Wireless Problem

got a weird problem. Ok, here is the rundown on my network.

www.cableone.net cable internet,
1 - dlink DI-704P cable router/switch w/HP printer connected,
1 - Cisco Aironet 340 Series Wireless access point,
1 - Dlink 5 port Switch,
1 - 1 XP Pro PC,
1 - Quad Xeon 500 running Win2K Adv Server,
1 - HP Laptop XP Home using Cisco Aironet 350 Series PCMCIA Card,
1 - Sony Laptop XP Pro w/intergrated wirless

the server and pc are hardwired.

laptops are wireless.

Hp laptop was accessing internet/intranet fine when it was loaded with XP Pro.

reloaded Hp laptop with restore cd to put Xp home back on for wife (she does not need access to intranet just internet). BOOM! no internet access. can ping access point and other computers but not gateway. statically figured settings and still no go.

bought Sony laptop (Badass with DVD-RW!) anyway. first boot brought setup screen to format the hd and replace the stock XP home with XP Pro. install went fine but when I went to connect to the internet through the wireless AP no go. same problem as other laptop. However, to throw a monkey wrench in, was able to add the Sony to my domain through the wireless. I can ping anything on network but the gateway, where before there was no problem with the HP laptop when it had the XP Pro on it. Identical configs on each laptop as it was before for access.

I can access the gateway and the access point's control/config panels from the PC and indicates no errors.

no firewalls on either laptops just a fresh install.

have awesome signal strength on both laptops and it also indicates the SSID assigned.

The AP is plugged directly to the Cable router.

I am now going to beat my head against the wall and get a beer.

 

Make sure the XP firewall is turned off. I think it's on by deffault in XP Home.

 

Sorry..... I didn't read far enough. I see you say they aren't turned on.

 

yup, they are not turned on.

 

Lets make this more interesting.

I pulled the Cisco 350 PCMCIA card from the HP laptop and put it into the Sony. Wham! access! weird huh?

but, still do not have access to internet through intergrated wireless or the PCMCIA card being in the HP.

 

Wierd Problem

With my limited experience (and a little of what I have read in the past) it sounds like you have software issues.

With the Sony, I would try loading the OEM version of Windows that came with the machine. Sony has very a proprietary hardware/software mix in their laptops and the particular distribution of Windows that you get with Sony has all their proprietary drivers included (think integrated system like Apple). When you load the plain jane distribution of Winxp you lose those proprietary drivers. That is why (I assume) the PCMCIA card worked; because it's non proprietary. In the recent past, there were even major enterprise applications (like Photoshop) that would not run correctly on Sony hardware due to software conflicts with the version of Windows that Sony shipped for their hardware.

In terms of your HP machine, I would try the opposite as a fix. I would reload a plain wrap version of Windows because HP has (in my experience) the worst software team in the business. I have almost never used a HP product (and I've fought with lots of them) that the software did not have serious issues.

This is just a few years of trench knowledge talking here...I never went to school for computers so the real geeks probably have a software tweak that will solve your problem more elegantly.


Nate

 

The Sony had the same problem straight out of the box with XP Home. It could see the access point with full signal, ping everything else on the network, except the gateway or anything beyond. XP Home is just to limited for a windows 2000 domain. hell it just doesn't function lol.

now for a funny side, today I bought a new access point and it was DOA out of the box after driving 60 miles to get it. should have stayed in bed

 

HMMM....

OK, in the absence of real tech advice here this is my next thought...

Idea: Is your WAP issuing DHCP to the wireless machines or is your primary router? An explict wiring/connection digram of each condition (what works and what doesn't) would go a mile towards a solution. The first thing I would analyze is your network architecture at this point. You apparently could have at least two devices acting as NAT points and the wireless may be configured as a router and not a gateway(or vice versa). In this case you may be getting a strange conflict of interest on the gateway issue. (Mind you that I'm brainstorming publicly here and not at all qualified to address this issue in detail) Newt might have better advice on this since he's the dominant enterprise network guru here so far as I can tell.

I fixed a similar problem by getting rid of all the separate brands and buying an all-in-one cable modem-wireless access point-router from Netgear. Five days of cussing and headaching were fixed with a trip to the computer store and 15 minutes of setup on the all-in-one device. (My problem really was a faulty hardware issue)

It could very well be a router or WAP config issue way beyond my current knowledge. I looked into the config setup of your Cisco WAP and it looks like more headache than I would ever want. It seems to me that you chose an enterprise level solution for a very small network and opened a big can of worms.

I prefer simple blunt instrument solutions like buying all the same brand of hardware or even an A-I-O solution like above. You have three pieces of hardware where two or even one would be more than sufficient.

The only thing I can say is do not buy Linksys (you'll see me repeat this until somebody proves to me otherwise). In a dozen or so experiences with their equipment there was invariably some hidden glitch in the hardware/firmware that made certain standard features non-functional. (like ip forwarding or mac filtering) As you know, for the average small scale user any questionable compatibility problem raises a nighmare question... "Is it me that's ******* up, or is it the machine? "

Let me know what actually works...I'm learning too.
Nate

 

aaarrrhhhh!!!!

yup, just went and bought an all in one ap router switch. kindof fixed the problem. the cisco 350 series pcmcia card can see the ap but will not connect to it no matter what I do but it works fine in the sony but not the hp. this is really weird. I am spending too much money on buying new hardware to just go and get another card