Do you have a wireless router? If you do, it means that you haven't set up WPA or WEP security on your router. If you don't have a wireless router, it means that one of your neighbors does have a wireless router, and it isn't configured securely - and your laptop is connecting to it!
If you previously connected one PC to a cable or DSL modem, and added a second PC, that's another reason you need a router - to permit both of them to access the Internet simultaneously.
If you provide more details about your network setup - what connections (Ethernet/wireless) are installed on the two laptops, what operating systems (including Service Packs) are installed on the two laptops, what model wireless adapters are present in the machines, how you connect to the Internet (cable/DSL modem - which model?), and what model router you have, it should be possible to work out what the current problems are caused by, and how to solve them.
I have a wireless router (brand is Network Everywhere).
Two computers: Dell with installed wireless card (Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN--802.11b/g,54Mbps--miniPCI Card, Latitude D400/500/600/800Factory Install) and Compaq with wireless notebook adapter (brand is Network Everywhere)
Am I correct that the Network Everywhere router is the NWR04B? Is XP Service Pack 2 installed on both laptops?
Are you posting through one of the two laptops? If so, how is the laptop connected to the router?
Regarding XP's "home network setup" wizard - the best thing to do with the "wizard" is not use it at all. One incorrect answer and it will create an unworkable setup.
The
NWR04B manual has a very good section showing the very few steps that are needed to set up TCP/IP on Windows XP manually. Basically, both the wireless and wired adapters need to be configured to "obtain an IP address automatically". That's discussed on Pages 10 and 11 of the manual. If the XP "wizard" created any bridges, they should be removed, so the only things showing in the Network Connections are the wired adapter and the wireless adapter. No further TCP/IP settings are needed.
The only wireless security available with the NWR04B is WEP. It's described in Appendix C, "Configuring Wireless Security" in the NWR04B manual. WEP really isn't very secure at all, but that's apparently all the router's firmware supports. WEP configuration should be done first at the router using a wired connection to the router, since any wireless connections will be immediately lost once WEP is activated on the router. Then the same WEP keys need to be installed on each of the XP systems. That's described beginning on Page 43 of the NWR04B manual. Note that while the "passphrase" may work on the Compaq, because the wireless card is from the same vendor as the router, it won't work on the Dell laptop. The most portable way to transfer WEP keys is to transfer the manual keys generated by the router. But I'd suggest not setting up wireless security until you have all the connections working with no wireless security installed. You should give the wireless network a unique SSID, instead of the default name "wireless". That change should be first made in the router, and is described on Page 18 of the manual.
If the cable connection worked through the NWR04B before you began to configure the PCs, it should work again, once the two PCs are correctly configured. I'd recommend spending some time studying Network Everywhere's manual on the router. It's very well-illustrated.
(edit) Corrected systematic mistake in specifying the router's model number, but unfortunately "cashnow" has another Network Everywhere router that doesn't seem to be documented anywhere!
Yes, it's all too easily to believe that no documentation was shipped with the router. Regarding the router model number, I mistranscribed the one listed at Network Everywhere's Web site - it's the NWR04B. But the one you actually have (NWK11B-WM), seems to be completely undocumented at their site. I found a few other references to it from searching Google, and those were mostly from people looking for documentation. One poster said he thought there was a Linksys router that was in fact the same device - but no mention was made of which one!
That leaves you mostly on your own, with the router network setup wizard (not XP's!), or the router's built-in Web server, to configure the router. One question that you didn't answer is how you're connecting now in order to post here. If you're using one of your own laptops, and it's connected to the NWK11B, then we may not have such a difficult task.
If that's how you're posting, let's collect some basic information about the network setup on the PC you're posting from. Open a cmd.exe window (Start/Run cmd.exe). In the window that opens, type
ipconfig /all
Select all the resulting output by dragging the mouse cursor over the output with the left mouse button held down. When it's all selected, release the left mouse button, and click the right mouse button once. That will transfer all the output to the clipboard. Then, in a reply, paste the contents of the clipboard into the reply using either Edit/Paste or "Ctrl-V".
I'm a bit stumped as to what to suggest as far as the router configuration is concerned. Does the Network Everywhere "wizard" look anything like what's described in Chapter 5 of the
NWR04B manual? If you can access the router's built-in Web server (and if that model has one!), does it look like what's illustrated in Chapter 6?
