I don't understand wireless internet connectivity. Oh, I know that with a wireless connection you can somehow magically get on the internet without, uh, wires. But how to set it up and make it work is apparently beyond me.

I have a wireless network of sorts set up in the house -- I had to make TiVo's wireless USB gadget work when we went to Ooma VOIP phone and the TiVo phone connection quit working.

I can take SWMBO's laptop (an old Toshiba Tecra, about four or five years old) and turn it on, and it immediately sees the wireless router. If I click on the little wireless icon in the system tray, it brings up a window that says:

Status: Connected
Network: Doug-and-Jean
Duration: 12:08 [and incrementing upwards]
Speed: 54.0 Mbps
Signal Strength: [5 bars - Excellent]

Activity:
Packets sent: 677
Packets received: 0

If I look at "Properties" it says Atheros AR5006EG Wireless Network Adapter
and that "This device is working properly"

But, I cannot connect to the internet.

Obviously I am doing something wrong, and I know so little about wireless connectivity I don't even know what questions to ask.

Am I overlooking something [hopefully] simple enough that even I can understand it?

tanstaafl.

So you have an access point somewhere. Everything wireless needs to connect to that central access point. It will probably also provide the IP address via DHCP to each client like your Tivo and laptop.

The first part to wireless is the security. It's likely you don't have the security configured correctly on the Tecra. This could be WEP, WPA or WPA2. It's possible your access point is setup for WPA/WPA2 and the old Tecra driver doesn't support it. It will tend to look connected but won't get an IP via DHCP.

Whilst you could go back to WEP (you'd probably have to reconfigure any other devices), it's very insecure these days. Even WPA(2) with a pre shared key isn't all that great I think now.

If you don't have any security set up, then you should fix that. When you connect a new client, it should request a shared key or "password" to connect to the wireless access point.

Once the wireless connection is made (you've got that) and the security is sorted out, wireless is no different to regular ethernet networking in terms of IP.

Possibly a new driver for the Toshiba will do the job if it's missing the security you need.

I'd guess that you've got a static IP address configured on the wireless adapter. I'm not at a PC, but check to make sure you're set for DHCP and not getting an auto-configure address.

That little line (above) means the "wireless" part is all working nicely. It's the "internet" part that is b0rked.

To fix the "internet", call Tony.. no, wait, that was a different thread!

To fix the "internet", you will have to describe how you get internet at your abode. Probably cable or DSL, either of which will have a "modem/router" device of some sort. Is your wireless thingie part of that device, or a separate unit?

Cheers

If you have a static IP on the device it will show connected and just plain not work as matthew_k says.

With a static IP you will probably also see a bunch of packets sent and none received. But that's what it will also show if the wireless security is not right.

Whether it says "connected" or not - I'm not so sure that conclusively defines that the security is set up correctly.

As Mark says, we need a little more info. But the two main things to check in my mind would be.

1) The wireless security is set correctly.

2) DHCP is set or a static IP is correctly set on the Tecra (I think you want DHCP).

What does it say on the "Support" tab of the after clicking on the icon in the system tray?

I can't tell from your post whether you have any wireless security on that wireless network. If not, I'm not sure what the issue is. If so, then my guess is that at some point it asked for a password, you put in an incorrect one, and told it to remember it. I have no idea why, but frequently Windows will take the wrong password and not tell you it's wrong. It'll just try to connect to the access point.

However, looking at your post again, I'm guessing that the laptop has one of those horribly annoying third party software wireless connection programs. Those are terrible. Get rid of that ASAP and tell the Windows software to take over. It's possible that removing the software will also remove the driver, though, in which case you might need to connect the laptop directly to the router (wired), and tell Windows update to look for the driver.

I've never seen a 3rd party wireless program that was any good, and didn't result in messed up networking. You're much better off with letting Windows handle it.

I'm guessing that this is zeroing in on the problem. The last time this computer worked on the internet was in Mexico, where it wouldn't work until our hosts at the B&B where we were staying had a friend of theirs come in and configure something on the computer so it would talk to their secure wireless network. Could he have turned off DHCP and assigned a static IP address? (Wow -- doesn't that sound like I have some faint idea of what I'm talking about? I don't!)

The computer is running Windows XP, and in response to other posts, there isn't third-party networking software installed unless Toshiba set it up that way when they built it. Which, I suppose, is possible.

