Internet connection problem

[annemarie123]

Hi - i wonder if you can help me.

We signed up with wireless virgin media broadband (cable - modem - router) this week - swapped from orange broadband.

Our main pc was in the room with our BT line which was connected via ethernet to Orange router. We used wireless via orange for laptops around the house. We swapped to have a package with tv broadband and telephone .

Now our tv ,phone , modem and router are in one room ,and wherever in the house we are we can connect wirelessly, but our main pc cannot see the router and modem at all. It is in another room and granted there is a wall inbetween but they are no further than 20 feet apart. In this room with the main pc we can connect with the laptops wirelessly.

We have tried using the Virgin wireless manager and just using the normal windows - connect to a network - and manually connecting. It finds our old orange network wirelessly, and another netgear one nearby but not our new virgin network.

So i don't think the virgin modem router are at fault. I'm wondering if it something to do with my main pc. It has windows ME with an XP upgrade. (the laptops are VISTA). It has a creatix 802.11g network card in the tower.
It could up until orange service stopped today - connect wirelessly to Orange.

The pc does meet the specifications given to us by Virgin - their advise was to move it nearer - but to be honest this is not possible. I can't understand why the laptops will connect and not this. Do you think we need a new Network card?

Thanks for any advice

[johnwill]

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type devmgmt.msc

Please respond to all the following steps.

1. Under Network adapters, please tell me all the devices listed.
2. Are there any devices under Network adapters that have a red x displayed?
3. Also, are there any devices anywhere in the Device Manager display with yellow ? or ! displayed?

Let's see this as well.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt:

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

Note that there is a space before the /ALL, but there is NOT a space after the / in the following command.

IPCONFIG /ALL

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

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.

[annemarie123]

Hi Johnwill , Thanks

Under Network adapters there are 3 listed

1. 1394 Net Adapter
2. Creatix 802.11g Adapter
3. Realtek RTL 8139/810DX Family fast Ethernet NIC

There is no red X against any of them.

There is a yellow ? against Other devices - Multimedia Audio Controller.
( I think this is part of the inbuilt audio system - which missed getting its drivers at some point on a reinstall - but as we have an extra sound card card installed - its not a problem !).

I did as you said with the second set of instructions - please find posted below. I firstly checked it against the Orange livebox both via ethernet and via wireless (although it connects to the live box (router/modem) which is still connected to the pc -the livebox is flashing to say we have no internet connection as we have now disconnected from their service). Our virgin media system wirelessly was also available but not found by the pc.

The second set are with the live box disconnected, but still the pc unable to see our new virgin media connection wirelessly.

Hope this makes sense - thanks

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

C:\Documents and Settings\stephen>IPCONFIG/ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : STEVES
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family
ernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-D8-7B-95-E7
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.105
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 17 April 2009 09:03:47
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 18 April 2009 09:03:47

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : CREATIX 802.11g Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-07-CA-04-A0-B6
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.180
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 17 April 2009 09:11:22
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 18 April 2009 09:11:22

C:\Documents and Settings\stephen>


Then with orange disconnected --- and only our virgin wireless system.




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

C:\Documents and Settings\stephen>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : STEVES
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Eth
ernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-D8-7B-95-E7

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : CREATIX 802.11g Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-07-CA-04-A0-B6

C:\Documents and Settings\stephen>

[johnwill]

Well, it appears that you have an issue with the new wireless router. Either you have the wrong encryption key stored or something is amiss with the router.

Try removing ALL the stored wireless profiles and connecting as a new network. If that fails, try removing all encryption from the Virgin router and see if you can connect that way.

[annemarie123]

Ok - How do i go about removing all the stored wireless profiles ?

Also i don't know how to remove the encryption from the virgin router ?

[annemarie123]

Hi - I have now managed to delete old wireless connections and all prescence of the old orange livebox from pc.

I have tried to set up a new connection with virgin using their disk and virgin manager and they can't find the router.

I have also tired to find wireless connections via "wireless network connection" on windows. But that cant find it either.

But our laptops can and thats what im using to access the internet at the moment.

I will try to see if can find out what you mean by removing the encryption from the virgin router in the meantime until you are back online to try to help Thanks . Anne-marie

[annemarie123]

Ok ,

I managed to get into the wireless virgin router and i turned the security option off.

I lost my connection to all laptops. I managed to connect up via ethernet with my laptop. Changed my settings and managed to connect wirelessly with laptop again.

Then i went to main PC and tried to find a wireless connection and it still can't see the wireless router even with the security off !

So i've put my security back on the router , and await your next step.

In the virgin documentation it says " Our software supports many 54mps(802.11g) adapters/cards. If you have an older adapter /card(802.11b) then you'll need to upgrade it."

From this as ours is a 802.11g it should work ! But the word "many" adapter cards tells me there is a chance its our card . It is a few years old now ?

Any way i'll wait for you to get in touch thanks .

[annemarie123]

Sorry for another reply - i couldn't work out how to edit my post !

I also updated the drivers to the Creatix adapter today from 2003 drivers to the latest i could find which were 2006. It updated fine but didn't help. Thanks

[johnwill]

You may indeed a new adapter. There are some compatibility issues occasionally with old wireless hardware. A six year old card qualifies as geriatric, time for it to go to the retirement home.

[annemarie123]

Ok - just hope the new one connects lol Thanks for your help

[annemarie123]

Just thought i'd add this .

I bypassed the problem of opening my pc and installing a new wireless card etc by buying two blue plugs which ? transfer your internet connection via your house wiring system !

One plugs into a socket near the router and an ethernet cable from the router is plugged into the blue plug. Then a plug can be placed in any socket in the house and with another an ethernet cable from that you can connect to the internet from the other pc . i bought an extra plug and now my son can use xbox live too - amazing.

I just wondered is it as good as it sounds this "new technology" ? It was very easy to do !

[johnwill]

Well, it's not actually that new, it's been around for some time. I've had generally poor results with power line networking, but other folks have had success. Note that you may experience issues if you connect a new appliance or other electrical device, especially on the same circuit. Also, do not plug those devices into a power strip with surge protection, as it will impair their ability to communicate.