I'm trying to reconnect a Dell Dimension 4600 which has been working fine but has suddenly developed an inability to get an IP address from the router. We are using a Linksys WUSB 11 on quite a long USB cable as the Dell is separated from the router by a few thick walls.

Last week we changed the router from a Thomson 585v7 to a BT HomeHub2. After a bit of wrestling with the encryption password we connected perfectly well using WPA2 AES.  But after a couple of days the adaptor lost its connection and hasn't been able to reconnect. We've tried everything - changing the security level and password to a lower level of encryption, rebooting more times than one can tell, waving the adaptor around to get a better signal, nothing works. The signal is strong, the adaptor can see the router, the router can't see the adaptor anymore and won't give it an address. The adaptor insists on making up a hopeless address that gives 'limited or no connectivity'.

Any ideas as to what else to do?  It did work, and now doesn't.  The router is working perfectly, by the way, and the Inspiron laptop connects without any problems.

One oddity - when connected, it shows up as 'Wireless Connection 9'.  What does that mean, and could it be causing conflicts somewhere?

 

Kate