Problem accessing the internet wirelessly

Satallyne · 02-08-2008, 12:06 PM

I wonder whether anyone could help ... my housemate and I have two PCs on a peer to peer network (with wires) using a Netgear DG834G router. Both these PCs can access the internet without problem. My housemate also has a laptop which is not part of the workgroup but until recently she was able to access the internet wirelessly through the Netgear router. The laptop is not on the workgroup. About a week ago she found that her connection was intermittent and very slow, then it stopped connecting all together, and kept asking for the WEP key which it kept rejecting. Since the SSID of the router was just NETGEAR, I suspected that a neighbour had recently set up a router with the same SSID so I changed the SSID of ours to NETPERCY. It seems I was correct since the laptop can now find both NETGEAR and NETPERCY. When my housemate entered the WEP key for NETPERCY, she got the message that there was limited or no connectivity with the explanation "This problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address to the computer". Signal strenght was "excellent". I checked that DHCP was enabled on the laptop, both PCs and the router, and it is. I tried setting up a static IP address on the laptop and then a message came up that it was now connected, but she still can't access any websites. I tried downloading and running WinSock XP Fix but this didn't make any difference.

ZoneAlarm is installed on the laptop and I tried disabling it for a few minutes but this didn't help.

Does anyone have any ideas, because I am stumped.

Thanks.

**johnwill** · 02-08-2008, 06:31 PM

First off, make sure a wired connection to the laptop works.

Second, if this is XP-SP2, use the correct stack reset, not the downloadable fix.

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

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

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

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reboot the machine.

Remove all the stored network profiles from the machine and do a search for networks again and enter the key.

Finally, disable encryption on the network and see if you can connect if all else fails. Then you can add encryption as a separate step.

FWIW, I'd be using WPA with a strong key, since WEP is easily crackable with tools found all over the Internet.

Satallyne · 02-09-2008, 09:35 AM

Thanks for your reply. I went through the steps you suggested and still had the same problem. Then I tried disabling encryption as you suggested, and the laptop was then able to connect to the internet. I tried re-enabling encryption using WEP, the the same problem came back. There are 4 WEP keys listed and the second one was selected - this is the one I was entering into the laptop. I tried selecting the first one instead and entering that one into the laptop - and suddenly I was connected! I'm not sure why it likes the first one and not the second one!

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction!!!

Maybe I'll now try WPA encryption ... although I'm a bit scared of messing it up again ... :-)

02-08-2008, 12:06 PM	#1 (permalink)
Satallyne Registered User Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: London UK Posts: 16 OS: XP	Problem accessing the internet wirelessly I wonder whether anyone could help ... my housemate and I have two PCs on a peer to peer network (with wires) using a Netgear DG834G router. Both these PCs can access the internet without problem. My housemate also has a laptop which is not part of the workgroup but until recently she was able to access the internet wirelessly through the Netgear router. The laptop is not on the workgroup. About a week ago she found that her connection was intermittent and very slow, then it stopped connecting all together, and kept asking for the WEP key which it kept rejecting. Since the SSID of the router was just NETGEAR, I suspected that a neighbour had recently set up a router with the same SSID so I changed the SSID of ours to NETPERCY. It seems I was correct since the laptop can now find both NETGEAR and NETPERCY. When my housemate entered the WEP key for NETPERCY, she got the message that there was limited or no connectivity with the explanation "This problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address to the computer". Signal strenght was "excellent". I checked that DHCP was enabled on the laptop, both PCs and the router, and it is. I tried setting up a static IP address on the laptop and then a message came up that it was now connected, but she still can't access any websites. I tried downloading and running WinSock XP Fix but this didn't make any difference. ZoneAlarm is installed on the laptop and I tried disabling it for a few minutes but this didn't help. Does anyone have any ideas, because I am stumped. Thanks.

02-08-2008, 06:31 PM	#2 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,654 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Re: Problem accessing the internet wirelessly First off, make sure a wired connection to the laptop works. Second, if this is XP-SP2, use the correct stack reset, not the downloadable fix. TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2. Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt: Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ip reset reset.log Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog Reboot the machine. Remove all the stored network profiles from the machine and do a search for networks again and enter the key. Finally, disable encryption on the network and see if you can connect if all else fails. Then you can add encryption as a separate step. FWIW, I'd be using WPA with a strong key, since WEP is easily crackable with tools found all over the Internet. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

02-09-2008, 09:35 AM	#3 (permalink)
Satallyne Registered User Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: London UK Posts: 16 OS: XP	Re: Problem accessing the internet wirelessly Thanks for your reply. I went through the steps you suggested and still had the same problem. Then I tried disabling encryption as you suggested, and the laptop was then able to connect to the internet. I tried re-enabling encryption using WEP, the the same problem came back. There are 4 WEP keys listed and the second one was selected - this is the one I was entering into the laptop. I tried selecting the first one instead and entering that one into the laptop - and suddenly I was connected! I'm not sure why it likes the first one and not the second one! Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction!!! Maybe I'll now try WPA encryption ... although I'm a bit scared of messing it up again ... :-)