Defeated by Wireless Networking

[seacue]

I recently purchased an HP laptop. It runs XP Home.

I bought a D-Link DI-714P+ router. I don't (yet) have DSL, so this is just running locally.

I can successfuly network using wired Ethernet.

I then unplugged and disabled the Ethernet port.

I can get the laptop to show "connected" for the wireless, but it tells me I don't have access permission when I try to look at the folders on the other machine that are visible over the Ethernet.

I don't think it is really a case of permissions. When I try "Repair this connection" it tells me that TCP/IP is not enabled for the connection.

I go to Help|Network connections.

I click "Change setting of this connection" as instructed.

Help tells me that I should see "This connection uses the following items", one of them being "Internet Protocol" No such list of items appears under "General" (or "Wireless Networks").

Now What?

I did follow the "Install Simple TCP/IP Services" under "Network connection".

"Configure TCP/IP Services" gets me back to the start of the above Help sequence.
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I freely admit I know nothing about XP.

I'd appreciate any hint you can give.

SC

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

seacue,

Open your Network Connections and click on the wireless network card and go to Properties. Check in there that TCP/IP is listed.

Take Care,

Richard

[seacue]

TCP/IP isn't under the wireless interface, but there is a note which says all those things are in the Network Bridge. I look there and it appears that TCP/IP is in the list of the wireless.

Since I have DHCP active - maybe the router isn't furnishing the IP info to the laptop. I may have been pointing my finger at the wrong box.

What I need now is to find a WiFi access point that is known to work and do some experiments.

I really should be bothering the manufacturers, not this group.

Thank you for the help so far.

SC

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

seacue,

Your problem is your notebook is setup as a bridge. Delete the bridge and you want TCP/IP Protocol installed or the WiFi will not work. Lastly you might need to tell it to repair your network connection to get it working again.

Take Care,

Richard

[seacue]

From Richard at Naples:
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Your problem is your notebook is setup as a bridge.
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I hear you, but why would HP sell me a machine configured so that wireless wouldn't work?

It will take courage for me to do such a drastic thing as deleting the bridge. At least the machine came with the OP system on a CD.

Thank you .... and I'm still amazed. Now to build up enough courage to act.

SC

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

seacue,

I hear you, but why would HP sell me a machine configured so that wireless wouldn't work?

You've got me. But it looks like they did.

Richard

P.S. Do not open a bottle of liquid courage until after you work on the notebook. Alcohol and computers do NOT mix.

[BEagle]

Oh yes they do, Richard! Well, perhaps just occasionally....

Did something I know not what to my wireless card configuration at Hamburg airport yesterday; it refused to budge from Channel 10 and would not allow me to connect - despite pleas, swearing at it, threatening it with a visit to Dr Dell....

On getting home I had a brandy to get up sufficient courage to try 'System Restore' (having never done it before and only having a vague idea of what it does). A few easy to follow prompts, a few chuckling noises from the HDD and all was pure joy - wall-to-wall and treetop tall connectivity again!

Then had anhotr bnadry to shhhhhhellebratttt.....bad move. Bad!

[seacue]

SUCCESS

Thank you Richard
Thank you Richard

I found "Remove from bridge" in the right-click pulldowns for each network connection.

After removal I had access to the Properties of the wireless by right-clucking on the wireless icon - as help and you had told be should have be the normal situation. The wireless connection still couldn't get an IP address and Repair didn't help.

I powered everything down I went to bed. Got up in the whee hours of the morning and tried again. IT WORKED

To shorten the story, when this Win98SE machine crashes [frequently] I have to reboot the router in order to get connectivity back.

I still have the situation of some one-way visibility:

deskA can see laptop & deskB
deskB can see laptop & deskA
laptop can only see deskA (this machine)

I can live with that for at least a while. DeskB is a Pentium 100 I resurected and loaded w/ Win98SE for these tests.

So THANK YOU RICHARD of Naples

SC

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

seacue,

That is great news, but to not hit the brandy and end up like BEagle. I do not want you blaming me for the pounding headache in the morning.

Richard

[Keef]

Might not be the cause of your problem, but my connectivity headache (using XP Pro) went away thus:

On the machine that wouldn't allow access, Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Local Security Policy - "Access this computer from the network". Then right-click, Properties, AddUser or Group, Object Type - pick "Users", then Locations - pick the name of your LAN (it will probably object to "Users" at that point and offer "Computers" which wasn't there before), Advanced - Find Now, double-click the one you want, and YES your way out.

