linked Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Ok, my friends called me over and asked me for some help with their in-home wlan network. So here's the shimmy, this one has me stumped- They use a 802.11g router to connect 3 computers over a WLAN network. Moms computer runs 98, dad and sister run XP. They all have 802.11b NICs. One day, all 3 computers lost network connection. Just totally out of the blue, I guess. Comcast told them to unplug everything, plug it back in. Mom and Dad are now back online. But sister can't get on, for some reason. I have absolutely 0 clue what's wrong. I tried changing workgroups, spent 2 hours tweaking the Routers settings, copied the dad's network settings onto the sis's, but still 0 luck. It's all linksys gear, and the problem is listed right on their site under knowlege base- "G router not connecting to a B card? turn on this, this and this".... And so I did that, to no avail. On the sisters computer, cmd=> ipconfig /all shows the card, listed as "Media disconnected" or something like that. The signal light on the card blinks, I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, but it's not giving any connection. When I click "View all wireless connections", all the boxxes are greyed out- This REALLY shouldn't be happening. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks a ton! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougkinzinger Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Check your firmware on the router. Run Windows Update and install all latest updates; in fact, I know that there's a relatively new Cisco-Linksys wireless NIC driver on Windows Update. If possible, check if that PC will connect if it's a wired connection; if you have an Ethernet card and cable and the PC is near the router. I'm guessing that Step 1 will probably help and take care of everything. If not, post back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bud1979 Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Have you set the SSID the same? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garry Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 SSID shouldn't matter if the router is broadcasting. Sister's PC should pick it up and ask whether it should attempt to connect. If possible, try one of the working cards in Sis's PC. This will tell you if it's a hardware/driver fault and rules out Windows at least. If it's a PCI card then try changing the antenna if possible. I once had two PCs next to each other. One could see the network, one couldn't. Stumped me ... then I changed the antenna and it worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bud1979 Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 SSID shouldn't matter if the router is broadcasting. Sister's PC should pick it up and ask whether it should attempt to connect.If possible, try one of the working cards in Sis's PC. This will tell you if it's a hardware/driver fault and rules out Windows at least. If it's a PCI card then try changing the antenna if possible. I once had two PCs next to each other. One could see the network, one couldn't. Stumped me ... then I changed the antenna and it worked. Try changing your SSID on the router and see what happens to your laptop. You wont be able to get on. Funny thing huh. The sisters pc should not ask to connect, very big security problem if you are broadcasting your SSID. Well maybe not if you are the hacker it would be nice. Well let me put it this way. IF the router is secured in any fasion and i think linksys does this by default now, but they will not broadcast the SSID. IF you change it on the laptop it will NOT work. It will also not get broadcasted. I am not saying this is the answer but it is something to look at. Also make sure that the router is in MIXED mode and not G only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garry Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 All home routers broadcast the SSID by default. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted October 13, 2003 Share Posted October 13, 2003 Garry: I am not sure if this is true with the new Linksys router, but you CAN turn off the SSID Broadcast on some of the new routers. This may be what he was referring to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts