but you have to make both types of connections available.
Not sure if that will work but it is an obvious place to start.
Also in the router config, the Channel was set to 6, so I just went into my card config and changed it from ‘default’ to ‘06’ and that didn’t work either.
I wasn’t prompted to reboot after changing the channel on the card, so I didn’t.
Do you have WPA security enabled on the network? If so, I bet that’s the problem. The drivers for that card were released well before WPA was finalized in 2003, and therefore, it doesn’t know how to connect to your network. This site seems to have a working link to updated drivers; try them and see if it works.
I agree that at this point the problem is with the receiver end rather than the router itself. I am certain that you have to pursue further exploits at the computer with the connection hardware. 802.11b cards are so cheap they can be free and they can still connect at speeds near the highest speed internet connections. I would replace the card if you can’t find updated software. If you have any computer geek friends, they may very well have free 802.11B cards that will work just fine.
Are you sure your Dell isn’t connected? My Dell laptop will connect to my wireless when I first turn it on, then it will change the status to Not Connected. But it is actually still working, I can get online and work with my shared files on my desktop. I don’t know why it does it, but at least it works.
Hijacking the thread somewhat with another router question:
When I found my current apartment, I asked “do you have high speed internet?”
Guy said yes, DSL. OK, I prefer cable but heck I won’t complain.
Only, he keeps the modem in his locked room and hadn’t even thought of a router until I asked. The wi-fi router is finally in, it’s physically connected to his laptop, in his locked room. The guy who brought it didn’t touch my own laptop at all.
My thingee is a brand new case of “the works” and picks up the wi-fi at hotels and airports just fine, but at home nothing of nuthin’.
One day I spent two hours poking and peeking at screens, on the phone with another guy from the DSL service. Nothing. Next day, I get home from work and it works! I tell the roomie and he says “I remembered a screen the other DSL guy had touched, that you guys didn’t go into yesterday. There was a little square that said ‘don’t let anybody connect’ and I took it off.”
But except for that one day, it hasn’t worked. Dude refuses to move the modem to the living room; I’ve asked him to check that little square again and he insists it has to be my card (my card is fine, thanks).
The Final Solution I’m applying, since he has other “charming” qualities and I’d rather live the best I can, is move, but:
could that “little square” be in his firewall, and the whole thing set so that his laptop is the LAN server and I can’t connect if the 'wall doesn’t let me? Could it be some other setting by which the laptop is telling the router to stop emitting? I don’t even pick up a signal!