Problems Connecting Wirelessly

I have a friend who's trying to connect a Dell Inspiron e1505 laptop to the internet. We tried almost everything I can think of including using a wired cable to connect. It won't allow us to connect to the router no matter what. We already tried using another working router, reparing it (ipconfig) and even using another wireless card/adapter for it. All fail to connect successfully. Running some spyware and virus scans now to be sure they are not causing any problems. The laptop has a built in Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network card and is using Windows XP (Pro I think). Will a bootable Linux OS like Knoppix be able to detect the built in wireless card or wired network card to go online? We want to try that next but need to download it first.

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Sounds like the laptop has non-working LAN card. When looking under the Network Connection Perperty, do you see TWO protocol icons? (one for TCP/IP and the other for Intel protocol).

If you only see one protocol installed, chances are your network card's driver did not install or missing the protocol driver. Installing the proper driver will make your wired/wireless card to work properly.

How old is the laptop and have you ever made internet connection using this laptop prior?

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When you said "It won't allow us to connect to the router no matter what", do you meant physical connection or logical one?

When you plug the LAN into the router, you should see that under the status of your LAN connection, you'll see that it's connected. That's physical connection.

If you're use automatic IP configuration, on the "Support" tab in the LAN status, you'll see your IP address auto assign by the router's DHCP. If that IP is properly assign and not 169.x.x.x (this is assign by windows when DHCP is not working), then you have a logical connection working. Now try to ping the "Default Gateway" which should be your router's IP

If you get 169.x.x.x as your IP, that means DHCP is not working. You'll have to manually set your IP for the moment so you can connect into your router to turn DHCP on. Make sure you set your IP to the same range as your router, else ping won't work also. Some common router IP is 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1, so make you IP the same except for the last number.

If those above is actually working, can you still cannot browse the internet, try to ping your ISP's IP (you can get the IP by pinging the domain name using another working PC), remember ping by IP, not domain name. If ping by IP works, but you cannot browse the internet, it's your DNS setting that's wrong. Check the DNS setting in your router, or the DNS setting under TCP/IP of your LAN's configuration. You might have automatic IP config, but manually DNS, IP and DNS are configure separately.

If you can't get DNS working, try to get the DNS from your ISP (via phone maybe), then key into the DNS section of your LAN config. That should work.

If still not working, must have been something else already, which is very unlikely

 

 

 

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All good help so far from the guys, can I add something that happ to me - it could a bit of BS Dell software installed like a firewall or internet protection software?

I say this cos u said u have tried different cards and it stil didnt havnt access (also read the last post about DNS..this is kinda importnant to have set up right) it could be a Dell SW installed when it was made..lots of companies are bundling crappy products that do everything..but really arnt capable of anything.

I would look in taskmanager and see the apps and proccesses runnign and see if theres random Dell apps you dont knwo what they do..disable them all and reboot and see what dont work anymore..or if that cures the problem



One time I spent two hours banging my head against the wall on a Sony laptop that wouldnt connect no matter what...then I found a little slider button on the front of the case that disabled ALL networking! not just wifi but all networking..I hit the button and it all sprang into life!!

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Yeah, I'm sure I tried everything already. After a few network cards (both PC cards and USB wireless adapters), configuring the IP manually and setting it to automatic, nothing worked. No pinging since it gets the 169.254.x.x IP address

I actually didn't think about that Mark420. I will see if I can disable all the networking or security features it has. Perhaps Safe Mode with Networking may help out even since it will disable most programs and still allow internet access.

Will post a followup on what happened

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I think it's the physical connection problem, cause you're getting 169.254.x.x. When you configure manually to the same IP range as your router, what did you get when you Ping? If ping fail in this case, it's very likely hardware or driver problem for sure. Security software normally only intervene at the logical layer. But, then i might be wrong.

Anyway, good luck

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I'm leaning more and more towards software since everything is working on my other computers. He even tried connecting the laptop from the regular network port and that didn't work either. Will try disabling those Dell apps and security programs to see if that helps us shed any light on this.

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Alright budy, i need a bit more information. So lets do this, right click on my computer and go to manage. A computer managment utility will spring to life. Now go to device manager. In the Second window, go to the network connections and tell me if you see an X on them. If not, then click on the wireless card and look over the stats. You are welcome to share them. Also, disable all firewall software. One more question, how many connections can your router support? Some routers will only allow certain computers to connect. If everything is okay with your wireless driver, then maybe you might want to have windows redeect all wireless netoworks.

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We already checked the Device Manager and the internal wireless card is listed there (working status). Need to ask my friend to get into the properties if more details are needed (don't have it with me).

They had McAfee Internet Security there and I think it was disabled when we went into the settings. No changes. We enabled it back.

It shouldn't be an issue with the router as my home wireless router supports lots of users. It also didn't work in two other routers, so I don't think this will cause it as well.

I told him to boot up with a Live Linux CD and see if it can detect the network card at least. If it does, try connecting with the cable again and see if it connects.

He will probably just reinstall Windows though if anything to make sure it's not Windows causing this. The laptop is still under warranty, so if anything, they'll send it back to Dell.

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Re installing windows might be stupid. Before doing that, try these things all over again.
1)Remove all the existing wireless setups and start a new one.
2)Don't give any static IP. Including DNS server let everything be dynamic
3)Try connecting now...
3)Check if you are using a modem+router (A single unit). The best thing would be to check if router is configured right by using some other laptop. I suspect Router configuration rather than the laptop.

Just let me know if Wireless N/W is setup properly... I may be of help as I had resolved a similar issue myself... At that time I had a modem which was already present and I got a wireless router. Wanted to configure it, but I was unable to go online...

Finally I realized that the modem I had was also working as a router(It was Router+Modem), so there couldn't be two routers having similar IP there... Hence it was failing... Finally I had to put the Modem+Router to modem only mode and it worked like a beauty....

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