Otherwise, at the "Locations" prompt, pick the name of the computer you're working on (not the one that can't access it), and look at the list of RDNs that appears.

I don't know what all those things mean, but that screen certainly allowed me to set up the access for my laptop to the desktop.

I'm trusting the ADSL router to stop anything nasty from outside getting into the system. And ZoneAlarm.

[scroggs]

All the 'bridge' does is connect two or more high-speed connective systems that your computer has to the same network; say 1394/Firewire and 10/100 Ethernet. The idea is that any peripherals on the 1394 can talk both to the computer and the WAN. Shouldn't really bother the WiFi stuff - but I know it does! Usually the 'access permissions' bit only comes in when you haven't set file sharing options or one or other of the networked computers - or am I talking out my trousers? Ah well, it's happened before....!

Now, I have a wifi/networking problem that I've been working on for two months without success. I have mentioned it here before, but it's defeated the Creative and Linksys tech support people, so I throw it open for your deliberations.....

I have three computers in my house. I bought a Linksys WRT54g wireless router which is directly connected to my desktop, and wirelessly conncted to the other two (laptop) computers. This works fine! I wished to connect an ADSL ethernet modem to this router so that any computer can access the internet without any other being involved (so no Internet Connection Sharing wizard stuff, OK?). For this I bought a Creative 8133 ADSL modem which has a single-port router (DHCP server) included. Obviously, two DHCP routers can't be connected in series so Creative (clever chaps) allowed a 'bridge mode' which allows the 8133 to act as a simple ADSL modem. Trouble is, there are still a slew of other options to screw up!

The modem defaults to PPoA VMux connection mode. It also allows PPoE VMux, and PPoE LLC modes, among others. When bridged, the modem needs the password/user name information to be held elsewhere - in this case, by the WRT54g. Now, starting from scratch, with all resets duly pressed for an age, and with the modem bridged but the wifi router set to connect via DHCP, the computer (whichever one) will see an internet connection - but it can't connect, as the router doesn't issue the username/password in this mode. With the wifi router then reset to connect via PPoE (thus allowing it to issue a username and password) the internet connection promptly disappears and can't be persuaded back into existence.

This is a bleeding nightmare - especially as the GUI's for both boxes use the same IP address and therefore all sorts of wire swapping etc needs to happen to adjust anything - and then I have difficulty thereafter getting anything to talk to anything else without going through all the resets, ip release/renewals etc.!!

Surely there's an easier way?

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

scroggs,

I think you mentioned the problem:

both boxes use the same IP address

You need to change the IP Address on one of the two Routers. The Router in the Modem needs to be completely disabled and let the Linksys Router do all the PPPoE, (which you have done), and it should all work.


As for the issue with the WiFi Bridge that seacue was asking about, Microsoft has this to say about it:

Bridge May Not Work With a Non-Promiscuous Mode Network Adapter

This problem occurs because some NICs do not automatically enter into Promiscuous mode to create a successful network bridge.

Take Care,

Richard

[scroggs]

Hmmm.... tried setting one or other box to a different IP, but no change to the symptoms. When you say 'disable the modem's router', I assumed that's what the bridge mode achieved. Do you think there may be more fiddling required? I think I can disable the modem's DHCP server while leaving its DHCP client active - would that help even if it's in bridge mode?

Trouble is, I'm on the second Creative modem and I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the whole caboodle is rubbish! Maybe I should bin the lot and start again with an integrated modem/wifi router?

Computers, eh???

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

scroggs,

Something else you can try. I would disable DHCP on both the WiFi and the Modem. Then manually assign IP Addresses to each piece of hardware on your network.

Take Care,

Richard

[Ausatco]

Richard,

Am I correct in thinking that if DHCP is disabled on a wireless system and IPs manually assigned, then security is enhanced.

DHCP hands out IPs to anything that comes along, including intruders, so it would seem to me that if scroggs were to make his system work with DHCP disabled, as you have suggested, he'd be better off in the long run, wouldn't he?

Perhaps home wireless networkers should all do that as a further security precaution?

AA

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Ausatco,

With or without the DHCP Server someone could add themselves to a WiFi Network.

If you want WiFi security, you are better off setting the WiFi Router to lock out all MAC Addresses short of the ones manually entered.

Take Care,

Richard