Thanks for the "ipconfig" output. It looks fine! I'd be interested in seeing the manual for that router, especially if we still need to work on wireless security settings.
What did it take to get the wireless connection to work? Or was it working, except for the security settings?
I don't think you'd mentioned which XP Service Pack you have installed. There were some improvements to wireless support added with Service Pack 2 as well as the many security improvements that were made, so it may become important to know if Service Pack 2 is installed on the machines.
Regarding the Compaq laptop, the "ipconfig" output should be very similar, except for the adapter's IP address. If the IP address it's listing as its own begins with 169.254, that means it has not be able to receive an IP address from the router, and is assigning one itself.
(edit) Do both the wireless and wired network interfaces in the Compaq have the same problem, or is it just one of them?
Thanks very much for sending me the NE router manual. It turns out the manual is very similar to the one that NE has online for the NWR40B. Here's what I found.
Oddly, the manual describes itself as the "NWR11B User Guide". I can only hope it also applies to the NWK11B.
The page references below are to the page in the PDF manual as displayed by Acrobat, not the page numbers for the printed manual that appear at the bottom of the pages. Acrobat displays this manual two pages at a time, so the two numberings are quite different. The pages can be reached using Acrobat's "Ctrl-N" (go to page) shortcut key.
First of all, the router is an 801.11b-only device (11 Mbits/sec maximum throughput). The Dell Wireless 1350 supports both the 802.11b and the faster 802.11G (54 Mbits/sec. maximum throughput) standards, but the fact that the router is 802.11b only will not restrict the speed of Internet access, since that's limited by the modem speed. It might affect wireless throughput on your own LAN, if the NE wireless card in the Compaq supports 802.11bg.
Also, the router supports WEP encryption only. WEP, standing for "Wired Equivalent Privacy", really isn't very secure at all. The only way to get a router offering the more recent WPA (which stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access) standard would be to replace the NWK11B with something more recent. The copyright date of the manual is 2003, and WPA was still in draft form then, if I recall correctly.
Having said that, the decision's yours. I'd make the following three changes to the router configuration in order to make finding the router somewhat more difficult by outsiders (including neighbors whose XP systems may find it!)
1. Change the SSID setting from its default value, "wireless", to a unique name of your own choosing. That change is described on Page 18 of the manual.
2. Install WEP. That's described in Appendix C of the manual. But the feature needs to be enabled first, as described on Page 18.
3. Restrict what wireless cards can connect to the router by entering their physical (MAC, for Media Access Control) addresses into the list illustrated in Figure D-6 on page 41 of the manual. There's no mention made of how to enable MAC filtering in the manual. Hopefully, adding entries to the list will enable the feature. If you're uncertain about this step, I'd skip it.
The manual has a good section showing the very few steps that are needed to set up TCP/IP on Windows XP manually. Basically, both the wireless and wired adapters need to be configured to "obtain an IP address automatically". That's discussed on Pages 14 and 15 of the manual. Since the "ipconfig" output you sent me doesn't include anything else, that's likely the way both adapters are already configured.
WEP setup itself is described in Appendix C, "Configuring Wireless Security" in the manual. WEP configuration should be done first at the router using a wired connection to the router, since any wireless connections will be immediately lost once WEP is activated on the router. Then the same WEP keys need to be installed on each of the XP systems. That's described beginning on Page 43 of the NWR04B manual. Note that while the "passphrase" may work on the Compaq, because the wireless card is from the same vendor as the router, it won't work on the Dell laptop. The most portable way to transfer WEP keys is to transfer the manual keys generated by the router.
Hopefully, that will be enough to change the router and the PC wireless configurations over so XP will stop complaining that the connection is "insecure". As I said, WEP is only slightly better than no security at all, but it will prevent other XP systems from connecting to the network and deter any casual attempts to break in to your network.
Please post back if you have any questions about anything I've discussed.
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
May 25th, 2005 23:00
Do you have a wireless router? If you do, it means that you haven't set up WPA or WEP security on your router. If you don't have a wireless router, it means that one of your neighbors does have a wireless router, and it isn't configured securely - and your laptop is connecting to it!
If you previously connected one PC to a cable or DSL modem, and added a second PC, that's another reason you need a router - to permit both of them to access the Internet simultaneously.
