Computer+Netgear D834G+AOL Broadband+ PCWorld =

Hi All
The missing word is MISERY - a friend at work has the above setup for is
son.
Computer is a Compaq Presario M2000 Laptop and uses (as far as I can make
out) Centrino technology (Intel Pro/wireless 2200BG) to link to the router
(DG834G - v2)- OR NOT.
Situation - Install blue lead & AOL disk - run setup All OK - remove blue
lead and he loses the network (I guess that the wireless link is not
working). PC World - where he bought all the kit from inc the AOL
subscription make it work with their network (BT Openworld), and tell him
all will be OK when he gets home BUT - as you may guess - all is NOT WELL!
With the lead it works - without the lead it fails - not quite my idea of
"wireless"- (;<D)).
Please anybody - can you help me, please, to help him, to help his son?
Very many thanks in advance
Bob .-.-.

"Bob .-.-." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:d9pdms$iqo$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi All
> The missing word is MISERY - a friend at work has the above setup for is
> son.
> Computer is a Compaq Presario M2000 Laptop and uses (as far as I can make
> out) Centrino technology (Intel Pro/wireless 2200BG) to link to the router
> (DG834G - v2)- OR NOT.
> Situation - Install blue lead & AOL disk - run setup All OK - remove blue
> lead and he loses the network (I guess that the wireless link is not
> working). PC World - where he bought all the kit from inc the AOL
> subscription make it work with their network (BT Openworld), and tell him
> all will be OK when he gets home BUT - as you may guess - all is NOT WELL!
> With the lead it works - without the lead it fails - not quite my idea of
> "wireless"- (;<D)).
> Please anybody - can you help me, please, to help him, to help his son?
> Very many thanks in advance
> Bob .-.-.

I presume by "blue lead" you mean the dark blue network lead that comes with
the router, rather than the pale blue USB lead that AOL supply for
connecting an ADSL modem. You're connecting the PC to the router by network
cable - as a short-term measure until the wireless is working.

Given that everything works OK when the PC is connected to the router by
cable, it sounds as if the router is configuring itself correctly to work
with AOL broadband. Can he actually browse the web and connect to AOL OK as
long as the cable is connected? I presume in order to get the router working
he must have successfully entered the user name in the router's config
screen.


First of all, check to see if the PC has a switch - either a slide-switch on
the case or a key on the keyboard - that turns the wireless adaptor of the
PC on/off. If it's a key on the keyboard, it may be a blue icon on one of
the F1 - F12 keys on the top row, which will need you to press the Fn key
(often at bottom left), hold it down and then press the key with the
wireless icon - then release both.


I'd suggest the following:

1) Use Internet Explorer to browse to web address http://192.168.0.1/ This
will display a username/password screen at which you should enter admin for
the username and password for the password (ie the router's password is
"password").

2) This should display a status screen like this:
http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/netgear1.jpg (I've blanked out my own
addresses for security reasons, but the important thing is that there should
be non-blank values present).

3) In the left-hand menu, select the Wireless Settings menu. You should see
a screen like http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/netgear2.jpg (again, I've
blanked out my own details). The Name (SSID) will probably be NETGEAR unless
he's changed it. Make sure that Enable Access Point and Allow Broadcast are
ticked and that Wireless Isolation is not ticked. Start by setting Security
Options to Disable; when we've got it working I'll explain how to make the
connection secure against anyone who's within wireless range.

4) Press Apply. Make sure that the wireless light on the router comes on -
this is the one that looks like a lollipop with concentric arcs beside the
top of the lollipop (sorry, there's no better way to describe it!)

5) Now check whether the PC has detected a wireless connection (yellow popup
message in the bottom right hand corner of the screen:
http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/wireless1.jpg.

6) If the wireless icon (PC screen with arcs on one side - as pointed to by
the yellow balloon in wireless1.jpg) has a red cross beside it, you need to
check the wireless configuration.

7) Right-click on the icon and select View Available Wireless Networks. You
should see a screen such as
http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/wireless2.jpg

8) You may need to press the "Refresh" link to force it to scan for the
network. Hopefully it will display it in the right-hand pane, at which point
you can press Connect and you *should* then have a working wireless
connection. If it says connected, remove the network cable and make sure
that over the wireless link you can browse the web.

9) If you can't see the network, even with the PC next to the router, and if
the router's wireless light is on, then there's a problem. Check the PC's
Wireless switch again to make sure it's not off.

10) Assuming you have a working wireless connection, you can now enable
security. Connect the network cable again - this is most important because
you are about to temporarily break the wireless link so without a cable
conenction you'd lose the ability to configure teh router!

