Can't get laptop to recognize wireless network.

I have a desktop and a laptop I want to hook up to my D-Link 614+ wireless router. The desktop is running XP and hooked up with an ethernet cable. The laptop is running W2k with a Cisco wireless pcmia card. I cannot for the life of me get the laptop to recognize that there is a wireless network that it can access. The router has the latest firmware, and has been tested to work with another laptop running XP wirelessly. The wireless settings for the router are all default.

This laptop is from my wife's work. It works with their wireless network, but not with mine. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, not sure what Service Pack W2k is running since my wife has the laptop at work.

One of the first questions... is the laptop running DHCP? or is it assigned an IP address??

If running DHCP - do this.

Start
Run
Type "cmd"
In box type - "ipconfig /renew"

If it is successful, you should see a 169.xxx.xxx.xx number.... 169 is default for home "microsoft" networks.

I wrongly assumed that Win2k operates the same as XP with wireless networks.

If I remember right, when there was an open network with no WAP present, it allowed me to connect to a network just fine. However, when I tried to connect to a WAP enabled network, all it would show is "connected at 11mbps" . Hmm... interesting since it never was able to tell me what network it was connected to. Eventually, I got Boingo, and it found my network, and almost was able to get me connected. I ended up finding some entries in the wireless network card properties that were previously absent when I checked it for the 10th time.

Long story short- look all over the properties of your wireless network card, and make sure it is set up to use your SSID, or that it can discover the SSID that is being broadcast. It is possible that the laptop you're working with has some funky settings from a different wireless network.

Also, more info would be helpful. Are you able to see the SSID on this laptop? Or does it act just like there is no wireless network out there period?

-ben

It acts like there is no wireless network. I will check out the pcmcia card settings to see if there is something funky going on.

Needitcooler said:

This laptop is from my wife's work. It works with their wireless network, but not with mine. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, not sure what Service Pack W2k is running since my wife has the laptop at work.

Click to expand...

That's prolly the key right there, different networks, ssid, channels etc.

I can't figure out how to change any settings on the wireless lan card. Anyone have any ideas? Its a Cisco 350 series PCMCIA card.

Go to Device manager, and go to the properties on your wireless card under networking adaptors, it should be under the advanced tab, or settinges tab

Do you know how the laptop connects to the work network? Which SSID is used? WAP or no?

If you have free reign of the laptop (if you can remove/reinstall stuff), you may want to install Boingo (boingo.com). It should help greatly in finding the network that you can connect to.

-ben

Unfortunately I only have guest priveledges. This baby is locked down tight.

The first thing I did when troubleshooting was go to device manager and examine the properties of the wireless card. There were no advanced settings to be found. Nothing could be changed. I wish I could just load XP on this thing.

I called the network admin to ask how he set this laptop up for the work network, and he said all he did is plug in the card and everything worked. He claims he didn't have to set anything up other than a new network connection with the connection wizard.

the only thing you could try at this point is looking for a driver set to the network card on the manufacturers site, they generally have software that will let you change the SSID, WEP Protocol (if supported) and Channel

:edit: You weren't very specific about the model, but I hope this helps
http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/Software/WLAN/wlplanner.cgi

Thanks. That is what I was looking for. Unfortunately I am unable to install it since I don't have admin priveledges. Guess I just have to wait for the network admin to install it for me. Thanks for the help.

what if you log in with your wife's account? ( have her supply the password) her account may have priviledges. Just a thought.