Anybody got any links to doo basic info on setting up a wireless home network?
The objective is to allow two laptops to share a Comcast cable modem connection. One laptop is a brand new Dell Inspiron 9300 (XP Pro) with built-in 802.11 g and the other is an older Toshiba laptop (XP Home) using a Linksys WPC54G card. The other hardware consists of a Motorola SB5120 cable modem and a Linksys WRT54G router.
I've got the Inspiron talking to the router OK via wireless and the Linksys card on the Toshiba sees the network but will not connect to the Internet. I've tried running the Linksys setup wizard and the MS network setup wizard from the Dell but still can't get the Toshiba to access the Internet. Both laptops are running the current version of Norton Internet Security and the OS's on both laptops are updated for the most recent patches.
I'm thinking that the firewall built into the router may be refusing to talk to the Toshiba and that I'll need to configure it to allow that connection - does that sound like a reasonable approach?
Mike
PS: add me to the list of folks here that would have a few choice words for Bill Gates should we ever meet.
Anybody got any links to doo basic info on setting up a wireless home network?
The objective is to allow two laptops to share a Comcast cable modem connection. One laptop is a brand new Dell Inspiron 9300 (XP Pro) with built-in 802.11 g and the other is an older Toshiba laptop (XP Home) using a Linksys WPC54G card. The other hardware consists of a Motorola SB5120 cable modem and a Linksys WRT54G router.
I've got the Inspiron talking to the router OK via wireless and the Linksys card on the Toshiba sees the network but will not connect to the Internet. I've tried running the Linksys setup wizard and the MS network setup wizard from the Dell but still can't get the Toshiba to access the Internet. Both laptops are running the current version of Norton Internet Security and the OS's on both laptops are updated for the most recent patches.
I'm thinking that the firewall built into the router may be refusing to talk to the Toshiba and that I'll need to configure it to allow that connection - does that sound like a reasonable approach?
Mike
PS: add me to the list of folks here that would have a few choice words for Bill Gates should we ever meet.
Don't have links but do have something to check; in Network Properties, make sure the protocol entry 'TCP/IP -> wireless adapter' is set as the default protocol.
It sounds like you are mostly there. If your Toshiba sees your network it sounds like your laptop has been given a IP address. I'm assuming the laptop is using DHCP to be assigned a IP address and the router is acting as a DHCP server and passing them out. If that wasn't working correctly I'd not expect your Toshiba to even see the network.
I've seen where the browser will talk to the internet, but the mail client won't. That's usually a setting problem in the mail program. If neither one will talk, that's not it. Have you tried 'pinging' a remote address (ie: from a command prompt type ping
formatting link
or something to see if you can get out at all. This would remove the browser and mail program from the mix.
You think the computer world is hell now?? Imagine it without any standards - which is what it would be without a "heavyweight" major player throwing their weight around. Think wild west, with either no lawman or a wimpy shirtwaste sherriff. Do I condone his business practices?? No. But I appreciate the fact that Microsoft is the lesser of several evils.
Hmm ... Microsoft, which has the philosophy of "adapt and extend" to all standards from outside (such as the excellent ones from the unix world), so by the time that Microsoft is done, their systems talk to each other, but use extensions which are not available to anybody else, so nobody else can talk to them.
They tried this with HTML, with their frontpage generating broken HTML, which, interestingly enough, their *own* browser was designed to work with.
There are plenty of excellent standards out there already. Microsoft accepts them (such as TCP/IP) only when they can't bully everyone into accepting their own standards -- and then they try to break the standards for everyone else.
Remember the password has to be the same for the network. You are creating a network - and each computer must sign in to the router with the same password.. I think you set it on one and not the other ?
I have three computers on my Router - this one direct, but the shop that is 200 feet away is on line and so is 'rover' - our laptop.
OBTW - if you have more than one printer - look at the USB print server by Linksys. Both a parallel port and a USB port - so your printers could be in another room and you each print to which one you want. I have a color and my 4MV on one here and my 5mxci or some alpha mess in the shop and another due to the position - for my E-size plotter. They are Way Cool.
They must be hardwired at the first setup (I think download a driver/upload ID) and then it goes wireless.
Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
Thanks for all of the replies - I'll check each of them out. The network is at my sister's house and a root canal today prevented me from getting over there to check anything out.
The router is set up with WEP and that d&%mned multi-character pass phrase that it it incorporates really ticks me off as it has to be keyed in twice
Martin - Odd that you should mention a printer as that will be the next order of business once the the two laptops are communicating. It's an old LJ 4L with a parallel to USB cable that will be connected to a Linksys USB print server. That should be almost as much fun to figure out as the really old JetDirect server I hooked up between a Designjet and Linksys router on my own home network. No way to hook it up direct as the new Inspiron 9300 laptop lacks either parallel or serial ports. One thing at a time, though.
Not being there, it's hard to say, but in a Windows environment:
The router is your gateway to the outside world, it's settings should be the same as the PC you originally reached out with, typically it would get an IP dynamically. These would typically be under "WAN" settings.
Your network (LAN) should then support DHCP. THis will allow your networked machines to obtain their IP from the router. To setup DHCP you typcially set an IP address pool. Your router will probably have an internal IP of 192.168.1.1, another common IP is 192.168.2.1. Your documentation should show that. The second part of DHCP setup is setting a range, either the number of addresses or an ending IP address, setup more than the two (you may have a guest) 32, is a nice even number. These IP's are then "leased" to each node, the lease time can be set. This reserves the IP for that period of time - so your guest machines don't have to keep requesting a new IP. The DHCP settings should also set the guest machines gateway and DNS server address(es).
Your PC's should be set to obtain their IP address automatically. This through a variety of ways, including right-clicking on My Network Places and selecting properties. Pick the local area connection, right-click it and select properties. From the properties dialog, General Tab, find and select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Press the "Properties" button, make sure the "Obtain an IP address automatically" is selected, along with "Obtain DNS server address automatically".
Once that's set, and you're connected to the router. Check your current ip configuration. Open a command prompt window, or Start | Run | cmd and type in ipconfig. You should see a report like: Windows IP Configuration
If the IP address isn't in the same address range as you set for DHCP, then DHCP is not setup properly. If you don't have a valid IP, you'll get nowhere.
You can also check by pinging your gateway. ping 192.168.1.1 Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time The objective is to allow two laptops to share a Comcast cable modem
Call Linksys tech support. Their support is free and fantastic. I have Linksys WiFi hardware also, and over the years I have called them several times.
Each time they have been nothing short of fantastic. The last time I talked to them, I was talking to someone in India. Made no difference. The woman who helped me was courteous and patient. A very positive experience.
For that reason alone, i will always stick with Linksys, ... and hope that their tech support will still be the way it has been for me so far.
That reminds me of something that happens to my computers regularly.
Often when I reboot one of my computers, the IP address will change from something like 192.168.1.100 to let's say 192.168.1.101.
Well, since I have identified the computers on my network in Zonealarm (my firewall, I have disabled the XP firewall), by their IP address in the "trusted zone", I have to change the IP address for the computers in question there also.
To find the IP address of your particular computer, go to Start, Run and type cmd. This will take you to a DOS command prompt (don't you just love Bill Gates). Now type: ipconfig This will give you the IP address of your computer. If this is not the same as the IP address of that computer in your firewall, than this is your problem.
You need to find out how to apply static IP addresses, instead of accepting them from the DHCP server in the router/hub. Then things would not be changing on you when you reboot. Then turn off the DHCP, if the hub/router allows you to.
No. That router doesn't need to be setup for each computer.
I assume that the Toshiba was connected to the internet at some time. If so how?
Sounds like a firewall problem. Are you running a firewall such as Zone Alarm. If not you should. Don't depend on the XP firewall it only works in one direction. If you do have a firewall then you must set it up properly.
If the Toshiba sees the network (You said it does) then the router is not refusing to talk to the Toshiba but pinging will answer that question.
Shut down ALL firewalls and Norton. You have a router which gives you enough protection until you solve the problem.
Run ipconfig and write down the IP addresses of each computer and get the router IP value. Probably 192.168.1.1 for that Linksys.
I have the same router with four computers two on Cat 5, a laptop sometimes on Cat 5 and sometimes wireless depending on where it is, and a third desktop which runs on Cat 5 or wireless depending on what I am doing with it.
