Wireless Networking Gurus, I Need HELP!!!

nsxtasy said:
No.

But I never set this up before, and it was working ...

No to which part? No, you are not running DHCP on the router? Then each machine is set to a specific IP address and the same subnet? If not, where are your machines obtaining their IP and subnet info? By default the router is running DHCP handing out way more IPs than you will ever need and all of the "client" machines should be set to "obtain ip address automatically". Tell us more about how you are setup please.
 
lemansnsx said:
No to which part? No, you are not running DHCP on the router? Then each machine is set to a specific IP address and the same subnet? If not, where are your machines obtaining their IP and subnet info? By default the router is running DHCP handing out way more IPs than you will ever need and all of the "client" machines should be set to "obtain ip address automatically". Tell us more about how you are setup please.
First of all, I again want to say how much I appreciate the advice and assistance. You guys rock.

I never did anything with DHCP. This was always set to the default.

During the debugging process, I entered an IP address, then reset it to obtain it automatically. Aside from that single instance, the client machine was always set to obtain IP address automatically.
 
nsxtasy said:
I never did anything with DHCP. This was always set to the default.


So the answer is that DHCP is running on the router and that is where the clients are getting their IP and subnet info, correct? We're still at the point where the connectoid says that you have a good signal but you can't reach the 'net? Have you tried pinging any addresses on the internet - say a public server that you know the IP for? Don't rely on pinging your ISP's servers - they shouldn't be pingable.
What happens when you go to "start" then "run" type "CMD" and then type "ipconfig" on the client machine? Do you get an ip address from the pool handed out by your router? Do you get the default gateway address which should be the address of your router? Do you get any DNS information there?
 
lemansnsx said:
So the answer is that DHCP is running on the router and that is where the clients are getting their IP and subnet info, correct?
Yes. It has "enable" checked on the DHCP screen for the router configuration.

lemansnsx said:
We're still at the point where the connectoid says that you have a good signal but you can't reach the 'net?
Yes.

lemansnsx said:
Have you tried pinging any addresses on the internet - say a public server that you know the IP for?
Yes. yahoo.com and cnn.com both time out.

lemansnsx said:
What happens when you go to "start" then "run" type "CMD" and then type "ipconfig" on the client machine? Do you get an ip address from the pool handed out by your router? Do you get the default gateway address which should be the address of your router? Do you get any DNS information there?
No. It shows no IP address and just 0.0.0.0 for the others.
 
nsxtasy said:
Yes. yahoo.com and cnn.com both time out.

That's not quite what I meant. What I should have specified was pinging a numerical IP address not a domain address. Never mind - it is pointless if you are not getting an IP address.


nsxtasy said:
No. It shows no IP address and just 0.0.0.0 for the others.

If it ain't gettin' an IP address then there is no point in anything else - the connectoid that claims to have a good signal must be mistaken!
I renew my objections to USB network devices and add recommendations that all of your hardware be from the same manufacturer and preferably of the same "family" - meaning "G" or "B" on both ends.
 
More info...

It doesn't just time out on yahoo.com, it says "Cannot find host for yahoo.com"

When I do an ipconfig, it doesn't show any "Connection Specific DNS suffix", but it DOES show my ISP's IP address as "Autoconfiguration IP Address".

:confused:
 
nsxtasy said:
More info...

It doesn't just time out on yahoo.com, it says "Cannot find host for yahoo.com"

When I do an ipconfig, it doesn't show any "Connection Specific DNS suffix", but it DOES show my ISP's IP address as "Autoconfiguration IP Address".

:confused:

Sorry - you've lost me. If the wireless adapter is not showing an IP address when you do ipconfig then how is it showing what I assume is your public IP address? IOW, the only address that has anything to do with your ISP is the IP address that they hand out to your cable modem - which is passed to your router - which is where that address stops and the router's DHCP takes over - handing out internal IP addresses to your client computers. So, what you should see in ipconfig is the IP address of the adapter on the client computer (obtained from the DHCP server in the router), the default gateway to the internet which is the address of the router itself, and the DNS of your ISP's domain name servers - usually two of them. As I said, I'm lost.
 
lemansnsx said:
recommendations that all of your hardware be from the same manufacturer and preferably of the same "family" - meaning "G" or "B" on both ends.
I tried that the first time...