If you provide more details about your network setup - what connections (Ethernet/wireless) are installed on the two laptops, what operating systems (including Service Packs) are installed on the two laptops, what model wireless adapters are present in the machines, how you connect to the Internet (cable/DSL modem - which model?), and what model router you have, it should be possible to work out what the current problems are caused by, and how to solve them.
Jim
cashnow
8 Posts
0
May 26th, 2005 01:00
I have a wireless router (brand is Network Everywhere).
Two computers: Dell with installed wireless card (Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN--802.11b/g,54Mbps--miniPCI Card, Latitude D400/500/600/800Factory Install) and Compaq with wireless notebook adapter (brand is Network Everywhere)
I have Windows XP Home on both units.
I connect with Charter cable.
Thanks for any assistance
cashnow
8 Posts
0
May 26th, 2005 02:00
And the router is actually model#NWK11B-WM, that other # is the adapter model#.
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
May 26th, 2005 02:00
Am I correct that the Network Everywhere router is the NWR04B? Is XP Service Pack 2 installed on both laptops?
Are you posting through one of the two laptops? If so, how is the laptop connected to the router?
Regarding XP's "home network setup" wizard - the best thing to do with the "wizard" is not use it at all. One incorrect answer and it will create an unworkable setup.
The NWR04B manual has a very good section showing the very few steps that are needed to set up TCP/IP on Windows XP manually. Basically, both the wireless and wired adapters need to be configured to "obtain an IP address automatically". That's discussed on Pages 10 and 11 of the manual. If the XP "wizard" created any bridges, they should be removed, so the only things showing in the Network Connections are the wired adapter and the wireless adapter. No further TCP/IP settings are needed.
The only wireless security available with the NWR04B is WEP. It's described in Appendix C, "Configuring Wireless Security" in the NWR04B manual. WEP really isn't very secure at all, but that's apparently all the router's firmware supports. WEP configuration should be done first at the router using a wired connection to the router, since any wireless connections will be immediately lost once WEP is activated on the router. Then the same WEP keys need to be installed on each of the XP systems. That's described beginning on Page 43 of the NWR04B manual. Note that while the "passphrase" may work on the Compaq, because the wireless card is from the same vendor as the router, it won't work on the Dell laptop. The most portable way to transfer WEP keys is to transfer the manual keys generated by the router. But I'd suggest not setting up wireless security until you have all the connections working with no wireless security installed. You should give the wireless network a unique SSID, instead of the default name "wireless". That change should be first made in the router, and is described on Page 18 of the manual.
If the cable connection worked through the NWR04B before you began to configure the PCs, it should work again, once the two PCs are correctly configured. I'd recommend spending some time studying Network Everywhere's manual on the router. It's very well-illustrated.
(edit) Corrected systematic mistake in specifying the router's model number, but unfortunately "cashnow" has another Network Everywhere router that doesn't seem to be documented anywhere!
Jim
Message Edited by jimw on 05-25-2005 09:52 PM
cashnow
8 Posts
0
May 26th, 2005 02:00
The NE router, I assume you are referring to the model#?
It actually says NWP11B. I'll check the manual though.
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
May 26th, 2005 03:00
Yes, it's all too easily to believe that no documentation was shipped with the router. Regarding the router model number, I mistranscribed the one listed at Network Everywhere's Web site - it's the NWR04B. But the one you actually have (NWK11B-WM), seems to be completely undocumented at their site. I found a few other references to it from searching Google, and those were mostly from people looking for documentation. One poster said he thought there was a Linksys router that was in fact the same device - but no mention was made of which one!
That leaves you mostly on your own, with the router network setup wizard (not XP's!), or the router's built-in Web server, to configure the router. One question that you didn't answer is how you're connecting now in order to post here. If you're using one of your own laptops, and it's connected to the NWK11B, then we may not have such a difficult task.
If that's how you're posting, let's collect some basic information about the network setup on the PC you're posting from. Open a cmd.exe window (Start/Run cmd.exe). In the window that opens, type
ipconfig /all
Select all the resulting output by dragging the mouse cursor over the output with the left mouse button held down. When it's all selected, release the left mouse button, and click the right mouse button once. That will transfer all the output to the clipboard. Then, in a reply, paste the contents of the clipboard into the reply using either Edit/Paste or "Ctrl-V".
