I F&^%% hate wireless

My friend has a linksys wireless router and a computer in another room with the wireless USB wireless adapter.

Anyway I set it up and it was working fine for a few weeks, then it stopped working, My friend thinks he accidentally changed a setting and now I can’t get it working again. I don’t own a wireless router so I can’t figure the problem out at home. I believe it’s a windowXP thing fighting for control but it’s really ****ing me off.

Before I was using the linksys network monitor but it doesn’t appear to be working anymore, It can see the router but can’t connect. “Access point not available” I think it says. I have the WEP correct but nothing. Thou I did get it working once by clicking the windows “repair connection” but now not even that is not working.

So I changed it so that windows XP is searching for the network and not using the linksys software, It finds the network but can’t connect either and It never asks me for the SSID?!?!. I initially set it up for WEP security, was that the best choice?

I know I’m being very vague but the computer is at my friends house and I’m writing this all from memory. I seriously want to find the person that designed these crappy menus and beat the snot out of him. It can’t be that F&^*ing hard.

If you guys give me a few possible solutions I will print em out and try em over at my friends house when I get a chance. Thx in advanced.

Since he fubar'd some settings or something i suggest you reset to default settings and checking if that allows you to connect. Make sure you're getting a strong enough signal.. Reinstall the wireless drivers on your computer (try to get the latest ones on another computer burn it to CD?) Hrmm thats all I can think of.. Turn off the "broadcast SSID" option (you then have to manually input it in the wireless profile thing.)

click start>run type in command then type in ping www.google.com and see if it works ?? that would narrow the problem

He is getting a super strong signal, it’s a security thing I’m pretty sure.

I don’t know what’s the best setting. I could be just s simple password for all I care but would like something on his connection because I know lots of people like the “barrow” broadband.

I think I had is set up for WEP, What setting are the easiest to configure?

well you could just use no security and filter mac addresses... thats what I did for my sister because she didn't know how to set up WEP/WPA on her computer or her roommates' computers

the adam said:

well you could just use no security and filter mac addresses... thats what I did for my sister because she didn't know how to set up WEP/WPA on her computer or her roommates' computers

Click to expand...

This is definitely the easiest way to setup a secure wireless connection.

WEP is a pain. I will be getting rid of my wireless equipment soon becuase 802.11g just isn't fast enough for streaming video from machine to machine.

first head over to www.linksysinfo.org i love that site.

second what router is it? sometimes useing modded firmware will help tons in conectivity, speed, and reliability (all for me) but will void the waranty (what is a waranty anyways? lol).

as said, use mac address filtering. I use that and WPA. its overkill i bet, but eh. with the right tools and atleast a PIII laptop, you could crack WEP in a matter of minutes.

Mike

Mac addresses are really easy to spoff, so they don't really provide much security, but I guess its better than nothing. Personally, I use the best security my router can do- mac address filtering and wep. Not great, but its something.

It does sounds like the problem is the signal to me. When I had a wireless network and took the laptop to a place where the signal just couldn't get through, it would recognize the network, but be unable to connect to it.

Something you might want to try is to hold reset on the bottom of the router. If that doesn't work, unplug it for like more than a minute, then plug it back in. You should have to reconfigure it when you do this, but that's the best way to reset everything like it was before when it was working.

I would set everything on the router back to factory defaults and uninstall the drivers for the wireless adapter on the computer. Starting from scratch again, configure the router the way you want and then install the drivers for the wireless adapter.

If you decide to use WEP, double and triple check the key when you enter it into the router/wireless adapter. I had a similar problem with the two not "talking" and it turned out to be a typo.