Now I'm wondering whether I should just give up on wireless, and try this:

Is Broadband Out of a Wall Socket the Next Big Thing?
By JAMES FALLOWS

New York Times Published: July 11, 2004

I WANT to finish this column before a familiar mood has passed. That is the sense of wonder at seeing that a new form of technology actually works. Based on previous episodes, the mood will soon give way to jadedness. (The first time I used a digital camera, I was amazed that I could see the pictures immediately after I shot them. Within a few days, I had a list of ways the camera should be improved.) So, in this fleeting upbeat moment, here is a word of appreciation for an advance that already has me wondering how I lived without it.

It is known variously as B.P.L, for broadband over power lines, or as HomePlug. As a concept, it has been around for a long time. What is new in the last two years is a series of technical breakthroughs, mainly in chips designed by Intellon, a tiny company in Ocala, Fla. These chips have made power-line transmission fast enough, cheap enough and reliable enough to merit serious attention. A standards-setting group called the HomePlug alliance has also played an important role.

The idea behind this approach is that plain old electric wires can do double duty in carrying high-speed digital data, much the same way that cable, fiber-optic and D.S.L. networks do. The advantage is that the needed electric wires are already there, bringing power to nearly every house in the nation and almost every room in each house. So for a tiny fraction of the cost of building new connections, this approach could help solve the familiar "last mile" problem: how to bring Internet service from trunk lines to each school and household. It can immediately deal with the increasingly vexing "last hundred feet" problem: how to bring broadband service to every nook and cranny of a building.

Here's how it can work inside your house: First, you need a high-speed connection. For me, that's a Starpower cable modem. Then you need a router so your computers can share the connection. Routers have become cheap and very easy to set up. I have a model from Linksys that creates a WiFi zone for my house and costs $60; similar models go for less than $50 on eBay.

If I have a wireless network, why do I want anything else? Because my house has walls, and the walls (and floors) get in the way of the wireless signal, which is coming from the attic, where the cable happens to enter the house. So in half the rooms of the house - to say nothing of the back porch - I suffer the indignity of a weak or unusable WiFi signal. Until recently, my options were to endure this hardship stoically, to pay the cable company to drill new holes and move the cable modem to a central location, or to drape unsightly Ethernet cable down the staircase and through the house to hook up more computers. I toyed with the Ethernet cable option, but one glance from my wife at the garish neon-yellow coils convinced me that stoicism was the wiser course.

Now there is another option: a HomePlug network. I needed a "power-line bridge" to make the network available over the electrical lines in my house - mine was the Netgear XE102 and cost about $50; similar models come from Siemens, Asoka Belkin and other companies that meet the HomePlug standard. I connected it to the router and plugged it into an ordinary wall socket. Instantly, every other socket in the house, and on the porch, became a high-speed-connection site. If I plug another bridge into any other socket, I have the equivalent of an Ethernet port. If I plug in a device called a wireless access point, like a $60 model I got from Siemens, I have a new WiFi hot spot wherever I want it - until I decide to move it someplace else.

In Potomac, Md., outside Washington, I recently visited a nondescript tract house set up to demonstrate the potential of such technology. Using only the built-in electric wires as a transmission system, the house had as much broadband activity under way as a typical college dorm: A movie streaming to a big-screen TV. Music playing from a Web site. A multiplayer interactive game under way, via Xbox. Four or five ordinary computers on the Internet. A computer in one room sending instructions to a printer down the hall. Telephone calls being made via Internet transmission - and much more, all of it coming right out of the wall sockets. I suppose it would have been more impressive had it come right out of the sewer, but this was pretty good.

The demo house was designed by a company called Current Technologies, which uses power lines to solve the "last mile" problem. Current recently struck a major deal with Cinergy, the investor-owned utility in the Cincinnati area, to use Cinergy's electrical lines as an Internet transmission system. In areas where Cinergy is rolling out the service, customers don't even need a cable modem or D.S.L. connection. When they sign up for service, which costs slightly less than cable or D.S.L. rates, they get one free plug-in modem - and others for $30 each - and then have a true "plug and play" broadband connection. The routers are on outside utility poles; the circuitry of the entire house carries both electrical power and Internet data.

"Our customers have loved it," said Bill Grealis, executive vice president of Cinergy, "because they can take the little modem from outlet to outlet and they can have many people online at once, without the hassles of setting up routers. And the speed is terrific."

Mr. Grealis said Cinergy had expected 10 percent of its eligible customers to sign up in the first year and another 10 percent in the second. In fact, 15 percent signed up in the first eight weeks, so Cinergy's main problem has been managing customer demand.

