Weird wireless problems with only 1 computer

[jbradshaw77]

Hello,

My level of expertise is very high with computers, though networking seems to always have been my least favorite category. Perhaps you all could help.


It started off when I switched my sister's computer from a PCI wireless adapter, which worked fine, to a USB adapter. The USB adapter, which was pulled from a different system, worked fine for a few days, and then she complained that it "sucked." So, I took it out, and threw the old card back in there. It detected my network, I went to go connect, and nothing happened. No errors or anything, it just idled at the standard "Waiting to connect" dialog after I had put in my WEP key. I tried uninstalling, reinstalling, using different PCI slots, nothing. So then I tried another card - same thing. Then I tried ANOTHER card. Same...thing. I am about to rip my hair out. It sees the three networks in my apartment complex, and it either likes to give my network 5 bars or 2 bars, but seems to enjoy 5 bars more. Doesn't matter though, it wont connect to it. I've restarted the router, reconfigured the router, absolutely nothing.


I'm thinking it's this USB adapter. It does something to these computers. I had pulled it from a customer's machine who said it worked for a few days, and then all of a sudden it stopped seeing the networks. It would then pick up the networks every now and then, but drop them within 10 minutes or so. I've also changed the channel id's and everything.

Any suggestions? Any way to completely uninstall any adapters that have ever been on a computer without reinstalling windows?

Thanks for the help,
JB

[johnwill]

Give this a try.

TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2.

For these commands, Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.log

[jbradshaw77]

Thank you for your prompt response.


I tried that, and it did not seem to fix the problem. Do I do both in the same session, or do the first one, reboot, then do the second one? Do you want a copy of the log file the second one generates? I wasn't sure what to look for, but I saw a few "Fixed problem:" entries towards the bottom of the log. I boot up the computer, the little wireless icon (standard windows) at the bottom says I have wireless networks in range, click here whatever, I click there, it shows them, I go to connect, and nothing.

Something of an interesting note, I CAN connect to the unsecured network from I guess a couple doors down, though the connection is poor, and it doesn't seem to carry an internet signal with it. This is strange though, as I have completely reset my own router to have no security settings, and it doesn't want to connect. Any ideas on that?

Thanks so far,
JB

[johnwill]

On your router, disable any optional "turbo" settings, configure it for plain 802.11g access. Try to connect again, and once you've got the router configured, let's see this:

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

Type the following command:

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

[jbradshaw77]

Ok after I completely reset my router to factory defaults again, I attempted to connect. The wireless card only picked up 3 bars for this time around. The strangest part is that it started to connect, and hung on "Acquiring Network Address." However, this can't be true, because I then ran an ipconfig and found it had picked up the ip address, as well as the Comcast internet signal it was broadcasting. I ran a ping of google and got this:

Pinging www.l.google.com [64.233.161.104] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 64.233.161.104: bytes=32 time=531ms TTL=238
Reply from 64.233.161.104: bytes=32 time=567ms TTL=238
Reply from 64.233.161.104: bytes=32 time=590ms TTL=238
Reply from 64.233.161.104: bytes=32 time=716ms TTL=238

Ping statistics for 64.233.161.104:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 531ms, Maximum = 716ms, Average = 601ms

So obviously terrible ping stats. Then I was able to get on the web for a few minutes until it finally kicked me off. All this was going on while it was still in the "acquiring" mode. VERY strange.

I haven't been able to log back on since.

Other wireless computers are able to connect to the router just fine. It's definitely something with the computer. Here is ipconfig after it kicked me off:



Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : default-7b26090
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VIA Compatable Fast Ethernet Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0B-6A-D5-D0-B0

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 8:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR 108 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapte
r WG311T
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-09-5B-E7-23-58

Thanks again. What's next?
JB

[jbradshaw77]

And here is ipconfig stats coming from this computer, if it helps:


Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Default>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : default-2a04629
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hsd1.fl.comcast.net.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : hsd1.fl.comcast.net.
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-01-29-D6-B0-05
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : **.**.**.162
**.**.**.162
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 25, 2007 9:12:35 P
M
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, January 26, 2007 9:12:35 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Default>

[johnwill]

I'm somewhat at a loss. The only way I know of totally uninstalling old hardware is to go looking for it in the registry.