Cable internet + secure wireless network = outer ring of hell

February 20, 2009 5:49 PM

I have a problems connecting to my wireless network, on one computer only. Other networks work for this computer. Other computers work on this network.

Long & convoluted one here, so I'll try to be brief.

New internet: Cox Cable (switched over from DSL). Wireless network with a password required and WPA-Personal encryption. Linksys wireless router (WRT54GS v7). Linksys wireless card (WMP54GS). Windows 2000.

After much futzing about yesterday, I found that I had to clone the MAC address off my 10/100 card to the router so that the other computers in the apartment could access the internet. So I did, and they could, but now I can't--at least, not when connecting to the network wirelessly.

The message I usually get is "You are connected to the access point, but the internet cannot be found." Except I doubt that I am, because I usually can't go to the router's setup screen (except when I can). And I usually can't access my own computer by internal IP (except when I can).

BUT sometimes, after several tries, that very same password that I've been putting in will finally work and I'll be both on the network and allowed to use the internet. When this happens, the internet connection will be incredibly slow. I mean "timeouts on google.com and a half-dozen forced relaods before it finally loads" slow. But only for me--all the other computers on the network (macs, OS X) can authenticate with these same details and load things blazingly fast.

And sometimes I can't associate with my wireless network at all.

The complications / puzzling bits:
I can log on to my neighbor's open wireless and there is no problem whatsoever. Everything loads and it loads quickly. But I don't want to leech his bandwidth and I don't want to do anything like banking on an unsecured network.

I can run a 10/100 cable to the modem directly and everything works.

I can run a 10/100 cable to the router directly, disable the wireless card, and wait a bit, and everything works.

I've read all sorts of speculation about what the cause might be, and tried the solutions, but so far none of them work.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled my firewall.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled my wireless card.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled the software managing the wireless connection.

I've power-cycled the router and modem, turned them back on and set all the details up again from scratch.

I've uninstalled my TCP/IP whatsit and reinstalled it.

I knew that several of those were almost certainly not the cause of the problem because I can log on to my neighbor's network and go anywhere online, quickly.

So, dear AskMe: why won't my wireless card talk to my router?

posted by johnofjack to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Oh good God, that was not brief.
posted by johnofjack at 5:50 PM on February 20

- Update wireless card drivers.
(More likely) - Turn off security on the router and see if you can connect. If you can, turn a different kind of security on.
posted by k8t at 6:20 PM on February 20

After much futzing about yesterday, I found that I had to clone the MAC address off my 10/100 card to the router so that the other computers in the apartment could access the internet.

You should never have to do this. Is your router set to filter mac addresses? If so, disable it. Two identical macs on the same lan can cause a whole heck of trouble. Undo this.

If you cant get internet via wired router with the original mac then call your ISP. They might need to whitelist your router's mac address.

I can run a 10/100 cable to the router directly, disable the wireless card, and wait a bit, and everything works.

This suggests some conflict. Im guessing the mac cloning is giving your arp table a headache.

Seconding disabling security temporarily to see if that's an issue too.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:46 PM on February 20

My neighbor had the same problem. (mac OSX, airport) Believe it or not, it turned out to be a 5.8 GHz cordless phone that was causing the problem. We got rid of the cordless and went with a traditional cord phone and the problems ended.
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 10:57 PM on February 20

Bighappyfunhouse, I took a closer look at the networks in my area and found that the wireless router was using the same channel as one of the others (coming in at <>
damn dirty ape, the linksys help page about cable internet for my router instructed me to clone the mac address off the 10/100 card. If anything, I'd expect it to have a problem when my computer was connected by 10/100, putting two MAC addresses on the same network. But I can connect through ethernet and not through wireless.

Still, I tried resetting the router's MAC address to its original one. I swapped security off and on and had no luck connecting with or without it.

I noticed that, oddly enough, the router shows itself in the list of available networks as having a MAC address very slightly different from the one on the sticker on the bottom of the router itself--the last character is different. So I tried that MAC address as well, both with and without security. Still no luck.

Yesterday the wireless connection worked once or twice for me, allowing me to go online, but only for about 5 minutes before booting me off or losing the connection. No such luck today. I mostly could not associate with the access point, and on the rare occasions when I could, I got the message that "the internet could not be found."

Any additional suggestions would be very welcome.
posted by johnofjack at 7:18 PM on February 21

Okay, leave the mac address as the original factory one and do this:

Check for a firmware update for your router. If one exists then install it.

Check linksys's site to see if there's an update for your wireless driver.

Change the channel your router uses. There are 3 non-overlapping channels for wifi. 1, 6, and 11. If it is using 6 then try 11.

Unplug any cordless phones during this.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:45 PM on February 21

I'd expect it to have a problem when my computer was connected by 10/100, putting two MAC addresses on the same network.

If it still exists in the arp table then it would continue to cause problems. The linksys page is silly. If your device isnt registered on your ISPs network then call them and register it.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:50 PM on February 21