Open your browser and enter the IP address of your router.
192.168.1.1 ?? The router password is probably "admin" unless you changed it. Leave the other box empty. Click on "Status" Does it show "connected" ? from each computer? Note: If you really are paranoid about virus problems you can disconnect the router here when you are offline. Of course you need to reconnect when you want to go online. A PITA but secure.
Click on "Setup" This will show the router's IP address which you know or you wouldn't be here but it also shows you the starting range of the computers on the router. Subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0 Leave the default for DHCP users and the rest below should be zeros. DHCP enabled.
Ping all three from each computer. If you can ping all then you have a connection.
Start---Run--- type cmd
type ping "IP address" where IP address is the one you got above by running ipconfig (no quotes)
Let us know what you get from pinging.
I disagree here. He may be like sleeping with an elephant but if we had several hundred operating systems it would be a nightmare. Bill Gates frequently gets the blame when the problem is between the chair and the keyboard.
"Anybody got any links to doo basic info on setting up a wireless home network?"
I use that same Linksys WRT54G wireless router connected to a Linksys cable modem, and the setup is virtually automatic for an unsecured wireless network. After getting the computer to talk directly to the modem (a more complex issue because the Comcast installer had written down the incorrect MAC address), I added the Linksys router and without any setting adjustments worked immediately in an unsecured wireless mode.
To add security, you simply talk to the router with your computer (http://192.168.1.1) and it give you some self-explanitory menu based controls that will allow you to secure your wireless network.
Getting multiple computers to securely have access to Comcast is trivial, but getting the computers to access each other over the wireless network is a bit more difficult, and a trick that I have not yet completely mastered but am working on.
Hope this helps.
Harry C.
p.s. If you also have a Linksys modem (mine is a model BEF something or other), it's address is http://192.168.100.1/... The modem will provide you with a menu that allows you to monitor the signal level and S/N ratio of the signal provided by Comcast, and also the log of modem operation and cable related history that it keep.
Mike, as an afterthought, it can be a bit tricky setting up the security of your Linksys wireless network.
For setting up the encryption, you get the routers menu, click on wireless, then click on "Wireless Security"... When the menu pops up select WEP encription and select which password key you will use because the router will generate 4 (the default is 1). Next enter the passphrase that you wish to use and then hit 'generate'. The router will compute 4 different keys based on your passphrase, so you'll want to copy these down or print the page. Finally click on 'Save Settings' and your wireless network is now secure. (At which your neighbors previously using your wireless network will not glare at you because they can no longer gain free access to the internet! :-) )
Assuming that you've selected Key #1, this is the key that you need to put into all the computers that you have accessing the now secured wireless network. In actuality, I spent more time figuring how to setup secured wireless access on my computers using Windows XP Professional than I did on setting up the router.
Although all of the 4-5 computers in my home can now freely access the internet, I'm still working on getting them to talk to one another. That's a Microsoft issue and not a problem of the modem or router.
I'm no network guru, but if I can be of help in any way, feel free to contact me by email at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (I don't use my Comcast email account for anything but business based on past experiences.)
"You need to find out how to apply static IP addresses, instead of accepting them from the DHCP server in the router/hub."
Huh? Unless you have an entirely local network, without cable Internet access, the DHCP server is located at the ISP's facility, and not is your local router/hub.
Perhaps a more important consideration is that almost all ISPs charge a heavy premium for a static IP address, and most high-speed Internet access providers don't offer this option at any price. Some people will argue that this is done to prevent people from effective hosting websites from their home, but the real reason is that the ISP has only a limited size block of IPs assigned to them that they must share will all users. That's why with cable access you have a time limit on your rights to a particular IP (typically a day or two) and then it changes. Research the unit called an Erlang, because it applies here.
Not if you have linksys or several other vendors' hardware. The switchgear gets a DHCP address from the ISP (your "real" IP address as seen by the outside world), and then assigns a DHCP address to each system on your internal network, depending on how you set it up. Security being what it is, I woudn't have a box in my house on a publically addressable IP address.
And if broadband wasn't always on, or nearly so, that excuse would be credible. It's not.
Still sounds like them trying to stop you from hosting; as if the dynamic DNS places don't exist for just that reason...
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