Connecting through a LAN

Technical Support Forum

We have a cable internet set up here, and we rescently just bought 3 more computers which we're connecting wirelessly through a ProSafe 802.11g Wireless router.

Last night I installed the hardware and software with ease, but this morning it doesn't work.

Anyone good with wireless connections?

it worked last night but not this morning, after starting them up again from a shutdown last night can i assume? then you've probably got something going on with your ip's. are you using dhcp? or did you assign static addy's to all your cards? if your using dhcp, sometimes windows assigns a 169.254.x.x address before the router's dhcp has a chance to negotiate an address assignment. so check and see if your network adapters have a 169.254.x.x address or something else. like a 192.168.x.x address.

I wish I knew what you were talking about. What is a "dhcp" and how do I find out if that's what I'm using? How do I view the address?

DHCP is used to assign IP adresses dynamically to different computers so that computers can be moved around and connected to the server again without configuring the new IP adress manually. Most likely you are using it. To find out your IP address go to Start -> Run. Type in cmd. In the console, type ipconfig. That should show you your current IP address.

What do I do with the IP address once I find it?

By the way thanks for helping peoples.

Hmmmm it doesn't give me an IP address. it just says

"Media disconnected"

You have a NAT router, right? If yes, then make sure that your computer's IP address corresponds to the ones you have assigned for your internal network. Sometimes Windows retains the previous configuration. To refresh the IP address, go to the command line (cmd) and type ipconfig /renew. Hopefully the IP address will be renewed to match the one your router wants it to have. Also make sure it shows an adress for the 'Default gateway' when you see the IP address using ipconfig.

I don't know if I have a NAT router... the thing I have says "ProSafe 802.11g Wireless" on it...

I think the computer I'm on might be wired as well, but I don't really know.

It is a NAT router. So you are trying to get wireless to work on the same computer you are on? You have a laptop ofcourse. Do you have an internal wireless lan card or an external one?

No...

This computer I'm typong on at this moment is the one we had to begin with. THEN we got 3 more. The one I WANT to connect to the internet, that worked last night, is no longer connecting --and that is in the other room. It isn't a laptop. The one I want to work, but isn't, ONLY connects wirelessly.

Hope that clears it up... Thanks for your help...

check your router documentation for the internal server address for your router. probably something like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.100.1 or something to that effect. if it is 192.168.1.1 then the wireless adapter address will have to be 192.168.1.x. same for 192.168.100.1 the adapter will have to have a 192.168.100.x "x" being a number between 1 and 254. each adapter will have a different number for "x".

so find your LAN side address for your router and find the address of your adapter and we'll work from there. if they are incompatible then there's no need to do anything else until that is resolved.

I grabbed someone else in the house who understands what you just said, and we're gonna set up one of the computers (the two that we hooked up both stopped working this morning) here in the kitchen and see if we can't figure out.

I'm clueless.

hey zak, i'm on msn messenger right now so if you need any realtime assistance over the next hour just log on.

I think Larke knows more than me. I hope you are able to get your router and cards configured properly.

no, AM. two heads are always better than one. and from what you've already posted in this thread, you're no slouch with this stuff either. i set up my wireless network, my brother-in-laws and helped a buddy from school with his. all in the last 2 months. this stuff is just fresh in my mind right now.

Well, being a CS major helps. I will try to help the best I can. Since Zak's router is a NAT and he is using a desktop, I think his card is external. Hey Zak, if you look at the card while it is plugged in, do you see a red or a green light flashing from it?

AM: i'm just one of those self-taught geeks.

Well, as long as you know the fundamentals behind what you are doing, you are cool in my book. Anyway, whats up with Zak's router? Any progress?

haven't heard anything except what's in here. i just didn't want to spend a lot of time troubleshooting if the ip's weren't even set up properly. then check the gateway and dns server addy's and go on from there.

