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No signal in XP - 802.11b network

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  • 20-11-2002 1:11pm
    #1
    Bard
    Registered Users Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭


    Situation:

    Office wireless network - 5 PC's and an Apple AirPort. 4 PC's with Windows 2000 Pro SP3 and the other with Windows XP Pro SP1. None of them are laptops. Connection provided via PCMCIA Wireless LAN cards plugged in to PCMCIA slot adapter cards which are installed in the PC's.

    --

    Problem:
    The Windows 2000 machines get the network signal fine whereas the Windows XP one does not.

    --

    I have tried this with 2 different cards - a D-Link DWL-500 and a Buffalo AirStation card. Both these cards are working fine when used in the other (Win2K) machines on the network but Windows XP, while it detects and installs either card with no problems and says that it is working correctly, still finds nothing when it uses it to scan for a wireless LAN.

    I don't think it's an issue of the XP machine being too far away form the AirPort as it's sitting practically right next to one of the Win2K machines - and that Win2K machine gets a very good signal.

    Anybody have any ideas?


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    #2
    conor-mr2
    Registered Users Posts: 654 ✭✭✭conor-mr2


    Yea reinstall the machine with win2k!! :)

    No seriously have you used netstumbler to see if you can detect the other cards?
    checked if there are any irq conflicts etc with other devices?

    We had a dlink 520+ not working in XP and working fine in win2k. It stalled Xp even though the card was detected and seemed to work fine at the start.

    Basically I would advise going through the bios settings. Heres some advice from PaulE on the D15 wan mailing list regarding bios settings.
    http://d15wan.lapsedhippy.com/pipermail/d15wan/2002-November/000213.html

    HTH


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    #3
    Shinji
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,275 ✭✭✭Shinji


    Are you using the WinXP Wireless configuration tool, or a tool that came with the hardware? If the latter, make sure the XP one is disabled, otherwise it's probably interfering with the operation of the third-party software.

    Easy check to see if the XP one is up and running - if the WLAN card appears as an actual wireless device in Network Neighbourhood -> Properties, then XP will try and configure it. If it appears as a standard ethernet port, XP will leave it alone.


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    #4
    retneil
    Closed Accounts Posts: 119 ✭✭retneil


    if your using dhcp on the windows 2k system use ipconfig maybe the gateway aint been assigned. If you have the client sw for the wireless cards install it and see does it pick up a signal.. xp should be fine. u certain that there are no other poxy network configs on the xp box if there are remove them then install again/... By this i mean dial up adapters network adapters etc etc..


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    #5
    Bard
    Registered Users Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Bard


    Windows says the D-Link is a DWL-650 although the drivers that came with it say it's a 500... regardless, I seem to have the most up to date drivers installed - as taken from MS WindowsUpdate. By all accounts (from what Windows itself tells me), "the device is working properly".

    [edit]: Correction - it IS a DWL-650 - says so on the card itself. :rolleyes:

    I'm using the in-built XP wireless LAN support to set it up and not the original software because the original software seems to not be XP compatible/friendly.

    The card shows up in device manager as a Network Adapter. It shows up in Network Connections as a wireless device (11Mbps WLAN card). There are no errors on it and no conflicts - IRQ, DMA, or whatever.

    I tried Network Stumbler, as downloaded from Netstumbler.com's downloads page. It reports "No APs active" in its status bar. I don't know what this means, but I assume it means it cant find any wireless nodes.

    The Apple AirPort assigns IP addresses via DHCP and none of the existing Windows 2000 PC's seem to have a problem with that. Strangely enough though, IPCONFIG gives me back an IP address which just so happens to be the next available IP address on the network (10.0.1.6) but the Default Gateway address is the exact same and the Media State shows as "Media disconnected".

    I've removed the only dial-up connection that's on the machine, which was an Oceanfree one. As I expected, this had no effect.

    The only way I'm able to connect to the internet is by direct cable connection to one of the Windows 2000 PC's via the parallel port... that's all well and good but it slows the Win2K PC down when I'm downloading on the XP box ... and I still need to access the actual LAN.

    Thanks for the help so far guys...

    Hmmmmm... what next? :)


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    #6
    Bard
    Registered Users Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Bard


    It seems to have sorted itself out - signal has reappeared - albeit a very weak one at that.

    It seems to me that it's just the fact that theres an extra computer on the network causing an extra drain on the already low signal which was the problem. I'm going to have to relocate the AirPort.


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    #7
    quozl
    Registered Users Posts: 3,308 ✭✭✭quozl


    Originally posted by Bard
    I
    It seems to me that it's just the fact that theres an extra computer on the network causing an extra drain on the already low signal which was the problem.

    Doesn't really work like that. The number of machines doesn't lower signal strength (unless you happen to have built a barricade using them :)
    quozl


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