Any Networking Experts?

[NickP]

I've just set a laptop up for my daughter with a wireless card to link to my router - the card connects to the router ok but I'm unable to get onto the internet.

The crux of the problem seems to be that the laptop/wireless card doesn't appear to have an IP address it's down as 0.00.0.0

I've tried all the usual ipconfig/release etc, but have not had any joy...



any ideas?

[Neil_S]

Have you setup the security right? Is the number of DHCP clients that the router will give addresses to maxed out?

Do you have MAC Address filtering on, but haven't added the address into the filter?

[NickP]

Have you setup the security right?


Yep security is all set up correctly - Both using WPA-PSK, and I've not got MAC address filtering turned on on the router

[Buzzsaw]

Depends on your network most will run non static ip so it renew everytime you power up - must an issue with the configurator - try accessing the network or connection wizard and it should pin point the problem

[RisingPower]

Isn't this just a case of dhcp failing? Must be some settings on the router which determine how long it keeps the entries for dhcp?

[Phisp]

Have (can) you configured your router to assign ip addresses for wireless clients? Try without security setup initially. Double check everything is ok by using a wired connection to your laptop first of all i.e. remove the wireless part from the equation.

[cdr]

Is your default gateway set to your routers IP address?

[JasonRS]

Default Gateway is irrelevant if it has no IP Address.

try IPCONFIG /ALL and look specifically for the wifi card to check for an IP address

I'd suspect a DHCP issue

Check Laptop WiFi card is set to DHCP (it's the default, but worth checking) especially if you're getting 0.0.0.0 as if it's set to DHCP and it's failing I'd expect it to get a 169.x.x.x and report limited connectivity instead

Check router is issuing addresses to new devices e.g. try it wired

Check available range of DHCP addresses (do you have enough?)

Check DHCP client service is running on the laptop (right click MyComputer select Manage, look under services)

Oh, and check if there's a personal firewall running locally too.

[cdti_sri]

could always try and issue the address manually. I had to do this with my xbox when connecting through the mac

[NickP]

Default Gateway is irrelevant if it has no IP Address.

try IPCONFIG /ALL and look specifically for the wifi card to check for an IP address

I'd suspect a DHCP issue

Check Laptop WiFi card is set to DHCP (it's the default, but worth checking) especially if you're getting 0.0.0.0 as if it's set to DHCP and it's failing I'd expect it to get a 169.x.x.x and report limited connectivity instead

Check router is issuing addresses to new devices e.g. try it wired

Check available range of DHCP addresses (do you have enough?)

Check DHCP client service is running on the laptop (right click MyComputer select Manage, look under services)

Oh, and check if there's a personal firewall running locally too.

The card shows up ok when I do a config /all

it shows both the ip address and subnet mask to be 0.0.0.0

The DHCP Server is shown as 255.255.255.255

[cdr]

Default Gateway is irrelevant if it has no IP Address.

There are some crappy routers that vlan the wifi and local networks apart, placing the DHCP server in the LAN requring wifi clients to configure a gateway to get an IP :(

[NickP]

Also when I look on the 'attached devices' on the router the laptop doesn't show up even though it appears to be connected ok...?

[mccalia1]

Just to clarify..have you enabled and configured DHCP on the router?

On the laptop, can you ping the loopback address (ping 127.0.0.1) to ensure the wireless card is installed correctly and can send/receive ICMP packets?

Have you tried assigning a static IP address on the laptop wireless card and seeing if you can ping the router, if you can then it's likely the card is fine and it's the DHCP config on the router. if you can't then it's probably the card which is causing the issue.

[NickP]

Yes, DHCP is enabled on the router

Pinged that address - 4 packets sent 4 recieved

How would I assign a static IP adress to the card?

[mccalia1]

Depends on your OS but find

Control Panel > Network Connections > right click, properties of your network connection (by default it's called Local Area Connection)

From the list highlight Internet Protocal TCP/IP and click Properties

Manually assign an IP address on the same subnet as your router

e.g if your router is 192.168.0.1 then configure your card for 192.168.0.5
The subnet is most likely to be 255.255.255.0

Once configured, try pinging your router, if it responds, try authenticating to the wireless lan.

if this works, it points to a DHCP config issue, either on router or client.

[EliteCarCare]

try disabling your encryption and see if it finds an IP address, if it does then you may have to flash the firmware on the router. Had a similar thing happen to a friend when he bought a new laptop and tried to add it to his existing wireless network..

[little john]

Looks like you have the key entered incorectly, remember WPA is case sensitive. it will show as connected but not get issued an IP address therfore no connection to the net.

[PJS]

Have you tried hardwiring the laptop to see what happens?
You do have wireless enabled on the laptop, don't you?
As above, turn off the security, and run the config with the laptop connected physically.
See if it assigns correctly, and then see if it picks up the wireless card when you disconnect the RJ45.