Laptop Wireless Problem.

[reddy4it]

Laptop connects to my Belkin wireless router ok with excellent wireless connection,
but no connection to web sites, server not found.
Log Says Dhcp error, 1002 Ip address to network address has been denied by the DHCP server, DHCPNACK message sent.
Tried everything, including latest drivers & Run,cmd,ipconfig/**, etc.

Installed XP Pro on wiped drive after problem started with XP Home installation.
Short (15 minutes) connection obtained once or twice when messing with settings.

All other 3 laptops, play-station & Wii in house run fine on same router.

Screen shots from laptop available by attachment by e-mail one to one for security reasons.

Any advice in simple terms would be apreciated,Thank you.

[MidnightCowboy]

I've already exchanged some ideas with this member but although I'm fine with firewalls, network problems in general require someone with greater knowledge than myself.

This is one of the screenshots sent to me which I've converted and edited to obscure the IP.
Attachment 403
The one thing I'm not understanding is why the DHCP address should also be appearing with the DNS servers? As I said, someone with greater networking knowledge please!

[Ritho]

The DHCP is as it should be. It is the DNS server that is wrong. The DNS server is what resolves the web addresses you type in your browser to IP addresses that can be pasted over the internet.

The DNS address must be set either to your ISP DNS server address or an another of you choosing. Some people like to use Google's DNS.

To change it go to your network connections and right click on your wireless connection and click properties. On the general tab select "internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and click properties.

You can either select "obtain dns server address automatically" or add one manually. Google's DNS is included in the picture below.



If you need more detailed help, please ask, and also tell us what version of windows you are running.

Ritho

[reddy4it]

Originally Posted by Ritho

The DHCP is as it should be. It is the DNS server that is wrong. The DNS server is what resolves the web addresses you type in your browser to IP addresses that can be pasted over the internet.

The DNS address must be set either to your ISP DNS server address or an another of you choosing. Some people like to use Google's DNS.

To change it go to your network connections and right click on your wireless connection and click properties. On the general tab select "internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and click properties.

You can either select "obtain dns server address automatically" or add one manually. Google's DNS is included in the picture below.



If you need more detailed help, please ask, and also tell us what version of windows you are running.

Ritho

Installed XP Pro on wiped drive after problem started with XP Home installation.
Laptop has run in Cornwall on wireless fine for last 3 years.
Moved it to my home in Bucks, no server found although 54mbs signal from excellent to low. Ok on cabled link.
Tried your settings & my host PC settings, no good.
All other 3 laptops, play-station & Wii in house run fine on same router on TCP/IP auto.
Have pic's of PC & Laptop settings if needed..................ta

[Ritho]

OK. On second look I see I was wrong. (Hanging my head in shame) Your DNS server can indeed be the same as the default gateway, because using DHCP to set your IP address means your router resolves the DNS requests itself and passes them on to your ISP. So I was barking up the wrong tree.

What ever changes you made, based on the advice in my last post, change them back so we don't get even further away from a solution.

Now to move on....
You said

Installed XP Pro on wiped drive after problem started with XP Home installation.Laptop has run in Cornwall on wireless fine for last 3 years.
Moved it to my home in Bucks, no server found although 54mbs signal from excellent to low. Ok on cabled link.

Are you saying that you first started having this problem while XP Home installed on the Laptop, so you did a fresh install of XP Pro, and you still have the exact same problem? Or are you saying the problem began after you installed XP Pro?

Ritho

[reddy4it]

Many thanks,
Installed XP Pro & new drivers from Packard Bell web site hoping to solve the problem, which is why I can't understand how the problem is still there unless a hard ware malfunction is stopping connection even though' it gets " excellent wireless connection" initially.

[reddy4it]

With respect, is this the best forum to solve my problem or would suggest others?
I am not too experienced with forums still getting my head around the jargon, although a silver surfer for many years.

[George]

Ok, here are my two cents...

Your PC's connection to your router is only one hop and does not guarantee an Internet connection (as you are obviously know by now). Your router must get a valid connection to your ISP in order to forward that traffic to your workstations.

You say that all other devices requiring Internet access are working fine off of your Belkin. Thus, your router is obviously set up correctly towards your ISP. You can check that by login in to your router and see what IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway and Primary DNS Server it gets from your ISP.

You are referring to your routers log saying it gets a DHCP error with Event ID 1002 and that it sent a negative acknowledge message to the client (DHCPNACK). Does the log file provide the MAC address of this request? It most probably is the MAC address of the XP Pro client.

One possible reason is that you have configured a too small range of IP addresses that your router can give away. Maybe all of them are used by your other devices. Check that. And it does not necessarily help to switch the other devices off if the router reserves the IP addresses for a while.

A workaround could be to assign a static IP address to your XP Pro client that is in the routers subnet. E.g. if your router is using the 192.168.1.0 IP net and its own address is 192.168.1.1 you could assign another address in that range. In order to so set the following for your Internet protocol on your network adapter:

IP address: 192.168.1.9
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1 (router's address)
(x) Obtain DNS server address automatically

Instead of 192.168.1.9 you can chose any other addres in the subnet like 192.168.1.11 or something. Check your router and see what address is free. If you don't know, just try a few.

Ok, your turn and then let's see where we're at.

[Ritho]

reddy4it,

it gets " excellent wireless connection" initially.

You say initially? Does it continue to show that message or does it turn to a little yellow exclamation sign after some time? Also have you checked if can you really communicate with your router? You can easily do this by trying to login to its administrative console by typing its IP address into your browsers address bar? Your router IP should be 192.168.2.1.

With respect, is this the best forum to solve my problem or would suggest others?

We would like to think that this forum is as good as any other for solving these types of problems. There are a lot of guys and gals here that have a lot of years of Windows experience under their belts. Even so, when I have a problem that I can't solve I usually post to three or four forums to get the problem solved more quickly. www.wirelessforums.org is a very good place to post if your having wireless problems obviously. In fact here is a thread dealing with similar problems to yours.

If you do solve it elsewhere, come back here, and let us know what the solution was. It is the reward for our labor and it helps other users that might have the same type of problem.

Helping others to help themselves it what we do here.

Ritho

[Ritho]

@ George. Did you see that his ip address 'lease' does not expire untill the year 2038? Is that not a bit unusual? I always thought that it is suppose to expire within 24h or so. Does that indicate a problem?

Cool looking avatar by the way. Does it have a meaning?

Ritho