make my wireless adaptor work!

January 8, 2006 8:02 PM

Router problems!!!

Actually, the router seems to work fine - I'm using it right now - it's the wireless adaptor that doesn't work.

The router is NetGear's wgr614 on a windows xp sp2 system. The wireless adaptor (wg311) is on my windows 98 box. The problem is that I can't wirelessly connect to the network via my pci adaptor on the 98 box. Rather, I can (could, since the person in question has since secured his wireless system) connect to my neighbour's wireless network. The interesting thing is that the adaptor can find my network, which has a stronger signal than my neighbour's, but can't use it to access the interwebs.

So, my network on the windows 98 box, no good. Neighbour's network on the 98 box, good.

Other than that, I don't know how else to explain the problem. I hope that gives people enough to work with.

posted by ashbury to technology (9 comments total)

I think this is a known issue. i have the same router, and it usually requires a hard reset before it will start working again. it will work for a few days before it cuts out again.
posted by xospecialk at 8:08 PM on January 8, 2006

xospecialk, the router itself seems to work just fine, it's the adaptor that doesn't work.

To clear up any confusion:
The router in the xp box works.
Wireless adaptor in 98 box works, picks up 2 signals, one from neighbour and one from my router. Neighbour's network is usable. Picks up signal from my router but network is not usable.
posted by ashbury at 8:17 PM on January 8, 2006

You may have to set the router software to Clone Mac address. You probably set up the router from the PC and that is the address the modem is responding to.
posted by ptm at 8:31 PM on January 8, 2006

You don't have something like MAC address filtering turned on, do you?
posted by roue at 8:33 PM on January 8, 2006

I don't know what Clone Mac address is, and I can't find that anywhere in my router manager.

roue, mac address filtering isn't on.
posted by ashbury at 8:46 PM on January 8, 2006

Is your wireless network secured? Perhaps your box is still trying to connect securely to an unsecured network or vice-versa?
posted by ontic at 9:47 PM on January 8, 2006

Or maybe your neighbor's network was/is on a different subnet, so the card in your Windows 98 box is asking for a static IP in the wrong range?
posted by ontic at 9:49 PM on January 8, 2006

"could, since the person in question has since secured his wireless system"

I think the key to the whole mystery is there. If they've recently secured the access point then either you haven't updated your wireless properties (set the proper security mode and encryption type eg. WPA-PSK etc.) or your particular wireless network card may not support the advanced security configuration on the router. Finally, instead of securing the router, the other person may have forced a particular mode (A,B, or G) which your wireless network card may not support (if it's older, it's probably G).

In situation 1 and 3, ask the person who secured the access point for all the specifics and make sure you have set it up correctly through the wireless configuration. Situation 2? Try updating the drivers for the wireless network card. If that's not possible, then you could always pick-up a newer card (they're a lot cheaper then they used to be).

Just a quick note, Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98. You might want to consider upgrading as these types of situations will only become more common.
posted by purephase at 5:20 AM on January 9, 2006

I guess I didn't explain myself properly. I don't want to use somebody else's network, I want to use my own.

Anyway, it's all immaterial now. The problem was that the default IP address for the router was wrong, so the adaptor could find the network but couldn't use it until it had the right IP address. I figured it out purely by accident.

I appreciate everybody's answers and help. Thank you all very much.

Purephase, the 98 box is for the boy. He doesn't need anything better than that for now. :)
posted by ashbury at 9:23 PM on January 11, 2006