Not likely that deleting the temp files caused the wireless to stop working. I've seen updates that do kill the Internet connections but not on XP so far.
Try some of these steps with the wired network unplugged.
1) Open a command prompt (Start/Run - type CMD)
2) Type IPCONFIG. Does your computer have an IP address and gateway? If not try reinstalling the card.
3) If so, note the gateway address and type PING
4) If the gateway (aka your wireless router) responds then you've got connectivity to the router so that's good.
5) Next type NSLOOKUP dell.com and see if it returns a non-authoritative answer with a few IPs. If not then you're not making it past the router.
6) If so then you've got DNS name resolution and you're likely getting past the router and onto the Internet. Then I'd say it's another problem, likely browser related although somewhere in the common files because you're using both IE and Netscape.
I followed your first suggestion and ran ipconfig at the command prompt and found the following: IP address: 169.254.168.110 / Gateway: "blank"
I think 169.xxx.xxx is what you get when you're not getting an IP address. I know that my router's address is in the 192.xxx range. Nothing is showing under gateway, so that must be bad. My Dell has a built-in (integrated) wireless card; so I can't really physically re-install it. Would deleting it in Add/Remove Hardware, and then re-installing the driver, do the same thing?
Yep, that's exactly right. It's when a DHCP enabled adapter cannot contact a DHCP server, in this case the DHCP server is your router. The 169.254.xxx.xxx address is called Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) or some people call it the auto config IP.
First, make sure in your router config you've got WEP and WPA encryption turned off, and you're not using a MAC address list. Leave everything open just for troubleshooting. Try getting an IP after that if there were any of those above things enabled.
Sorry, that's what I meant. Reinstalling the driver would be just fine. But removing the entry in Add/Remove Programs might just remove the management software like Intel PROset (not sure which wireless card you're using but I'm assuming it's a Dell Truemobile. The management software is just software that lets you configure your wireless device. The best thing to do is remove the driver from Device Manager. Make sure you have your driver disk available, or download it off the internet.
Also, totally out of the scope of where we're going but you could try giving yourself a static IP and see if that helps. Find your routers subnet and give it an IP from that subnet, like 192.168.100.57. Default gateway 255.255.255.0 and use the router address as the gateway, usually 192.168.XXX.1. Then if you get connectivity then it could be something with the router not handing out the IPs correctly. Maybe. :)
Thanks for the help. I've progressed a bit. For now, I've turned off WEP security on the wireless access point I'm using -- an Airport bridging my wireless network to the Ethernet network (where my Linksys router sits). Your suggestion to set up a static IP address was right on the nose -- I needed to do so anyway since the WAP is acting as a bridge and not distributing NAT or DCHP. I set up the static IP address on my internal (Truemobile 1180) wireless card but I still was not able to get web pages. So I created a second wireless connection using an external USB wireless adapter; and configured it with the static IP addressing. Success, at last -- I was able to browse web pages.
So I'm trying to see if anything is wrong with my internal wireless card. I'm getting the WAP's signal; and I'm using static IP addressing. Again, thanks for that tip about static IP's. Do you know of a way to check the internal wireless card?
Ah, I see. I'm not too familiar with the Apple Airport WAP but did you want to run DHCP? If so, there must be a setting in the Airport that allows for DHCP relaying. Otherwise the DHCP server will not broadcast past that bridge. But if you don't want DHCP then don't worry about it.
At any rate, even though you had the static IP but could not access web pages maybe the problem lies in DNS resolution. If you configured the IP with a free IP address on the network chances are you should have been able to ping the Linksys router and any server on your Ethernet network. Could you do that? If you can't ping any other computer on that network or the router then it could be something with the card. But if you can ping other computers and the router, and even go as far as pinging a server on the Internet (try Yahoo's site at 216.109.127.30 ) then the card is functioning properly. But if there is no DNS name resolution then the traditionally way of entering www.yahoo.com will yield nothing because there is no DNS resolution to say that www.yahoo.com = 216.109.127.30.
On a standard wireless router config the router itself becomes a DNS "proxy", meaning that when you request a name for a web site like www.dell.com the router will accept the request, ask the real DNS server at your ISP with the IP for www.dell.com is, and relay that information back to you. But in this case it seems as though the Linksys should be your DNS proxy, not the WAP.
So try the pinging steps first. Ping another computer, the Linksys, and then Yahoo. If that's all good check your DNS settings. You may have to manually enter in the address of the Linksys router (192.168.1.1 by default) as your primary DNS server.
If that fails then it probably is indeed a bigger issue like the card or drivers. Unfortunately unless the internal wireless card has a test utiltiy that can run diagnostics on itself it's really hard to determine if it is functioning or not. You can sometimes find those either in the properties for that device in Device Manager, or the wireless management software that came with the card. If there is a wireless icon in the system tray near the clock give it a double-click and look for anything that may say "diagnostics" or "test". But just the fact that you are able to give it an IP address suggests that it is working to some degree. Maybe the antenna popped off inside? Hmm, guess that can't be it really since you said you got good signal strength but you can check it anyway. The access panel to the card should be on the underside of the computer.
With that said I've noticed that pings appear different when the card is malfunctioning but I can't say that is always the case. When you ping your own IP address and get a quick "Destination host unreachable" about four times that usually means it's a TCP/IP problem. I'd rule that out because since you've added the external USB device it worked, indicating TCP/IP is working fine. Also sometimes when the card isn't working and ping and get nothing at all then that to me is usually a driver issue. When you ping, if the card really looks like it's working hard, i.e., each ping takes 2 or 3 seconds then the card is working. A fast response back no reply-no reply-no reply-no reply in quick succession ususally says hardware error to me.
And sorry if my above message got a little muddy with too much information. Basically try this, assuming your IP range is 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254.
Everything is working now. There was a program on my laptop that helped me troubleshoot the TrueMobilee 1180 -- turns out it was OK. I went back and checked my configuration again -- that looked OK too. But after disabling my USB wireless connection and making sure that the TrueMobile connection was the only one enabled; things started working as expected. I was even able to go back in and turn back on WEP security and MAC ID access control. I think manually configuring the IP addresses on everything did the trick; and I did not notice since the system kept forcing me to reconnect all the time -- making me check the little box indicating that I was OK with no security being on.
Again, all is OK now. Thanks for all your help and advice. I even got my D-Link DP311P wireless print server working on my Epson 1280.
IG-88
54 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2004 05:00
Not likely that deleting the temp files caused the wireless to stop working. I've seen updates that do kill the Internet connections but not on XP so far.
Try some of these steps with the wired network unplugged.
1) Open a command prompt (Start/Run - type CMD)
2) Type IPCONFIG. Does your computer have an IP address and gateway? If not try reinstalling the card.
3) If so, note the gateway address and type PING
4) If the gateway (aka your wireless router) responds then you've got connectivity to the router so that's good.
5) Next type NSLOOKUP dell.com and see if it returns a non-authoritative answer with a few IPs. If not then you're not making it past the router.
6) If so then you've got DNS name resolution and you're likely getting past the router and onto the Internet. Then I'd say it's another problem, likely browser related although somewhere in the common files because you're using both IE and Netscape.
Let us know what steps you're failing at if any.
SearcyBrown
12 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2004 03:00
I think 169.xxx.xxx is what you get when you're not getting an IP address. I know that my router's address is in the 192.xxx range. Nothing is showing under gateway, so that must be bad. My Dell has a built-in (integrated) wireless card; so I can't really physically re-install it. Would deleting it in Add/Remove Hardware, and then re-installing the driver, do the same thing?
IG-88
54 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2004 03:00
Yep, that's exactly right. It's when a DHCP enabled adapter cannot contact a DHCP server, in this case the DHCP server is your router. The 169.254.xxx.xxx address is called Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) or some people call it the auto config IP.
First, make sure in your router config you've got WEP and WPA encryption turned off, and you're not using a MAC address list. Leave everything open just for troubleshooting. Try getting an IP after that if there were any of those above things enabled.
Sorry, that's what I meant. Reinstalling the driver would be just fine. But removing the entry in Add/Remove Programs might just remove the management software like Intel PROset (not sure which wireless card you're using but I'm assuming it's a Dell Truemobile. The management software is just software that lets you configure your wireless device. The best thing to do is remove the driver from Device Manager. Make sure you have your driver disk available, or download it off the internet.
Also, totally out of the scope of where we're going but you could try giving yourself a static IP and see if that helps. Find your routers subnet and give it an IP from that subnet, like 192.168.100.57. Default gateway 255.255.255.0 and use the router address as the gateway, usually 192.168.XXX.1. Then if you get connectivity then it could be something with the router not handing out the IPs correctly. Maybe. :)
SearcyBrown
12 Posts
0
April 24th, 2004 01:00
So I'm trying to see if anything is wrong with my internal wireless card. I'm getting the WAP's signal; and I'm using static IP addressing. Again, thanks for that tip about static IP's. Do you know of a way to check the internal wireless card?
IG-88
54 Posts
0
April 24th, 2004 02:00
Ah, I see. I'm not too familiar with the Apple Airport WAP but did you want to run DHCP? If so, there must be a setting in the Airport that allows for DHCP relaying. Otherwise the DHCP server will not broadcast past that bridge. But if you don't want DHCP then don't worry about it.
At any rate, even though you had the static IP but could not access web pages maybe the problem lies in DNS resolution. If you configured the IP with a free IP address on the network chances are you should have been able to ping the Linksys router and any server on your Ethernet network. Could you do that? If you can't ping any other computer on that network or the router then it could be something with the card. But if you can ping other computers and the router, and even go as far as pinging a server on the Internet (try Yahoo's site at 216.109.127.30 ) then the card is functioning properly. But if there is no DNS name resolution then the traditionally way of entering www.yahoo.com will yield nothing because there is no DNS resolution to say that www.yahoo.com = 216.109.127.30.
On a standard wireless router config the router itself becomes a DNS "proxy", meaning that when you request a name for a web site like www.dell.com the router will accept the request, ask the real DNS server at your ISP with the IP for www.dell.com is, and relay that information back to you. But in this case it seems as though the Linksys should be your DNS proxy, not the WAP.
So try the pinging steps first. Ping another computer, the Linksys, and then Yahoo. If that's all good check your DNS settings. You may have to manually enter in the address of the Linksys router (192.168.1.1 by default) as your primary DNS server.
If that fails then it probably is indeed a bigger issue like the card or drivers. Unfortunately unless the internal wireless card has a test utiltiy that can run diagnostics on itself it's really hard to determine if it is functioning or not. You can sometimes find those either in the properties for that device in Device Manager, or the wireless management software that came with the card. If there is a wireless icon in the system tray near the clock give it a double-click and look for anything that may say "diagnostics" or "test". But just the fact that you are able to give it an IP address suggests that it is working to some degree. Maybe the antenna popped off inside? Hmm, guess that can't be it really since you said you got good signal strength but you can check it anyway. The access panel to the card should be on the underside of the computer.
With that said I've noticed that pings appear different when the card is malfunctioning but I can't say that is always the case. When you ping your own IP address and get a quick "Destination host unreachable" about four times that usually means it's a TCP/IP problem. I'd rule that out because since you've added the external USB device it worked, indicating TCP/IP is working fine. Also sometimes when the card isn't working and ping and get nothing at all then that to me is usually a driver issue. When you ping, if the card really looks like it's working hard, i.e., each ping takes 2 or 3 seconds then the card is working. A fast response back no reply-no reply-no reply-no reply in quick succession ususally says hardware error to me.
IG-88
54 Posts
0
April 24th, 2004 02:00
Also, I found this on Dell's site. Might be helpful:
http://support.ap.dell.com/docs/network/p42930/
And sorry if my above message got a little muddy with too much information. Basically try this, assuming your IP range is 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254.
IP Address: 192.168.1.105
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
Then try pinging some stuff and see what happens.
SearcyBrown
12 Posts
0
April 26th, 2004 04:00
Again, all is OK now. Thanks for all your help and advice. I even got my D-Link DP311P wireless print server working on my Epson 1280.