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Jim Smith
February 14th, 2007, 10:46 PM
Setup a wireless router (Linksys Wireless G 2.4 Gigahertz model WRT54G) connected to a Cable Modem. I have no recollection of how I set it up other than 2 or 3 Ethernet connected PCs and one wireless Notebook were successfully connected to the router for many months. Very recently the wireless connection failed.

After booting the Notebook the tray icon shows good or excellent signal strength and ‘Acquiring Network Address,’ but it never does. Packets are being sent and received by the Notebook. Ipconfig shows the physical address, DCHP Enabled, Autoconfig Enabled, IP Address 0.0.0.0, Subnet Mask 0.0.0.0, blank Default Gateway. Moving the Notebook to within 4 feet of the router yields an IP Address of 169.254.195.204, Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0, Default Gateway is blank. Security of the wireless network is WPA, whatever that is. Device Manager shows the wireless network adapter to be OK.

The Notebook connects to the Internet when connected to the router with an Ethernet cable.
Snurfen
February 14th, 2007, 11:21 PM
what's the OS on the notebook Jim?
Jim Smith
February 15th, 2007, 02:24 PM
The Notebook's OS is XP Home w/SP2.

This morning none of the three currently 'connected' PCs could connect to the Internet (Cannot find server or DNS error). I powered down two of the PCs (third has a difficult to deal with on/off button), powered down the router, powered down the cable modem and waited a few minutes. Powered up cable modem, then router, then the two PCs. All three PCs could then connect to the Internet.

I had previously powered down and reset the router to no avail.

May be that there is more than one wireless router with adequate signal strength nearby. Next time it fails I'll find out.
Snurfen
February 16th, 2007, 12:51 PM
Hello Jim, I'm sorry, but I haven't any experience of XP home and wireless, but I'll go and do some digging around.

In the meantime, I hope someone with a good deal of experience of XP home and your wireless kit will step in and offer some advice.
bAdWaYz
February 16th, 2007, 03:47 PM
It sounds like to me that your router may not be getting an address from the cable modem.To test that you could directly connect a computer to the cable modem and then let it run. If it drops its addressing then the problem is with the cable either modem or line. If it doesn't drop addressing then we can assume the problem is the router.
Jim Smith
February 16th, 2007, 11:49 PM
My guess was a router problem and I had intended to directly connect a PC to the Cable Modem if I had further problems. So far I haven't, I'll do so after the next failure. Thanks all.
Jim Smith
March 4th, 2007, 02:55 PM
It sounds like to me that your router may not be getting an address from the cable modem.To test that you could directly connect a computer to the cable modem and then let it run. If it drops its addressing then the problem is with the cable either modem or line. If it doesn't drop addressing then we can assume the problem is the router.

Bought an installed a new router, same model, and so far the problem has gone away. I am not observant enough, think the Cisco symbol on old router went from yellow to white when it failed. New router symbol is yellow.