BILL BERKMAN, the chairman of Current, said the power-line system had advantages for utilities like Cinergy because it made their electric grids "intelligent." The systems can automatically sense service interruptions, problems and performance levels more quickly and precisely than they otherwise could. But no one, including Mr. Berkman, contends that power-line transmission is the exclusive or final answer to broadband problems.

"It's another tool in the toolbox," he said, to be used with cable, D.S.L., a promising wireless technology called WiMax and other systems, employing each one where it is most efficient. John H. F. Miner, the president of Intel Capital, said that in the long run, all of today's data networks might have to give way to fiber-optic systems with even higher capacity. But that could take a long time - and in the short term, power-line transmission could be valuable not only in the United States, but also "in places with inferior telecom infrastructure but great power grids, like Russia." Tomorrow that may sound ho-hum. As I write, it still seems exciting.

James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. E-mail: [email protected].
 
Okay, I am now TOTALLY BAFFLED, but...

I just tried it again, and now IT IS WORKING FINE. I don't understand why. But sure enough, it is showing the proper network-internal IP address (192.168.1.101) for the client PC, and it now has full e-mail and internet connectivity.

What did I change? The ONLY thing I changed just now was to enter the WEP key, which was there yesterday as one of the things I was trying (I had disabled the WEP function and deleted the key to see if that made it work - it didn't). I swear I tried it earlier with the WEP key at least three times, and it never worked.

:confused: :confused: :confused:
 
nsxtasy said:
I tried that the first time...

Now I'm wondering whether I should just give up on wireless, and try this:

I'll refrain from commenting on the powerline networking but I will say that millions of people are running WiFi with no issues - some over quite long distances - wide areas - etc with no problems at all. Sorry that this is so frustrating - somewhere along the way you got some equipment that was produced on a bad day or something...:confused:

Edit: just saw your last post - no answer for you but if is working that's great! Now leave it alone!
 
It seems to be going in and out... but apparently the configuration is fine. I think it may turn out to be a reception issue after all, as first suspected (with the ability for the client PC to configure itself hampered when the reception is not there). I think I may try a stronger antenna. Stay tuned (no pun intended)...
 
nsxtasy said:
I think I may try a stronger antenna. Stay tuned (no pun intended)...

As I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread you can easily upgrade the antennas - there are rubber ducky styles available for the router that will go from about 2.2db to 5db or higher. There are other styles that can go to 12db. As I also mentioned earlier you can replace the router firmware with a version that allows for adjusting the power level up - to about 84mw if I remember right.

What are the distances and what's the construction like?
 
I see the follow-up posts, but wanted to comment on this:
nsxtasy said:
No. It shows no IP address and just 0.0.0.0 for the others.
Something could have been out of whack in the DHCP client (or other software related to TCP/IP) on the computer. I think this might explain why a signal strength is good, but cannot ping the router or Internet sites.
 
lemansnsx said:
As I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread you can easily upgrade the antennas - there are rubber ducky styles available for the router that will go from about 2.2db to 5db or higher. There are other styles that can go to 12db.
Anything that is less expensive than the $40 for the Hawking Technologies antenna? I was planning to go out and buy one in the morning.

lemansnsx said:
As I also mentioned earlier you can replace the router firmware with a version that allows for adjusting the power level up - to about 84mw if I remember right.
I had already upgraded the router firmware to the latest version as part of my previous debugging exercise.

lemansnsx said:
What are the distances and what's the construction like?
Construction is a wood frame house. The router is on the first floor and the client PC is on the second floor, a couple of rooms over; horizontal distance about 40 feet, vertical distance about 10 feet.
 
NSXF1 said:
XP has it's own issues with Wifi before you through in the dodgy USB adapter.
Yes, the first link you posted (which the other two refer to) was previously above. However, the workaround described in that article just didn't work for me.

Thanks, though.
 
nsxtasy said:
Anything that is less expensive than the $40 for the Hawking Technologies antenna? I was planning to go out and buy one in the morning.

CompUSA have the Hawking 6db omni-directional antenna for $29.99. You can spend more or less but the Hawking is an excellent starting point.

nsxtasy said:
I had already upgraded the router firmware to the latest version as part of my previous debugging exercise.

Yes I know - but my original post on firmware referred to "aftermarket" stuff - specifically Sveasoft - who offer more features and tune-abilitiy than the original Linksys firmware.


