wireless connection

Sounds like you are not really connecting. Try to repair the connection and/or disable then re-enable the card.

Running winsockxpfix probably won't hurt.

so i ran winsockxpfix and that didn't do it.  after running winsockxpfix it left the ip address and subnet mask as 0.0.0.0 and when i tried to repair the connection it failed, saying that it couldn't renew the connection.  it did put in an ip address though.  one interesting thing, i connected the computer srtaight to the modem (we have cable) and it still didn't work.  i also disabled and renabled the card with no luck.  i know the card works because it does show that it is connected with strong signal strength.  what else can i do?

I would suggest that you remove the card (in the device manager), reboot and re-install the card's drivers -- but you note that you cannot connect even with ethernet cable.

Don't really know what to do if you can't connect even with ethernet cable.

Suspect virus/trojan damage?
Do you have a firewall? Try disabling it.
Can you get an IP address with ethernet cable? If so, can you ping the router?

Try system restore to a date when the device worked.

You may have to wipe the disk and reload the OS.

Check in Safe Mode with Networking.

There could be some firewall or other background program  causing the issue.

If that doens't go through, shut down everything (router and all computers)

Wait for a minute and turn on the router and only this computer.

Check if it works.

mlatt,

Note that if you are changing the connection to modem between a computer and a router, you need to do a complete reset of the network every time you make the change. To do this, shut everything off. Wait about 5 minutes. Turn on the modem first, and wait another 5 minutes. Then turn on the device that is connected directly to the modem (either the router or the computer), then turn on any other computers that will connect through the router.  If you are not doing this, then it would explain why you cannot get a connection when you try to connect directly to the modem.  If after doing the network reset, you can connect to the internet directly through the modem, then this eliminates a general networking software problem.

Steve

ok, so when i connected the computer directly to the modem (ethernet cable) i was able to access the internet.  yet it didn't work when i diconnected it and tried to run it from the wireless again.  interesting thing happened though when i restarted the computer.  after it booted up (and i waited a few minutes after it had fully booted) i did ipconfig and it showed now ip address.  i then attempted to "repair" the connection, and it once again failed when trying to renew the ip address.  after that i ran ipconfig and it showed an ip address, yet no default gateway (is that also necessary?).  i pinged the router, and it showed a return.  that leads me to believe that it should work, yet nothing.  that computer has a firewall on it and i had disabled that.  i think i've seen a firewall that windows has, is that true or is that just the security options under "internet options"?  so, what else can i do?

just as a side question, under "add or remove hardware" there are a lot of programs entitled "windows xp hotfix".  what are these and do i need them or can they be removed?  i really appreciate all of your guys help.

mlatt,

When you switched between having the computer connected to the modem and the router connected to the modem, did you completely reset the modem and network.  This is essential whenever you change the device connected to the modem.  To do this, shut everything off. Wait about 5 minutes. Turn on the modem first, and wait another 5 minutes. Then turn on the device that is connected directly to the modem (either the router or the computer), then turn on any other computers that will connect through the router.  Without doing this, you won't be able to tell whether or not the wireless connection will connect to the interent.

Steve

1) The windows hotfixes are windows updates you have installed.
2) A gateway address is necessary.

If you get an IP address and can ping the router, but don't have a gateway address, something is just not working right. You could try to set a static address and gateway (the gateway is the address of the router).

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your AP/router and for the wireless card.

Even if you have the latest drivers, I would still suggest you remove the wireless card in the device manager, reboot, and reinstall the drivers. Something is corrupted or otherwise compromised -- drivers, registry entries, profiles or something.

Jerry- the wireless card i am using is the one that came with my laptop, Dell wireless wlan 1350 wlan mini-pci.  if i uninstall this in device manager, how would i reinstall the drivers?  will that automatically happen when i reboot?  how would i get a static address and gateway? also, is it possible to download from Dell the lastest driver for this wireless card?

Steve- after using the internet with the computer connected directly to the modem, i'm pretty sure that i; shut down the computer, disconnected the ethernet cable, and shut down the modem (the router had already previously been shutdown).  i then reconnected the modem to the router, turned on the modem then the router then the computer.  i will try that again, maybe i'll leave more time before i turn on the router and computer.  one question, why is it that after i turn on the computer, with it not connected to the modem,  that the ip address and subnet mask return as 0.0.0.0?  it stays this way until i use "repair" the connection, but then it states it can't renew the address but assigns an ip address and subnet mask.  i don't quite understand that.

Thanks guys for all the help so far and sorry for all the questions.  as you can probably tell, i'm pretty clueless as to the inner workings of networking.  you guys are teaching me quite a bit.

If you want to try reinstalling the drivers, they can be downloaded from:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R94827&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_5150&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=8041&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=3&formatcnt=1&fileid=122975

After you do the repair and it assigns an IP address, is it one that begins with 169?  If so, this is the autoconfiguration IP address which is what Windows assigns when it cannot get an IP address from the dhcp server (your router).  If it gets an IP address from the router, it should begin with 192.168.

Do you have any of the security settings enabled on the router?  If so, try disabling them temporarily and see if it works.  If it does, you know that the security settings are causing the problem and you can then re-enable them, one at a time, making sure you enter the correct information for the WEP or WPA encryption (whichever one you are using).

Steve

Just replace the internal card.  It's a MiniPCI card that can be exposed by removing one screw on the bottom of the computer. Almost any MiniPCI wireless network card will work.

Steve

i'll do that then.  thanks for all of the help.