Wireless network connection - no packets received

[freddietom]

Sorry, but I'm a newbe - don't know enough to stay out of trouble, I have 3 computers (all winxp home) all routed through an AT&T Uverse router, one computer is hardwired to the router, my laptop uses a wireless modem and my third computer also has a wireless modem. The first two computers can access the internet with no problems, but the third cannot, the problem occurred when I was trying to network the first computer to the third computer through the router. I used the windows wireless network setup wizard and used a memory stick to transfer settings to third computer, after completing the process, the third computer says its connected but, I cannot connect to the internet, no packets are received. This computers wireless device is USB device by 2Wire - the following is the IPCONFIG file - can you determine why I cannot receive any packets:

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

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

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : tom
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 2Wire 802.11g USB Wireless LAN Card
#2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-60-B3-4C-84-5D
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.125.130
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::ffff:ffff:fffd%4
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Tunnel adapter Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : A9-FE-7D-82
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::5efe:169.254.125.130%2
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

C:\Documents and Settings\me>

[johnwill]

This computer is not connected to any wireless networks.

Please do the following stack reset, then attempt to search for new networks.

TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2/SP3.

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands:

Note: Type only the text in bold for the following commands.

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

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults, type: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reboot the machine.

[freddietom]

Thanks for the suggestion - did as suggested but I still do not get any packets received.
I don't know how significant it is, but my other two computers can connect through the wireless router and their IP address is 192..., but this third computers IP address is still 169.. even after the reset.

[johnwill]

The 169.254.x.x address is an auto-config address. This indicates that the computer was not able to find the DHCP server (the router), and Windows assigned a default address.

I notice that no wired network interface appears for that computer, do you have that disabled? Try a wired connection to that machine and see if that works.

[freddietom]

I turned the wired network connection on and connected to the router with a cable - and can now connect to the internet. But the wireless still will not receive packets

[johnwill]

Well, since you're getting the 169.254.x.x address, it will never receive them in that state.

Try disabling encryption and MAC filtering on the router and then try to connect. This has the earmarks of an encryption key mismatch or MAC filter blocking.

[freddietom]

Sorry - I do not know how to access the router, it is a standalone unit, I do not want to modify any settings on the router, since the other two computers can connect through it. I believe the problem is in this computer that cannot receive packets. At this point I think I will just reload windows and start over, this is taking too much time.

[johnwill]

The reason it can't receive packets is that it doesn't see the router. The symptoms suggest you have an invalid encryption key.

[freddietom]

I obviously don't know enough to understand what all this means, but I did notice that the wireless connection was called "wireless connection 2". I noticed that this connection appeared a while ago, when I switched USB ports (my wireless connection is through a USB port). So just out for the heck of it, I switched USB ports again, I have four, the new one appeared as "wireless connection 3" - still no packets received, then I plugged it into "wireless connection" and guess what - packets received! At this point I don't know why this makes a difference, but as far as I'm concerned the problem has been resolved. I hope this makes sense to you - and thank you for your efforts.

[zyclop]

three things:

Automatic IP by M$ XP Windows is a generic problem.
If there is a 169.254.x.x something IP showing you need to give TCPIP settings a fixed IP address to circumvent the M$ flaw.

Routers settings pages can be addressed using an ethernet or USB connection. Most Routers have either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 as default address.

Most PC and laptop owners do not know that every USB port is a separate entity. Most think you can plug in wherever you like. This is not the case. If you use a different USB port [switching] this is seen as a complete new installation of a device. As stated in a post above to plug in into a different USB port always triggers either a new installation or "rediscovering" of a prior already installed device. So everybody needs to be educated including myself to stick to the USB port that was used for installing the first time. Especially with Wireless Adapter to avoid multiple instances of the same device because Windows keeps the settings in the registry and thus a lot of confusion for the OS is created.

[freddietom]

Originally Posted by zyclop

three things:

Automatic IP by M$ XP Windows is a generic problem.
If there is a 169.254.x.x something IP showing you need to give TCPIP settings a fixed IP address to circumvent the M$ flaw.

Routers settings pages can be addressed using an ethernet or USB connection. Most Routers have either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 as default address.

Most PC and laptop owners do not know that every USB port is a separate entity. Most think you can plug in wherever you like. This is not the case. If you use a different USB port [switching] this is seen as a complete new installation of a device. As stated in a post above to plug in into a different USB port always triggers either a new installation or "rediscovering" of a prior already installed device. So everybody needs to be educated including myself to stick to the USB port that was used for installing the first time. Especially with Wireless Adapter to avoid multiple instances of the same device because Windows keeps the settings in the registry and thus a lot of confusion for the OS is created.

Thanks very much for the explanation - in the future I will be very careful to note which USB port my devices are plugged into.