Originally posted by nsxtasy
Construction is a wood frame house. The router is on the first floor and the client PC is on the second floor, a couple of rooms over; horizontal distance about 40 feet, vertical distance about 10 feet.

Hard to know for sure without seeing how many layers of wood/drywall that it has to pass through but that sounds like stretching the limits of a typical low-power network adapter and cheap stock antenna.
 
nsxtasy said:
Yes, the first link you posted (which the other two refer to) was previously above. However, the workaround described in that article just didn't work for me.

Thanks, though.


The "zero configuration wireless" service in Windows XP can be safely turned off and disabled from Control Panel. It serves no useful purpose.
 
lemansnsx said:
CompUSA have the Hawking 6db omni-directional antenna for $29.99. You can spend more or less but the Hawking is an excellent starting point.
Why the $30 omni-directional antenna, vs the $40 directional antenna? (Keep in mind that I'm hooking up only one client PC and I know what direction it's in.)

(Yes, I was planning to go to CompUSA...)
 
nsxtasy said:
Why the $30 omni-directional antenna, vs the $40 directional antenna? (Keep in mind that I'm hooking up only one client PC and I know what direction it's in.)

(Yes, I was planning to go to CompUSA...)

Errr, ummm, ahh - because I missed it in a quick look on their site? :( :(
 
No, what I mean is, if you think the $30 omni-directional will do as well for me as the $40 directional, I'd be happy to save the $10 - LMK...
 
nsxtasy said:
No, what I mean is, if you think the $30 omni-directional will do as well for me as the $40 directional, I'd be happy to save the $10 - LMK...

If the store is close and your time is free then yes. For me the closest store that has this type of thing is 40 minutes one way so I would not try to save the $10. Hope that makes sense.
 
Incidentally, it appears I can only easily connect the external antenna to the router, not to the USB adapter. So that's what I'm going to do. It also isn't clear whether I can get by replacing just one of the two antennas on the router, rather than both; I'll see if anyone at the store knows.

There's an informative third-party review of the Hawking directional antenna starting here. It notes that "The company also makes the Hi Gain 6dB Omni-Directional Wireless Antenna, which is similar, but intended to provide strength from all directions. This means not pointing at the other devices, but seeing the ones all around. This would generally work better, but not provide the maximum targeted signal boost."

Their conclusion sounds like good advice:

"If you need an antenna to improve your wireless network reliability or performance, it honestly is a crap shoot. What you need to ask yourself is if your situation is realistically able to be improved. If you are in a horrible building for wireless, or the distance is just too far, no product will work well, and you would be better spent focusing on adjusting the placement of your wireless access point, relative to your devices.

On the other hand, if you are in a normal type of structure, and want to improve something that almost works, this is an excellent choice. There aren't many competitors, and this particular one is both affordable and very functional. Recommended."
 
nsxtasy said:

"If you need an antenna to improve your wireless network reliability or performance, it honestly is a crap shoot. What you need to ask yourself is if your situation is realistically able to be improved."

I'll disagree with them on this part. Any situation can be improved and, in my experience, almost always with complete success. Between antennas, more powerful cards, router tweaks, not to mention access point placement and use of repeaters any difficulties can be overcome.
Good review anyway. Hopefully the Hawking solves your issues!

PS: I assumed that you would only be adding the antenna to the router as most USB adapters do not provide any means of connecting an external antenna - as is true of many PCMCIA adapters also.
 
I used to have a Linksys router on the main computer and a Linksys wireless adapter on the second computer. Transfer rate was a 11 MBPS but had to be slowed to 1 MBPS because of a cast iron tub in the way. Shortly thereafter the wireless adapter went south.

I replaced both devices with wireless Dell router / adapter and was getting transfer rate as high as 54 MBPS......with the devices in the same location as their Linksys counterparts, still transmitting through the cast iron tub. I have even raised both devices to high points in their respective room and transmission rate does not increase.

A few days later, neither PC would connect to the internet. I bypassed the router on the main PC, plugging directly into the DSL modem and it connected to the internet. I pressed the router's reset button, re-connected everything wireless and both PCs can see the internet.

Next day, same thing happened. But this time simply pressing the router's reset button did not work. I also unplugged the power. After hooking everything back up, both PCs can see the internet.

A router shouldn't have to be "powered down" should it? Especially when there is no on-off switch, right? Last night when I got home there was a message that a "new unit" will be mailed to me. I can only think that after my complaint to Dell, they concluded that the router is bad. The router is two weeks old. Is this common?
 
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