Inspiron 5150 network problems

First of all, this is not just an issue with the wireless connection, but she is having the same problem with the ethernet connection.  Also, I am able to use my laptop and connect to the both the ethernet and wireless with no problems.  This is a problem with her machine, not the router.

ahsia124,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Please try the following:

• Update the drivers and firmware for the router and also for the wireless network card.
• Try changing the channel on the wireless adapter.
• Remove all sources of interference, like cordless telephones, microwaves, etc.
• Disable WEP on your router.

A customer came up with the following items to check for an intermittent connection with wireless:

2. Make sure that there is not any devices operating on the 2.4GHz frequency, i.e. portable phones, baby monitors, ect. If you have a 2.4GHz phone, remove power to the base station itself. The base station is always broadcasting out a signal, hence the reason you can get a call while the phone itself is not plugged into a cradle.
4. Make sure that there is not another wireless network nearby operating on or near the same channel as your wireless network. The 802.11b spectrum is divided into 11 channels, but the only non-overlapping channels are 1, 6, and 11; which allows three different wireless networks to operate without interfering. To be kind to others around you, use only those three channels. Unfortunately, the PROSet's scanning utility does not show the channel that the other networks are operating at; so your are left to either correct by trial-and-error or find a site monitoring/wireless scanner that will work with this card.
6. If the connection seems to drop every 3 (sometimes 5) minutes, make sure that 802.1X is not enable in the wireless profile. If you are using XP to configure the wireless, open the entry for your Preferred Network, go to the Authentication tab, the first option will be "Enable 802.1X Authentication". Remove all the checks on this tab from the bottom up, so that nothing is checked off.
8. if the connection is using WEP, make sure that the box is not check for "The key is provided for me automatically" on the Association tab and that you are entering the ASCII or Hexadecimal key. This card does not support "PassPhrase", a technology commonly used in Linksys routers. If this does not resolve the issue, disable the WEP on both the router and card for testing purposes. If the card will associate, then there is a possible issue with the router's firmware, consider updating to the latest release.
10. The card supports Open Authentication by default, change the router's Authentication type to Open also; some are set to use both Open and Shared Key Authentication by default.
12. The 802.11b specification uses Long Preamble, as does this card. If the router is set to Short, change it to Long.
14. The card does not support the "Turbo" modes (22Mbps) that some routers advertise, just those of 1-2-5.5-11Mbps. Set the router's TX (or Transmission) Rate to the 802.11b specification.
16. Since the card is part of the "Centrino" specification, the card has the ability to go into a power saving mode, sometimes dropping the connection or not being able to transmit data. The power setting can be adjusted in the PROSet Utility by going to the Adapter tab -> Configure button in the Power Settings -> choose Manual and set the slider bar to Maximum Performance. The option can also be access by going to the Advanced tab of the wireless card's properties in Device Manager. The option will be listed in the properties box.
18. Make sure that router that the card is associating to has the latest firmware. Some manufactures of the non-Dell routers have name Centrino specifically as a component to the routers update.
20. Make sure that the card has the latest drivers installed. Also try removing the drivers in Safe Mode and reinstall the drivers, even if the latest is already installed.
22. Disable the Wireless Zero Config in the Services in Administrative Tools inside of Control Panel and only use the PROSet utility to configure the wireless network.
24. Manually reseat the card and antennaes. Instructions can be found in the Service Manual for your particular system.
26. If the system uses a Dell style BIOS (black background with teal blue letters) reset the BIOS by doing Alt-F, this reset the BIOS back to factory defaults. Readjust the time and date to reflect the current. Save changes and reboot.

Has your friend's machine ever been able to access the network successfully? Given that both adapters are failing in the same way, it's likely that there's a problem with TCP/IP or some other networking component they have in common.

See the link listed below about troubleshooting TCP/IP connectivity with XP for some suggestions on how to proceed.

Jim

Do you have firewall?, you need to configure firewall to allow network access, otherwise it simply refuse access to the network. Check the microsoft internet firewall, it seem to interfer with Norton Firewall, so I disabled it. I don't know why it enabled at the first place.

Good luck

Riscy

 

 

Well, she must have done something to her machine, but she did a system restore to a few days ago, and everything is working fine now.  Thanks for the all the suggestions!