Airlink+ 802.11b PCI unable to connect to network, and internet, despite "excelent" signial strength

I have an Airlink+ 802.11b PCI card running on a HP Pavilon Desktop,
running windows XP pro. Windows detects the card, installs it and
everything appears to work fine, it says signal strength good, and
connects to my access point, however when i try to ping the router
that the access point is connected to, it times out. When i try to
ping the Access point it finds it however. All of the settings are set
correctly. I have updated the drivers, and updated the monitering
utility. The strangest part is that the card is set to dynamic IP
addressing, and the router uses DHCP. The card obtains a dynamic IP
address from the router one time, at boot, but after that cannot renew
its IP and cannot ping the router or any other computer. It is also
note worthy that another computer in our house (a laptop) is using an
Airlink+ PCcard 802.11b adapter and connects to the Access point just
fine, so my guess is that it is the card that is screwy. Another note
worthy point is that the card was origionaly installed in a diffrient
desktop, but that desktop (also running XP Pro.) didnt even detect the
card, so to determine weither it was the card or the mechine, i put
the card into a diffrient mechine (where it currently resides) and
that mechine detected and installed it... if ANYONE has had
experience with this card, please respond with your findings,
suggestions, or if someone has any ideas please tell me ASAP so that i
might return the card before the return policy expires if needed.
Thanks!

(E-Mail Removed) (Matt) wrote:

>I have an Airlink+ 802.11b PCI card running on a HP Pavilon Desktop,
>running windows XP pro. Windows detects the card, installs it and
>everything appears to work fine, it says signal strength good, and
>connects to my access point, however when i try to ping the router
>that the access point is connected to, it times out. When i try to
>ping the Access point it finds it however. All of the settings are set

It may be presumptuous of me to reply since I am new to WiFi but your
problem reminds me of my own, except I have a wireless router and a USB
adapter I cannot get working together. My stumblings may be of some
assistance so bear with me to the end...

>correctly. I have updated the drivers, and updated the monitering
>utility. The strangest part is that the card is set to dynamic IP
>addressing, and the router uses DHCP. The card obtains a dynamic IP
>address from the router one time, at boot, but after that cannot renew
>its IP and cannot ping the router or any other computer. It is also

My problem pretty much exactly, except I have no separate AP to try and
ping. Scanning for an AP also works and the adapter gets the parameters
(encryption, channel, etc.) just fine.

>note worthy that another computer in our house (a laptop) is using an
>Airlink+ PCcard 802.11b adapter and connects to the Access point just
>fine, so my guess is that it is the card that is screwy. Another note

I, too, have a second machine using an identical USB adapter and I have
determined that either adapter works in that machine, neither works in my
problem machine...

>worthy point is that the card was origionaly installed in a diffrient
>desktop, but that desktop (also running XP Pro.) didnt even detect the
>card, so to determine weither it was the card or the mechine, i put
>the card into a diffrient mechine (where it currently resides) and
>that mechine detected and installed it... if ANYONE has had
>experience with this card, please respond with your findings,
>suggestions, or if someone has any ideas please tell me ASAP so that i
>might return the card before the return policy expires if needed.

I assume you have some sort of configuration/monitoring software for the
WiFi card. My software gives me what I think is a clue so I offer it here.
The statistics tab tells me that I am exchanging so-called "management"
packets just fine (best as I can determine by comparison with the
statistics from the PC that works with WiFi) but my data packets verge on
non-existent, a tenth or a hundredth of what I think I should be seeing. I
get no "unsuccessful" or "rejected" packets.

Does your setup show the same or similar anomaly?

I can watch an attempted ping in process from the bad PC to the router/AP
and the packets exchange so slowly that timeouts are inevitable. Having
read that only data packets are encrypted I disabled WEP to see if that was
my problem but still had no success. Thinking my signal strength might be
too high (100%) I shielded the adapter to get a 60-70% signal and still no
joy. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the adapter drivers.

With that I ran out of ideas. Anyone?

--

John Briggs ((E-Mail Removed) Phoenix, Arizona, USA)

John Briggs wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) (Matt) wrote:
>
>> I have an Airlink+ 802.11b PCI card running on a HP Pavilon Desktop,
>> running windows XP pro. Windows detects the card, installs it and
>> everything appears to work fine, it says signal strength good, and
>> connects to my access point, however when i try to ping the router
>> that the access point is connected to, it times out. When i try to
>> ping the Access point it finds it however. All of the settings are
>> set
>
> It may be presumptuous of me to reply since I am new to WiFi but your
> problem reminds me of my own, except I have a wireless router and a
> USB adapter I cannot get working together. My stumblings may be of
> some assistance so bear with me to the end...
>
>> correctly. I have updated the drivers, and updated the monitering
>> utility. The strangest part is that the card is set to dynamic IP
>> addressing, and the router uses DHCP. The card obtains a dynamic IP
>> address from the router one time, at boot, but after that cannot
>> renew its IP and cannot ping the router or any other computer. It is
>> also
>
> My problem pretty much exactly, except I have no separate AP to try
> and ping. Scanning for an AP also works and the adapter gets the
> parameters (encryption, channel, etc.) just fine.
>
>> note worthy that another computer in our house (a laptop) is using an
>> Airlink+ PCcard 802.11b adapter and connects to the Access point just
>> fine, so my guess is that it is the card that is screwy. Another note
>
> I, too, have a second machine using an identical USB adapter and I
> have determined that either adapter works in that machine, neither
> works in my problem machine...
>
>> worthy point is that the card was origionaly installed in a diffrient
>> desktop, but that desktop (also running XP Pro.) didnt even detect
>> the card, so to determine weither it was the card or the mechine, i
>> put
>> the card into a diffrient mechine (where it currently resides) and
>> that mechine detected and installed it... if ANYONE has had
>> experience with this card, please respond with your findings,
>> suggestions, or if someone has any ideas please tell me ASAP so that
>> i might return the card before the return policy expires if needed.
>
> I assume you have some sort of configuration/monitoring software for
> the WiFi card. My software gives me what I think is a clue so I offer
> it here. The statistics tab tells me that I am exchanging so-called
> "management" packets just fine (best as I can determine by comparison
> with the statistics from the PC that works with WiFi) but my data
> packets verge on non-existent, a tenth or a hundredth of what I think
> I should be seeing. I get no "unsuccessful" or "rejected" packets.
>
> Does your setup show the same or similar anomaly?
>
> I can watch an attempted ping in process from the bad PC to the
> router/AP and the packets exchange so slowly that timeouts are
> inevitable. Having read that only data packets are encrypted I
> disabled WEP to see if that was my problem but still had no success.
> Thinking my signal strength might be too high (100%) I shielded the
> adapter to get a 60-70% signal and still no joy. I have uninstalled
> and reinstalled the adapter drivers.
>
> With that I ran out of ideas. Anyone?

Shut down all computers. Shut down router and modem. Start up modem to
clear its MAC table, which just might be full (5-7 permitted MAC
addresses, typically). If the modem MAC table is full, no additional
connections can be made; the router has no ability to handle the new
computer, and the computer shows no IP or the internal reference IP.
After modem is fully booted, restart the router, then the computers.
See if the problem computer can now connect. It's a long shot, but
might help.

Q