Old WinXP won't work on wireless?

I'm trying to add an older Dell Dimension 8200 WinXP Home SP3 to our home wireless network (Verizon hotspot). Been dinkin' with this for weeks so I'd at least have answers to the inevitable questions if/when I needed to post here for help, which is where I'm at now.

The program included with the USB wireless adapter shows good signal and strength but forever gives the message "acquiring network address ". Using Windows "zero configuration utility" yields the same. It won't connect to the internet but seems to connect to the hotspot ok.

I pulled another old XP machine out of the garage, installed the USB adapter and software (wondering if the adapter was any good) and it worked great, immediately. (We need to use this old Dell because of a security dongle for Bernina software that won't work on anything newer than XP, not always with newer than SP1, and requires a parallel port. It wouldn't work at all with the garage machine but has always worked with the Dell).

Years ago I added a USB 2.0 card and that has worked fine. I'm only guessing this might be where the problem lies, but don't know that for sure.

I removed Kerio Personal Firewall and disabled Windows firewall to eliminate those potential conflicts.

I also danced in a circle three times while tossing floppy discs over my left shoulder.

Anybody got any suggestions for my next step?

Phil

 

Thanks Tony.

I'll give all that a try tonight!

Phil

 

Everything went as directed on the Dell, Tony.

There is nothing in the control panel for the Samsung 4G Hotspot concerning WEP or WPA. I have it 'open' with not even a password required (we live way out in the country).

The wireless network window, after hitting 'connect', says "unsecured wireless network" just above "you are connected to this network..." but at the top of the connection is still says "acquiring network address" without ever actually doing it.

Should I try and find a roll of punched paper tape to toss around while chanting DOS commands?

Phil

 

Thanks Tony.

I've had at least 1/2 dozen other computers connected to this hotspot in the last month with no problems. Since it's unsecured, they've all been able to just log on with no password and no problems. Three were at a restaurant in a nearby town where some friends and I got together to do work related requirements, but in a better atmosphere (with beer!). By the time I realized I'd left the hotspot 'unsecured' (because my friends are saying "it doesn't even want a password!! ") I didn't bother changing it. We all noted that the three laptops on the hotspot were very much faster than the one logged on to the restaurant's wifi.

As I mentioned, the 'garage' computer logged on and accessed the internet immediately.

I CAN view addresses on the hotspot but haven't seen anyplace to enter that info when the computer is "acquiring network address ", or I'd just TELL IT the address.

Something I hadn't mentioned earlier which may/may not be significant: before disabling the USB adapter software I'd watched the 'sent' and 'received' numbers, and 'sent' would not change although 'received' kept increasing. Like the computer could 'hear' but couldn't 'speak'. That was why I was wondering whether the USB 2.0 card, and a computer originally capable of only USB 1.0 might be the bottleneck.

Phil,

as he tries to find an old 5.25" disc to put on his head before dancing, as he tries to figger out this problem

 

I worked some more last night and noted the following:

1) as mentioned earlier, the wifi adapter is only receiving, not transmitting. The "received" number keeps increasing while the "transmitted" number doesn't change once an initial number is recorded (like 3, while the received number climbs into the thousands).

2) if I put a USB drive in the USB 2.0 slot, it doesn't appear in "my computer" as a drive. It SHOULD show as "G" drive, but doesn't appear at all. I can access it only by typing a path to "G ".

The drives on this computer are "A" (that I disabled last night since I've tossed all my old floppy discs over my shoulder), "C ", "D" that's a Zipdrive, "E" that's a DVD drive and "F" that's a CD drive.

I seem to remember a limitation to older computers limiting the drives. Is that the problem? What was the solution?

I also looked everywhere I could think of to find the tab designating drive letters with no success. Seems like there used to be such a place... maybe I need to check a box telling the computer that there's a "G" drive? If I could find where to do that ...

Or maybe I should move this question to another part of the BBS since it seems "networking" isn't the problem as much as "designating drive letters "?

Phil

 

Thanks for the refresher, Tony. I changed the USB drive label to "A" and now it at least shows up.

Of course, when connecting to the hotspot, it still just shows "acquiring network address ". Forever. Received still climbs, transmitted still remains static.

Dang.

Maybe I should just give up.

Phil