So while Zak reports back, what do you do for a living, Larke? Do you deal with hardware or software?

i recently quit a lousy job. i just got my MCSA certification a few days ago. hopefully in a few weeks i'll have my MCSE certification. i have quit a bit of experience repairing computers and just wanted the certification to help my resume and try to get into more than just the hardware. i just love working on/with computers. but i hate programming like the plague.

Dude, you and me can make a good team. I don't like dealing with hardware that much. I like programming more, especially in Java. I hate C++ though.

i could make an exception there because java is cool. i wouldn't mind dabbling a little in the java arena.

I love Java.

Any news on Zak yet? He isn't online here atleast. I hope he is getting something done about his router. It is hard to help when I am not physically there.

Sorry about that! My sister's boyfriend needed the only computer with internet access to get the trouble shooting off the internet. Then he needed to "re-register" the hardware for both pcs that weren't working.

Nothing was working so he just disconnected the main computer from the internet all together, and then all of a sudden both of the other computers were connect to the net.

It turns out the main computer was connected through a wire, but not wireless. It won't take the software to install the wireless card though.

Why would these computers not be able to get online when the main computer is? I don't get it. Anyway, we determined that in order for all of the computers in the hosue to be connected at the same time, that none of them could be physically "wired" to the net. To make the other one compatible, we're going to reformat the main computer again.

That's why it took me so long to get back to you, because I was busy transfering important files from that computer to this one.

Basically, we don't understand the problem. But we've temporarily worked around it. You guys are really smart, any ideas?

well, it could be setting in your router. when the main computer is physically connected to the router, the live ip address from your cable company might pass through the router and be assigned to the computer itself and not the router (depending on how it's setup). thus the main computer would be able to surf the net. the wireless computers would have no way of accessing the net in this configuration.

so when you disconnect the main computer maybe the router is getting the live ip and on the lan side, dhcp is taking care of everything for the wireless adapters? this works on paper, but doesn't quite sound right to me. becaues if the router has more than one physical access port it would have to have the live ip for both of the physically connected computers to access the net. if it gave a live ip to one of the computers, the other one wouldn't be able to connect.

we need more info, matt. like your ipconfig/all that AM mentioned up above. i'd be curious to know what you'd see if you ran "ipconfig/all" on the computer when physically connected to the router. as well as an "ipconfig/all" for a wirelessly connected adapter.

just to remind you what AM said above: start>run>cmd>ipconfig/all

Do you need the info off the main computer, or mine?

Zak, let me get this straight. You have a router connected to the internet. Then you have your main computer connect to it through an ethernet cable and two other computers connected to the router wirelessly? I just want to get your physical setup in my head correctly.

Hmm. The easiest way for me to get my IP Address is when I'm on AIM. I just put my mouse cursor in the box where you would type your message and do Right Click > Insert > IP Address and it appears. Just another way, that’s all

okay, so from what you're saying in here. you can get online becaues you're using your wireless adapters right?

if that's the case then just drop a line in here if/when you want us to help you tackle having your main machine physically connected along with all your wireless adapters.

personally i think its agents trying to keep you from the truth.

The problem was that I wanted to connect this wireless one up, but it wasn't working. It didn't work until we disconnected the main computer. For better or for worse, we're going to install windows XP to the main computer and then install the card to it so it, too, runs wireless.

If that doesn't work, I'll come back and hassle you some more. Thanks so much for trying to help everyone!

I know it sounds like a solution... But when we first connected the wireless computers to the net, they worked all night without any problems. Meanwhile, the main computer was online, and NOT wireless.

Then at 6:04 on the morning my sister logged off of the internet (I was off before then obviousely) and it disconnected the hardware from the router on both my computer and hers.

Weird.

Sayzak, check these out. From a different board for a online game but the slang is still here.

**NOTE: These definitions are given as a basic understanding and in some circumstances do not define the terms completely. They are included here to give you a brief understanding of each topic.

Client: Any form of hardware requesting the attention or services of another piece of hardware. Usually your computer.

Server: A piece of hardware setup to accept requests for a specific service. In EG the server is SSCX, the affiliated network of servers EG runs on.

