Wireless won't connect after rebuild

Question

I have rebuilt an XP (home) dell which is one of 3 computers on a home network. The computer has a D-Link wireless g card and the adapter is set up to automatically get an ip address from the router.   I cannot access the router to check its settings but I am able to cross-check the setup from the other two pc's which are able to access the internet just fine.   The router uses WEP security and I believe I have the correct password for encryption. I get a good connection to the router and it assigns an IP address but I cannot access the internet.   The IP address it gives me is unexpected - 169.254.237.195. The other pc's are assigned an ip address similar to 192.168.20.5 and a gateway address of 192.168.20.254.   How come the ip address I am getting is out of this range and would this be stopping internet connectivity?

volcano11 · Answer

The 168.254.xxx.xxx IP address is called an Autoconfiguration IP address, which is what Windows assigns when it cannot get an IP address from the router.  Have you tried temporarily disabling the WEP encryption as a troubleshooting step to see if that is where the problem lies?  Is the router using MAC Address Filtering?  If so, have you tried disabling that as a troubleshooting step to see if that is what is causing the problem?   Steve

down_under · Answer

Right. That explains the ip address. Problem is I can't muck around with the router. Other people in the house have exams etc at the moment so there is a fear I will wreck their connections. I therefore have to diagnose with one hand tied behind my back.   The only thing that really could have changed as a result of the rebuild is the encryption password which must be wrong. I'll just have to keep looking for the right one!

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Wireless won't connect after rebuild

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