Lost Wireless on Router...

Nemo

I have a Netgear DG834G router which I've had about 4 years. I have a desktop PC (which I'm typing on now) connected to it via an ethernet cable, and I have a laptop which up until today I connected wirelessly to the router with. The laptop is a Fujitsu with an onboard WLAN and uses Fujitsu's own Odyssey software to handle the connection rather than let Windows do it. Both my PC's use XP.

All was fine until I had a powercut yesterday, but when I've tried the laptop today, it wouldn't connect to the internet. The Odyssey software won't see the network. All it can see is a weak signal from another Netgear router somewhere nearby. I've done a right-click --> Repair Network Connection, but it says it can't find the network to connect to. I've rebooted the laptop, but this made no diffference. I don't think the laptop was connected to the power at the tme of the power cut.

I've rebooted the router by removing the power cable for a few seconds then reinserting, althought the lights looked ok before. All the lights look ok (power, the occasionally flashing transmitting 'i', the wireless indicator, and the '1'). I've connected to the router in Internet Explorer, and everything looks ok, just the same as it did before. I use WEP for security, have a different network name to the default, and have broadcast SSID turned off.

I have an old PC upstairs which he last time I used, about 3 years ago, connect wirelessly using a network adaptor which came with the router. I've just tried that PC and it also can't see the network.

Although I managed to get the who thing set up at the time I'm no networking expert, and don't know what to try. I don't want to dive in and screw the whole thing up and lose my internet connection completely. Hence why I haven't tried a reset of the router.

Any thoughts of what the problem could be, or does it sound like the router could be partly fried or something?

Thanks.

cajef

Try allowing broadcast of your SSID on the router, it may be that the laptop has lost the setting.

mymy40

I had the same recently. Solved it by changing the wireless channel which was on auto (currently channel 13) to 6.
This worked straight away.

macman

Agree with cajef, you need to re-enable SSID broadcast again in the router interface, see if the laptop can then see the network, and re-enter your encryption key.
BTW, WEP is really not secure any more and you should upgrade to WPA wireless security if your hardware supports it.

Nemo

Ok, I've made some progress, but it definitely got worse before it got better!

Thought I'd just check the 'Broadcast SSID' box in the router settings. Clicked 'Apply'. Next thing I know, the router lost ALL its settings. I felt physically sick having lost my internet connection and not having much clue as to what all the settings should be. I then remembered that when I originally got the router set-up I'd made a backup of the config settings. Phew!, back to where I was. I tried the SSID thing again, and bang went the settings again. Don't know what's happening there.

Anyway, I had to tweak a few things because I knew, for instance, I'd changed the Mode from 'G & B' to 'G only'. The hex WEP key just didn't ring any bells so I updated the passphrase on both the router and laptop.

The laptop can now see the network, has connected with a strong signal, but I'm getting 'Limited or no connectivity'. When I do a Repair, its failing 'Renewing your IP address'.

Suggestions gratefully received while I carry on Googling etc.

Nemo

Don't really know what I did there. Lost the router settings for about the 4th time. Got the config file back. Changed to 'G only' and retyped the key...and there she blows. It's like having an old friend back.

Don't know what went wrong, and for that matter exactly what I did to fix it!

Thanks for your inputs.

macman

Have you changed your wireless security from WEP to WPA though?