Laptop Won't Connect to my Wireless-G Lynksys

[SPM]

My laptop had been connecting to my Wireless-G Lynksys until recently. It appears to be about the same time that my hard drive crashed on my HP Pavillion, however, my son says that has no connection to it, since the laptop is connecting wirelessly and the the Pavillion is not.

It sees the Wireless-G in the Choose a wireless network folder and the bars to the right of that are all green. It's actually only 4 feet away from the Wireless-G right now. When I choose that network and then Connect, it shows the dialog box as if it is trying to connect, but doesn't connect and has no error message.

Does anyone have a clue what I could do to fix this problem?

Thanks so much!

Diane

[Lagunka]

well what you can try is turning off the host computer (the HP) and unplugging both the router and modem. Then, plug the modem back in and wait until it starts up completely. Then, you can go ahead and plug the router in again, and wait about 20 seconds. Then you can turn the computer back on, and it might work. Let me know if it works.

[SPM]

Lagunka!

That didn't work. It's the Laptop that won't work wirelessly on the internet. It did for a short time a couple weeks ago, but now it won't. It will only connect to my neighbors'. Anyone else know?

Thanks!
Diane

[SPM]

Does anyone else have any idea as to what I can try?

Thank you!

[giradman]

Diane - sorry about your problem, and not sure that I can help, but some more information may aid the forum's 'network experts' to respond. BTW, I also have a Linksys B/G 'wireless' router - lost contact this AM w/ my laptop (and checked my wired desktop - also out) - unplugged power to both the cable modem & the router; then, re-plugged the modem (waited), re-plugged the router - network was up again - always my first 'simple' try when I lose the network to both the wired & wireless computers.

But, from your description, I'm assuming that you have a cable modem which is attached to your Linksys router, which is 'wired' into your desktop w/ the 'new' drive - is the wired computer working fine w/ the router? Just trying to determine if you have an intact wired connection via your broadband ISP w/ the router? If so, I assume that you re-installed the router after the HD crash? Did you go into the Linksys setup program in your browser to setup the 'wireless' options? With Linksys, just open a browser window & enter the URL 192.168.1.1 - this will get you into the setup program (of course, you may already have done this step?) - check out the wireless settings and make sure that you have DHCP selected (of course there are other settings to discuss, if needed) - please report back and good luck!

[SPM]

You must have read about my HD crash. It's up and running now. I didn't have to reinstall anything because when I attached my hard drive to my sons, his computer automatically fixed the issues on my hard drive.

Now, I didn't reinstall the router and it and the moden work just fine as always on my desktop model. I just went to the router site and DHCP is enabled. I checked the Wireless settings and it was set to mixed. Mine only works with G though it has been working with Mixed. I changed it to G only, recycled my modem and router and my laptop is still not connecting wirelessly.

Thanks for any further help!

[giradman]

Diane - you might want to provide the OS that's on your laptop; also, back on post #3 you mentioned that the laptop would connect w/ your neighbor's? Please explain - can you get on the internet via your neighbor's wireless signal but not via your own router? If so, then that implies your laptop's TCP/IP network settings are working properly, but you might want to check; go to a cmd line (Run -> cmd), then 'ping localhost' (w/o the quotes), you should get back 4 quick responses of 127.0.0.1 - if so, then you laptop's networking setup should be working fine; might want to also go into 'Device Manager' and make sure that your network cards have no yellow ! marks; finally, can you connect the laptop to your router w/ a cable and get on the internet?

Also, double-check the routers setup to make sure that the 'wireless' signal is indeed broadcasting - any MAC filtering setup? Finally, are you using 'wireless' security settings (WEP, WPA, etc.) that might have been changed? See if any of these suggestions help? Good luck again.

[marvontherim]

I am having a similar connection problem. I have a new macbook laptop i am trying to connect to my linksys wireless g broadband router. wrt54g. the linksys provides internet to two computers wired no problem. my wireless lap top only connects 5 ft from the router. why am i getting a weak signal. also i know its not the lap top because i connected it to another network which had the same router and had no problem.

[giradman]

Originally Posted by marvontherim

I am having a similar connection problem. I have a new macbook laptop i am trying to connect to my linksys wireless g broadband router. wrt54g. the linksys provides internet to two computers wired no problem. my wireless lap top only connects 5 ft from the router. why am i getting a weak signal. also i know its not the lap top because i connected it to another network which had the same router and had no problem.

Marvon... - not sure 'what' your problem might be? Have you had another laptop try to connect to your router w/ similar results? If so, probably the problem is the router - defective and/or setup? You could go into the router's setup and reconfigure the channels to see if you obtain better range (but not sure what would be interfering w/i a 5 ft. distance?); assuming your connecting at the 802.11 g standard and the router is programmed properly for that configuration; finally, there is a signal strength for broadcasting that can be changed w/i the setup but the default should be perfectly adequate. Of course, you can also contact Linksys - they respond fairly quickly in my experience (although their advice may not be that helpful); there is also a Linksys user's forum that you might want to try? Good luck -

[SPM]

Giradman:

Thanks for your reply. I pinged my laptop and that worked great. My son is connected wirelessly on his PC, plus there are 2 PC's wired and working. My laptop, like I mentioned before, worked up until my PC crashed. My PC is now working fine. I cannot see anything apparent in the LinkSys Wireless Settings that could be causing me grief, especially when my son's hooked up wirelessly and working. We tried a different router (newer version) just for fun, and I'm having the same problem with it. I have Windows XP Pro, by the way on the laptop. Any other thoughts on this? Thank you so much for your time!

Diane

[giradman]

Hello Diane - I'm starting to 'run out' of ideas; wish some of our network pros would 'jump in' to help; but, did you try to connect your laptop to the router w/ an ethernet cable to see if that is working? Might focus the issue onto your 'wireless' card since your internet ping would suggest that your network settings are fine.

Also, did you check in device manager to see if there is a yellow ! over the 'wireless' card? If so, then there is a problem w/ the card - if not, then again back to square one - hmmm. In device manager, you might want to 'disable' and then 're-enable' the wireless network card - might not help, but no harm in trying; finally, you could re-install or update the drivers for your wireless card - again, no guarantee - good luck, yet again -

[SPM]

Giradman:

Thank you for your help. My son hooked up his router a more updated Linksys than mine and it now works seemlessly again. Maybe my Linksys was having issues. Who knows, but I did greatly appreciate your help. I had checked the device manager and it was fine. I could update the drivers if I run into this again.

Thanks again!
Diane

[giradman]

Diane - glad the 'new' router solved your problem - might have just been the need for a 'firmware' update to the older router (always a recommendation, but a potentially 'scary' process if all is working OK) - if all is now fine @ the moment, then do nothing (my usual choice) - but at least you know 'what' to check in the future if things don't work! Dave

[SPM]

Thanks again for all your help Dave!