Wireless won't acquire address

Question

My brother has a Dell XPS M1210 (Windows XP Media).  A format and re-install was done on the laptop, everything went okay, until it came time to install the wireless adapter. The driver on the CD wouldn't even install, I had to download a newer one off of the Dell website. Once installed though I get my excellent signal strength but 'limited or no connectivity.' My listed 'Network Adapters' in device manager are: 'Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection' for wireless, 'Broadcom 440x 10/100 Intergrated Controller' for wired, and '1394 Net Adapter.' The router I'm trying to connect the laptop to is a Linksys WRT54GS. Now, wired with the Broadcom adapter all is well, I connect perfect. The Intel Wireless Adapter though keeps saying I have limited connectivity. Says the problem occured because the network did not assign a network address to the computer.  I have another laptop, a Toshiba, that connects perfect through wireless.  Can anyone help? I'm a network idiot for the most part...Thanks.

msgtgumby · Answer

And as I see this being requested a lot, here's ipconfig /all (done with my wired connection active, the trouble is with the wireless, connection 6, 6 is the same with the wired hooked up or not):

C:\Documents and Settings\deodorant>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

       Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : deodorantstick
       Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
       Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
       IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
       DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hr.cox.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : hr.cox.net
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Cont
roller
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-15-C5-58-59-16
       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.118
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
       DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
       DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.10.16.30
                                           68.10.16.25
                                           68.9.16.30
       Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, December 27, 2006 10:46:0
9 AM
       Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, December 28, 2006 10:46:09
AM

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 6:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
       Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Networ
k Connection
       Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-DE-8D-E3-4A
       Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
       Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
       Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.128.168
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

C:\Documents and Settings\deodorant>

Message Edited by msgtgumby on 12-27-200609:55 AM

volcano11 · Answer

Do you any wireless security enabled on the router?  If so, have you attempted to make the network adapter settings consistent with those on your router?  For example, if MAC Address filtering is enabled on the router, you have enter the MAC address of your wireless network card in the table of allowed MAC addresses on the router.  If wireless encryption is enabled, you have to enter the network key on your computer when you first attempt a connection to the router.   Steve

msgtgumby · Answer

MAC address filtering is not enabled and I did enter the key.  I think the winsock librbary is corrupted (according to when I tried to have windows repair intself through diags).

volcano11 · Answer

If winsock was corrupt then you wouldn't be able to connect by ethernet either.  Still you can try to reset winsock by downloading and running winsockfix for Windows XP from the Here   Steve

msgtgumby · Answer

Yeah, I did already, I meant to add that to my last post.  I'm going to try to unistall and reinstall the adapter one more time, hope I typed or checked a setting incorrectly somewhere along the way.  I also have a PCMCIA wireless card, I'm going to try and install that, see if it'll work with the laptop.

drden2000 · Answer

Look at your ipconfig data. It says that your wired connection worked but your wireless did not. The wireless gave an ip address as 169.xx.xx.xx which means it didn't connect (192.xxx.xxx.xxx is your router). You have to go into the router. Make sure that you have all the settings correct in there first. write them down, then start the laptop and make sure the wireless in on by hitting these 2 keys fn f2 You should get the wireless light to come on or u get the icon for wireless on the screen WITHOUT the wired connection in. (so just wireless right?) After it restarts wait about 3 minutes or so to make sure it has time to find it. If your sure you have everything typed in correctly and it still does not work? Turn on the SSID to broadcast on the router and then see if you get it then. After it connects one time it should be OK.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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