Ping: The response time for communication between two pieces of hardware on a network. This is usually measured in MS (milliseconds). For games, a ping of 100 or less is the most desirable 200-300 is decent. Anything higher is reaching disconnect and spec levels.

Packet Loss (Ploss): When two pieces of hardware on a network communicate, the send information out in packets, much like taking a really long letter, and mailing each page individually. The data split up into packets is taken away by hardware that knows where specific networks and machines are. Each packet may take a different path to the end hardware, but in generalized terms they take the most efficient path. From time to time, the hardware on a network will drop packets and lose them (like mail in real life). This information is known to be missing by the receiving hardware. Depending on the rules set up, the hardware may request the data again or just forget about it. In SS (Continuum) the packets are forgotten. The more packets lost between your computer and the server means a higher ploss.

Hub: A small box that connects one or more computers on a network. On each network cable that connects to a computer there are specific wires that are for transmitting data and ones for receiving data. The hub makes sure that the sending computers data gets sent down all other connections receiving wires, so one computer isn't talking into another computer's mouth (metaphorically). The only set back is all information sent on the transmissions lines is sent to all receiving lines. So every computer has access to all data being moved through the hub.

Switch: Same as a hub except that a switch will look at each packets data (see Packet Loss/Ploss for a description) and see which computer the packet is for and send it only to that receiving line. This allows for faster networks and less network congestions.

Router: Same as a switch, except that the router contain routing tables, a list of all the machines connected to this router and to some extent routers that are more than 1 router away. This piece of hardware is what makes most of the traffic on large networks move in any organized way. They can also be set up to allow connections only from specific pieces of hardware and can usually have many useful network diagnostics.

IP: On a network, it is a good idea to number the machines so that each machine has a unique id, much like house houses are numbered, computers receive an IP address to uniquely identify them on a network. The addresses are composed mainly by a series of 4 numbers ranging from 0 to 255. Example: 10.8.0.1 or 255.255.255.255. There are other hidden values associated with IPs and unique computer identification that are not covered here.

TCP: Transfer Control Protocol, is just a standard way of sending and recieving information packets on a network. It can be considered to be similar to the way you write a piece of mail that is to be sent by the postal company. Everyone writes on the envelopes in a standard way, thus all computers send packets the same way. (This topic is very complicated and I suggest further research into it for a greater understanding of packet loss.)

TCP/IP: When you combined IP and TCP you get TCP/IP a way to identify each computer on a network and a defined way to send information to each computer.

NIC (Network Interface Card or Networking Card or Lan Card): This is a piece of hardware actually inside your computer that you plug a standard network cable into. This will be connected to your cable modem, dsl modem, router, hub, switch, or wall in some instances if you don't know what’s behind the wall or where your network cable goes. This just provides a way for the networks information to be received by your computer.

MAC Address: Every NIC made in the world has a unique serial number assigned to it. Every company has a specific prefix and then is responsible for not duplicating the serial number. This makes it possible to identify a computer on a network based solely on its MAC address.

NAT (Network Address Translation): NAT is a way for many computers to share 1 IP address. In some situations, usually in home networks, you can only acquire 1 IP address on the internet. When you wish more computers to be on the same internet connection and you only have 1 IP address (remember each computer must have its own UNIQUE to the network IP) you can utilize NAT. NAT can either be run by software on 1 computer or by hardware (such as a router). The piece of hardware or software obtains the 1 IP you are allowed and then assigns personal IP address to all pieces of hardware that connect to it. These are special IP addresses that are reserved for internal private networks. They start with either 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, 192.168.x.x, or 172.16.x.x. (There is also the APIPA addresses ,169.254.x.x, which are reserved for Windows machines that autoconfigure IP addresses when a DHCP server is not avaiable.) When a piece of hardware is running NAT, each packet of data is looked at. In each packet, the MAC address of the destination machine is included. The hardware running NAT will look to see which computer/piece of hardware matches the MAC address in the packet and then forward it to that destination.

Good job Advance. This is a good referance for laymen.

advance: that was a good idea to post all that.