I'm a bit stumped as to what to suggest as far as the router configuration is concerned. Does the Network Everywhere "wizard" look anything like what's described in Chapter 5 of the NWR04B manual? If you can access the router's built-in Web server (and if that model has one!), does it look like what's illustrated in Chapter 6?
Jim
cashnow
8 Posts
0
May 26th, 2005 13:00
I was afraid to post all that info here so I PM'd you.
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
May 26th, 2005 15:00
What did it take to get the wireless connection to work? Or was it working, except for the security settings?
I don't think you'd mentioned which XP Service Pack you have installed. There were some improvements to wireless support added with Service Pack 2 as well as the many security improvements that were made, so it may become important to know if Service Pack 2 is installed on the machines.
Regarding the Compaq laptop, the "ipconfig" output should be very similar, except for the adapter's IP address. If the IP address it's listing as its own begins with 169.254, that means it has not be able to receive an IP address from the router, and is assigning one itself.
(edit) Do both the wireless and wired network interfaces in the Compaq have the same problem, or is it just one of them?
Jim
Message Edited by jimw on 05-26-2005 09:10 AM
Message Edited by jimw on 05-26-2005 10:30 AM
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
June 1st, 2005 23:00
Thanks very much for sending me the NE router manual. It turns out the manual is very similar to the one that NE has online for the NWR40B. Here's what I found.
Oddly, the manual describes itself as the "NWR11B User Guide". I can only hope it also applies to the NWK11B.
The page references below are to the page in the PDF manual as displayed by Acrobat, not the page numbers for the printed manual that appear at the bottom of the pages. Acrobat displays this manual two pages at a time, so the two numberings are quite different. The pages can be reached using Acrobat's "Ctrl-N" (go to page) shortcut key.
First of all, the router is an 801.11b-only device (11 Mbits/sec maximum throughput). The Dell Wireless 1350 supports both the 802.11b and the faster 802.11G (54 Mbits/sec. maximum throughput) standards, but the fact that the router is 802.11b only will not restrict the speed of Internet access, since that's limited by the modem speed. It might affect wireless throughput on your own LAN, if the NE wireless card in the Compaq supports 802.11bg.
Also, the router supports WEP encryption only. WEP, standing for "Wired Equivalent Privacy", really isn't very secure at all. The only way to get a router offering the more recent WPA (which stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access) standard would be to replace the NWK11B with something more recent. The copyright date of the manual is 2003, and WPA was still in draft form then, if I recall correctly.
Having said that, the decision's yours. I'd make the following three changes to the router configuration in order to make finding the router somewhat more difficult by outsiders (including neighbors whose XP systems may find it!)
1. Change the SSID setting from its default value, "wireless", to a unique name of your own choosing. That change is described on Page 18 of the manual.
2. Install WEP. That's described in Appendix C of the manual. But the feature needs to be enabled first, as described on Page 18.
3. Restrict what wireless cards can connect to the router by entering their physical (MAC, for Media Access Control) addresses into the list illustrated in Figure D-6 on page 41 of the manual. There's no mention made of how to enable MAC filtering in the manual. Hopefully, adding entries to the list will enable the feature. If you're uncertain about this step, I'd skip it.
The manual has a good section showing the very few steps that are needed to set up TCP/IP on Windows XP manually. Basically, both the wireless and wired adapters need to be configured to "obtain an IP address automatically". That's discussed on Pages 14 and 15 of the manual. Since the "ipconfig" output you sent me doesn't include anything else, that's likely the way both adapters are already configured.
WEP setup itself is described in Appendix C, "Configuring Wireless Security" in the manual. WEP configuration should be done first at the router using a wired connection to the router, since any wireless connections will be immediately lost once WEP is activated on the router. Then the same WEP keys need to be installed on each of the XP systems. That's described beginning on Page 43 of the NWR04B manual. Note that while the "passphrase" may work on the Compaq, because the wireless card is from the same vendor as the router, it won't work on the Dell laptop. The most portable way to transfer WEP keys is to transfer the manual keys generated by the router.
Hopefully, that will be enough to change the router and the PC wireless configurations over so XP will stop complaining that the connection is "insecure". As I said, WEP is only slightly better than no security at all, but it will prevent other XP systems from connecting to the network and deter any casual attempts to break in to your network.
Please post back if you have any questions about anything I've discussed.
Jim
Message Edited by jimw on 06-01-2005 05:38 PM