ISP Address with wireless

[mostsmooth]

hey
i discovered last night that i couldnt connect to the internet with my wireless laptop.
it tells me the ISP address couldnt be found, or something to that affect. the desktop connects fine (cable connection).
the linksys wireless seems to be connecting to the router, just cant get to the net.
what do i need to do? anybody? maybe im being too vague?
i hate working from the desktop!

[mostsmooth]

ok, more info.
when i right click the connection icon and select repair, it syas the following steps of the repair operation failed: "renweing the IP address" please contact your network administrator or ISP.
i dont think its an isp problem, as the desktop is connecting fine.
whats wrong!?!?

[PLOlover]

unplug your router, wait a minute, plug it back in.

THis will work 95% of the time.

[mostsmooth]

no good
still cant get it working
the laptop is deifnitely connecting to the wireless router, but thats where it gets stuck i think
when i click repair under the wireless network connection tab in netwrok connections on the laptop, it tells me"the following steps of the operation failed: Renewing the IP address"
i have both the laptop and the desktop setup to automatically detect the address. the desktop works fine, the laptop wont connect.
one note, the cable modem is connectd to the desktop with a usb connection. theres an ethernet connection from the cable modem to the wireless router. theres a ethernet connect from the router to the desktop NIC. i believe this is the way it has been setup all along and was working fine until the other day. there is a possibility somebody messed around with the wires, but probably not. does anything above make sense?
help me please
/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[mostsmooth]

ok minor update
i just unplugged the usb cable from the cable modem to the desktop. i can still access the internet through the router. the laptop says its connected to the same router, but cant reach the internet?????

Tried rebooting the lappie yet? Are you using WEP on one but not the other? Also, a lot of routers have web interfaces, like http://192.168.0.1 for example (admin/admin for login/pass on a lot of Linksys gear I believe, maybe no login name, just the password). You could log into it via your desktop if the desktop is also on the 192.168.0.x network.

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
Tried rebooting the lappie yet? Are you using WEP on one but not the other? Also, a lot of routers have web interfaces, like http://192.168.0.1 for example (admin/admin for login/pass on a lot of Linksys gear I believe, maybe no login name, just the password). You could log into it via your desktop if the desktop is also on the 192.168.0.x network.

[/ QUOTE ]
the laptop says it is assosciating with the router, but cant access the net. i believe the wep stuff is matched up correctly. if the wep stuff was wrong, would i even be able to access then router?
i did log into the 192.168, but that didnt seem to help, unless theres somehting special there im supposed to do?

Is the AP assigning the laptop an IP address now, whereas it wasn't before?

Start->Run->type: cmd->type: ipconfig /all|find "IP A"

Does that show a 192.168.0.x IP address?

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
Is the AP assigning the laptop an IP address now, whereas it wasn't before?

Start->Run->type: cmd->type: ipconfig /all|find "IP A"

Does that show a 192.168.0.x IP address?

[/ QUOTE ]
how do i make that symbol between the all and find above?all|find?
and i should be doing this on the lap top or desktop? and what the hell is AP?

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
Is the AP assigning the laptop an IP address now, whereas it wasn't before?

Start->Run->type: cmd->type: ipconfig /all|find "IP A"

Does that show a 192.168.0.x IP address?

[/ QUOTE ]
i did this on the desktop an got a 192.168.1.x address, which matches up with what the linksys directions give

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
Is the AP assigning the laptop an IP address now, whereas it wasn't before?

Start->Run->type: cmd->type: ipconfig /all|find "IP A"

Does that show a 192.168.0.x IP address?

[/ QUOTE ]
i did this on the laptop and it gave me "autoconfiguration IP address...169.254.216.xxx"
i x'ed out the numbers, i dont know why /images/graemlins/grin.gif

AP = Access Point (wireless router)

Make a | by holding shift and looking for it on your keyboard, or copy paste it from this thread /images/graemlins/grin.gif (mine is beside my backspace key)

Run that on the laptop. I want to see if the Access Point is giving you an IP address at this point or not. It doesn't sound like it, but maybe it is.

169.254.x.x is what Windows automatically assigns when it can't get an IP address any other way. Try to reassociate with the AP (reboot the laptop if necessary, or just reinsert the wireless NIC if it's external). Only thing I would do from here is look around the web interface on the AP, specifically the DHCP settings. Wish I knew what exactly to tell you to do/look for, but hopefully there will be a clue in there somewhere.

