Wireless Wont Connect

[pop pop]

I've been away fro this too long.

I cleaned up my daughter's Acer Travelmate. All works well except wireless (works wired). IPCONFIG /ALL shows "DHCP ENABLED=NO" for wireless. It sees the router, but not the gateway. What do I do?

Thanks

[Paul Komski]

Check firewalls and the router's security WEP or WPA settings. Something is blocking full access.

Which Operating System?

[pop pop]

XP Pro SP3. All other systems connect instantly...has me buggered.

[Paul Komski]

Which router and what are its wireless settings. They are unlikely to be identical to the following image but you could try temporarily disabling its security to take that out of the mix.

http://i35.tinypic.com/fulxxw.jpg

Also check the channel that the LAN interface settings are using and check that you are actually accessing the correct wireless device/SSID.

And be absolutely sure that no firewall is blocking. Software firewalls can block the whole NIC and router firewalls can block all MAC addresses bar those specifically allowed.

[pop pop]

Linksys 54G. Turned encryption off, no change. Disabled the firewall, no change. Two computers I built with XP Pro SP3 (desktops) connect fine. My own laptop with Vista Pro connects. This Acer connects to the router but does not get/set/accept an IP address. I think the key is this:

IPCONFIG /ALL shows "DHCP ENABLED=NO" for wireless. It sees the router, but not the gateway

Someone (our daughter or friends) must have disable DHCP by accident. I just can't figure out how to re-enable it.

[pop pop]

Took me a while to find it. DHCP is now enabled.

[Paul Komski]

I was just about to respond but saw your second post. It would be nice to know what you did and whether that has sorted everything.

[pop pop]

I Googled it, but the instructions didn't work but they did get me close. Then I went to the computer I built and stepped my way through the panels to find it:

Start/Control Panel/Network and Internet Connections/Network Connections (icon)

Right Click Wireless Network Connection and select Properties

Scroll to Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click to highlight it. Click Properties and click the radio button, "Obtain an IP Address Automatically".

Someone had set it to manual. I knew it was something simple like that. It has just been too long. All is well now. :p

[Paul Komski]

Thanks. Hindsight sure is a great instructor. ;)