The computer has other problems too, I think. It is incredibly slow. It takes 92 seconds from the time I click on the FireFox icon until the browser actually appears on the screen, and then about 30 seconds later it tells me that it can't find Google's server. Opening an Excel spreadsheet takes the better part of a minute.

Maybe nuke and repave is the best option here, but of course the computer didn't come with any XP disks. Instead there is probably a recovery partition or something somewhere. I haven't spent much time with this computer, I don't know much about the ins and outs of it.

Again, in response to previous posts... my internet comes in on a Comcast Cable TV wire, through a cable modem and into a Linksys WRT54G router. The two desktop computers are connected to the router through Ethernet cables, the TiVo USB update thingie is working wirelessly, and I'd like for SWMBO's laptop to do the same.

Hmmm... I just found a document I cleverly created when I set up the TiVo networking...

Network Security Settings:

router username: [none assigned]
router password: xxxxxxxx
network name (SSID): Doug-and-Jean
network security type: Higher Security (WPA / WPA2)
network security key: xxxxxxxx

(I have obscured the actual password and security key, obviously...)

Is any of this helpful? If (as I suspect) the wireless interface is set to a static IP address, how do I fix that? Would anybody in the Bay area like to come visit me and help me pack up stuff in my School Bus and fix SWMBO's computer? We will be departing for South of the Border in the next week or ten days, and I will be incommunicado for probably a month while we get moved and get internet service connected, etc.

Let the adventure begin!

tanstaafl.

At a minimum he would have had to set the SSID the NETWORK SECURITY KEY and maybe the SECURITY TYPE. In the process he may have overwritten the ones for your home network. Though he should not have had to. The wireless utility on your laptop should be able to track the SSID and KEYS for many access points, switching between them as needed.

Since you have the relevant info written down, change it back.

He might have changed it from DHCP to a static IP but I consider that unlikely in that venue.

Do you live in a neighborhood containing a lot of active access points?
You might consider changing the default channel of the router to 1 or 11, typically they are set to 6 by default. You want to choose a channel that is least used by the other access points.

If you open a command prompt and type "ipconfig /all" (no quotes, of course), what IP address and gateway do you get?

If you do it on a working machine, what IP address and gateway do you get?

-jk

SWMBO's Toshiba laptop: (it doesn't work)
DHCP enabled------------No
IP Address-----------------192.168.1.117
Subnet Mask--------------255.255.255.0
Default Gateway---------192.168.1.254
DNS Servers-------------200 23 242 193
-------------------------------200.23.242.201


SWMBO's Samsung netbook (It works)
DHCP enabled------------Yes
IP Address-----------------192.168.1.102
Subnet Mask--------------255.255.255.0
Default Gateway---------192.168.1.1
DHCP Server-------------192.168.1.1
DNS Servers-------------172.27.35.1

That looked like the most interesting information, but I have to confess that it is all virtually meaningless to me. I think that having DHCP turned off on the Toshiba seems a bit suspicious.

Please understand that if you tell me something like "Yes, that's your problem, just turn DHCP back on and it'll work" will be of little use unless you also tell me exactly [in words of one syllable or less] HOW to accomplish that.

Is the above information useful, or would more data help?

tanstaafl.

Yes, if you turn DHCP back on, it will work.

Just kidding. Here are the steps:

Start
Run
NCPA.CPL
OK

It should show you a list of icons representing the network cards in the system. Locate the wireless one, select it, right-click and select PROPERTIES.

Look for either "TCP/IP properties" or "Internet Protocol Version 4" properties, depending on which OS you're running. Select it and press the PROPERTIES button below it.

Select "OBTAIN AN IP ADDRESS AUTOMATICALLY" and "OBTAIN DNS SERVER AUTOMATICALLY" and confirm, confirm, confirm.

"Automatic IP Address" is what "DHCP" means, you see.

I did that, still no internet.

Interestingly enough, at GUI level the boxes are checked for "...obtain automatically", but if I run ipconfig/all at a command prompt, it still says DHCP = NO.

Another point of interest -- even if I connect the laptop directly to the router with an ethernet cable, there is no internet.

I am beginning to get frustrated with this.

tanstaafl.

Are you sure you modified the correct network interface? In the network control panel, you may see more than one icon. Make sure you're opening the properties of the right one.

Or all of them. In theory, you should have all of them set to DHCP.

edited: removed instructions already presented.