Wireless connection prob - help please!

sassybird

I have a laptop pc. Used to have Linksys set up on my main base station and the laptop has a Linksys wireless adaptor. We have had a new Virginmedia modem put in (probs with old one) and the Linksys hub has now been removed as the new modem has it's own wireless facility (netgear according to virgin).

Now to the prob - the Linksys adaptor on the laptop is talking to the modem (with much help from my son), but cannot find the internet. We are stumped at this one - tried everything. I remember when we were buying the wireless gear the salesman said that most wireless equipment would work ok with different makes.

Any ideas please?

Thank you.

debitcardmayhem

Can you really access the router? If so from the lappy can you access the router's home page?

Not familiar with Virgin's (no jokes please) but on the lappy press the windows key and R and type cmd, that will bring up a command box (black screen white type....) and enter ipconfig .... look for the Wireless Adaptor and under that it will say something like
Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : WAG54GS
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5ce3:c49:6904:93d7%
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.40
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1

the router address is on the Default Gateway line eg 191.168.2.1 as above . If you don't have one then it is not connecting to the router.

Which version of Windows have you got on the lappy?

sassybird

laptop on XP.

debitcardmayhem

sassybird wrote: »

laptop on XP.

Does the ipconfig command show a default router??

debitcardmayhem

This link may help

sassybird

No. On the laptop.

Under ethernet adapter wireless network connection it lists:

suffix - blank
IP address - 192.168.0.3
subnet mask - 255.255.255.0
default gateway - 192.168.1.1


My son is confused that it shows ethernet adapter and we are working with a Linksys wireless card that slots in the side of the laptop.

We have two boxes on laptop screen that show. Network connections and the other one Wireless Network Connections. They are both flipping between connected and not connected - like it's trying and getting there, but they being flipped out in some way.

Thanks for your help.

sassybird

Looked at the help link.

Unfortunately that is setting up the Linksys router. The Virgin router does not have a WEP key - just a paraphrase (letters and numbers) which is not the same and does not work in the WEP Key box.

I was on to virgin earlier and had to come off the phone totally confused as they seemed to be reading from some set sheet and could not help me get the WEP key.

Their answer was that the Linksys adapter is not in communication with the Netgear (virgin) router, so I would need to buy an adapter from them for £30.

Does that sound feasible?

debitcardmayhem

sassybird wrote: »

Looked at the help link.

Unfortunately that is setting up the Linksys router. The Virgin router does not have a WEP key - just a paraphrase (letters and numbers) which is not the same and does not work in the WEP Key box.

I was on to virgin earlier and had to come off the phone totally confused as they seemed to be reading from some set sheet and could not help me get the WEP key.

Their answer was that the Linksys adapter is not in communication with the Netgear (virgin) router, so I would need to buy an adapter from them for £30.

Does that sound feasible?

Nope , the Linksys adapter should also accept WPA2 too unless it is like me very old , right click on the wireless icon on the bottom task bar (right hand side) select view available networks , select your Virging network and select connect. Then enter the "paraphrase" way to go

GunJack

default gateway - 192.168.1.1

this is probably your problem - most netgears are 192.168.0.1 - you need to change your default gateway address..you'll probably find your old linksys was .1.1

sassybird

Aww. Thanks ever so much for your replies guys.

We ended at 10.00 pm yesterday evening with our brains turned to mush - BUT we seemed to be making progress......

After much entering of numbers etc into the wireless connection screen on the laptop.

The laptop is now "communicating" with the virgin router - yipee! :T

BUT it is fluctuating with the internet connection (wireless adapter). It tries to connect to the internet - successfully does so... but only for about 5-10 seconds and then loses the connection. Then about
5-10 seconds later it tries again and is successful but then loses connection. Seems to be stuck in a loop on this one.

I feel that we are definitely making progress - but although I can literally smell the success here - it is beyond my son (who has had the patience of a saint I may add) to get it sorted.

Any advice gratefully received.

Mags