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
169.254.x.x is what Windows automatically assigns when it can't get an IP address any other way. Try to reassociate with the AP (reboot the laptop if necessary, or just reinsert the wireless NIC if it's external). Only thing I would do from here is look around the web interface on the AP, specifically the DHCP settings. Wish I knew what exactly to tell you to do/look for, but hopefully there will be a clue in there somewhere.

[/ QUOTE ]
how is the deskptop accessing through the router but the laptop cant?

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
169.254.x.x is what Windows automatically assigns when it can't get an IP address any other way. Try to reassociate with the AP (reboot the laptop if necessary, or just reinsert the wireless NIC if it's external). Only thing I would do from here is look around the web interface on the AP, specifically the DHCP settings. Wish I knew what exactly to tell you to do/look for, but hopefully there will be a clue in there somewhere.

[/ QUOTE ]
anywho,
does this appear to be a laptop problem, a desktop problem, or a linksys problem?

Most importantly if you're getting an 192.168.x.x address from the router to your Wireless card, when you do an ipconfig as the previous poster stated do you get a default gateway? The gateway is used to access the External beautiful sunny Internet.

Bad cat5 between the AP and the cable modem perhaps?

+ [desktop] -> usb -> [cable modem] -> Internet

- [laptop] -> cat5 ->[AP] -> cat5 -> [cable modem] -> Internet

+ [desktop] -> cat5 -> [AP]

desktop: 192.168.1.x
laptop: 169.254.x.x

If the AP isn't giving your laptop a 192.168.1.x IP address, it could be a number of things. Start with the networking equipment (network cable etc), then look at the settings via the web interface on the AP. That's the best I got.

[handsome]

If you're using a wireless card, try reinstalling the drivers.

[FouTight]

[ QUOTE ]
If you're using a wireless card, try reinstalling the drivers.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no reason to believe that this is the problem.

It seems like this is a configuration problem, either with the router or with the card itself. FIrstly, what are you using to connect to the wireless interface? If so, when you open it up, does it say "Connected"?

Is the wireless even turned on on the router, often times this isn't on by default, only the wired side is.

I don't think anything is wrong with anything, except, sometimes it's a little difficult for a novice to set this up, and it's often times hard to give advice over the internet on something as broad as this.

oh! Didn't notice that the AP was giving him an autoconfig IP. Forget about my previous post about gateway then as your problem is before that.

On my linksys router, you can select how many DHCP addresses are given, so I would check that. It took me a while I had selected a maximum of 2 when I added my 3rd PC to the network and it wouldn't get an IP :P

As an alternative you can specify the IP yourself (in the card properties under TCP/IP and see if you can ping 192.168.0.1 after giving yourself an IP of say 192.168.0.100

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you're using a wireless card, try reinstalling the drivers.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no reason to believe that this is the problem.

It seems like this is a configuration problem, either with the router or with the card itself. FIrstly, what are you using to connect to the wireless interface? If so, when you open it up, does it say "Connected"?

Is the wireless even turned on on the router, often times this isn't on by default, only the wired side is.

I don't think anything is wrong with anything, except, sometimes it's a little difficult for a novice to set this up, and it's often times hard to give advice over the internet on something as broad as this.

[/ QUOTE ]
im not sure if its clear or not, but i had been using this wireless connection for almost a year already. so setting it up wasnt the problem i think.

I had this problem when I bought a new laptop. It was because I didn't remember the Wep Key. I had to reset my router, then it would pick up a new IP address. I am not a wiz at this, but now my router is set up with no password / wep key but it is working. I should get it set with a password.

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
I had this problem when I bought a new laptop. It was because I didn't remember the Wep Key. I had to reset my router, then it would pick up a new IP address. I am not a wiz at this, but now my router is set up with no password / wep key but it is working. I should get it set with a password.

[/ QUOTE ]
so far the worst (no offense) advice has worked the best. removed the wep from the router, removed it from the laptop and now its working. wonderful.
the thing is, i definitely had the wep key correct. i did make some other minor changes though, so because i introduced too many variables, im not sure what the problem was. i will try to get the security back and see if it gets messed up again.
whats the downside of running with no security? my neighbors can use my wireless?

[FouTight]

using it is an issue, but the main problem is the ability for the to scan and store your data, including passwords and the such

Depending on your neighborhood it's more of less dangerous. I personally use 64bits as it suit me...I've scanned and there's no other available connection in the area so I'm pretty sure I'm the only one using wireless. Even though I would never leave it completely open...it's asking for trouble. Most people would only use (which will slow you down) but it's opening your computer to many illegal use (i.e storing pirated software and the like)

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]
Depending on your neighborhood it's more of less dangerous. I personally use 64bits as it suit me...

[/ QUOTE ]
why not just use 128bit?