wireless not connecting

[mrjohnchimpo]

okay, so i have a (very) simple wireless network set up at home. i have a cable modem going in my main computer with a wireless router attached. then there are 2 other computers with wireless cards that connect to my network.

...up until the day before yesterday, everything was working fine (has been for months now).

then all of the sudden, one of them (laptop) decides to just stop connecting out of nowhere. the other computer works just fine, so i know it's not the setup or anything...plus i have changed exactly zero things since i first set it up.

the strange thing is that i DETECT my wireless network (not password protected so that's not the issue, i thought of that already), but when i try to connect it just says "unable to connect", no errors, no reasons, no nothing. it sees it, but won't connect.

i guess the internal wireless card is Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection.

oh yeah, also, i tried updating the driver already and that didn't work. if anybody knows anything, please let me know. thanks.

[slam]

reboot the wireless router?

[mrjohnchimpo]

haha, yeah, i tried that already. i'm gonna try again tonight in a different order (PCs, modems, router, etc).

[slam]

why are you running two routers? doesn't the wireless router have firewall capabilities and extra ethernet ports?

if you can't even connect to the wireless router, i doubt it's wiring or anything. all of that would only come into play once you had a connection. the only thing i can think of off hand might be that one of your neighbors added a wireless access point, and it might be on the same channel or have the same ssid.

wireless can work on channels 1-11. really, though, you only want to use 1, 6, and 11, otherwise you'll have signal bleed and slower rates. most waps come coded to channel 6. it could be that too many people are using that channel now. you might switch up to 11. maybe that would fix things...

[Hans Brix]

What type of router and what type of computers are we talking here. Need more info.

[mrjohnchimpo]

i don't have 2 routers. i have a cable going into my cable modem. then the wireless router. one of each.

computer: it's a dell running windows xp...there's absolutely nothing special about it.

router: your standard netgear cheapo wireless router. it's been working for 4 months...it's still working for all computers except for one which is why i think it's a problem with the laptop and not with my PC or the router or the modem.


the wireless access point thing is definitely something i will check out when i get home. i did notice more available wireless networks than normal in the list. i'll keep everybody posted.

[slam]

ok, not to demean your intelligence, but how well do you know your laptop? some of them these days come with a little switch that lets you turn wireless on/off. i deal with lots of people who don't even know it's there.

you're right, though. if you can connect with those other computers to the wireless network, it's probably the laptop.

[mrjohnchimpo]

ok, not to demean your intelligence, but how well do you know your laptop? some of them these days come with a little switch that lets you turn wireless on/off. i deal with lots of people who don't even know it's there.

you're right, though. if you can connect with those other computers to the wireless network, it's probably the laptop.

np, wouldn't have asked if i didn't want help :)

do you mean something physically on the outside of the laptop on one of the edges, or a software-driven switch? it's possible someone might have turned it off. but i'm pretty sure the only setting i have to turn wireless off now is if it starts to lose battery power. i'll check for that too.

[slam]

yeah, lots of laptops have an actual physical switch on the side of the computer for turning wireless on or off. windows can be really, really stupid if it has a wired and wireless connection at the same time (for instance, it may use the dns settings from one connection, but the ip address of the other...) a switch helps mitigate that.

[mrjohnchimpo]

alright, well, i completely unplugged my router and modem from my PC and each other, then waited, and then plugged them back in again. and it worked. i hate computers. i love computers.


thanks to everybody for their suggestions.