11) Go back to the router configuration within Internet Explorer (Step 1)
and go to the Wireless page. Change Security to WPA-PSK and type in a short
phrase of about 20-30 characters: this will be the network password.

12) Press Accept.

13) Open the Available Wireless Connections screen (Step 8) and press
refresh. Hopefully the network will still be listed but it may say "Secured
Network". Press Connect and it will ask you to enter the "key" - this is the
same phrase as you configured in Step 11. I think it asks you to enter it
twice. Now it should be connected and secure from hackers. Test that the
link works by removing the netwprk cable (Step 8).

14) Close the various wireless config screens by pressing OK. Reboot the PC
and makes sure after it's finished booting that it connects automatically -
you shoudl see the wireless icon with the red cross change to the icon
without the cross and maybe with the screen now in blue, and you may
temporarily see a yellow balloon message as in Step 5.


Good luck!!


(PS: I normally charge £40/hour for setting up networks. Looks like it's
your lucky day and you've just got a freebie out of me!)

Bob .-.-. wrote:
> Hi All
> The missing word is MISERY - a friend at work has the above setup for
> is son.
> Computer is a Compaq Presario M2000 Laptop and uses (as far as I can
> make out) Centrino technology (Intel Pro/wireless 2200BG) to link to
> the router (DG834G - v2)- OR NOT.
> Situation - Install blue lead & AOL disk - run setup All OK - remove
> blue lead and he loses the network (I guess that the wireless link is
> not working). PC World - where he bought all the kit from inc the AOL
> subscription make it work with their network (BT Openworld), and tell
> him all will be OK when he gets home BUT - as you may guess - all is
> NOT WELL! With the lead it works - without the lead it fails - not
> quite my idea of "wireless"- (;<D)).
> Please anybody - can you help me, please, to help him, to help his
> son? Very many thanks in advance
> Bob .-.-.

Well you do have to configure the wifi equipment to talk to each other, it
doesn't do it by itself & remember when you do configure some type of
security on the link or else every free loader & his dog will be using it as
well.

Hi Martin
I realise how expensive you "tech" guys are and how good and thorough you
are too!.
A sincere thanks from me - and I'm sure from my friend at work and his son
too. Intermittently, over the weekend, they have spent 8-9 hours playing
with it trying to get it up and running.
I guessed you must be industry with the thoroughness of your reply,
Thanks again Martin & if you're around S. Lincs., I'd be happy to buy you a
pint - or two.
Regards
Bob .-.-.

Hi Kraftee
Thanks for your reply too. I have told him that he needs to ensure his
security is in place before he does any serious surfing. Thanks for
reaffirming the point.
Regards
Bob .-.-.

"Bob .-.-." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:d9pvp0$l0k$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Martin
> I realise how expensive you "tech" guys are and how good and thorough you
> are too!.
> A sincere thanks from me - and I'm sure from my friend at work and his son
> too. Intermittently, over the weekend, they have spent 8-9 hours playing
> with it trying to get it up and running.
> I guessed you must be industry with the thoroughness of your reply,
> Thanks again Martin & if you're around S. Lincs., I'd be happy to buy you
> a
> pint - or two.

You're most welcome. I hope everything works as I described. Even after
you've got wireless working, hang onto the network cable in case you ever
need it. If anything stops wireless working on the router, you'll need a way
of reconfiguring the router so it works again - which is difficult when you
need wireless in order to configure the router.

If he continues to have problems, he could look in local shops, parish
magazines etc to see if there's a computer consultant like me near him. I
find I get most of my business through my ads in local parish magazines:
much more cost-effective than newspaper adverts or flyers in newspapers.

One other thing: if he finds that after he's got it all working, the router
keeps dropping the connection to AOL, especially during a large download,
there's a parameter in the router that he may need to change. On the WAN
Settings menu of the router's config page there's a parameter MTU size.
Common advice is to reduce this from the default of 1458 to 1400 for AOL.
I've found that this is essential with some AOL customers (router fails to
connect at all) whereas other customers happily run with 1458 forever. I
wish I knew why the same router on the same speed line to the same ISP (AOL)
behaves differently for different people...

Martin, Hello again
Just a note to say a very big thanks - it worked first time - as described -
about 6 mins!
My friend at work is over the moon and so is his son.
Thank you very much once again
Regards
Bob

"Bob .-.-." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:d9ush9$bug$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Martin, Hello again
> Just a note to say a very big thanks - it worked first time - as
> described -
> about 6 mins!
> My friend at work is over the moon and so is his son.
> Thank you very much once again

Brilliant news! I like to have satisfied customers!


By the way, don't accidentally do what one of my customers did the other
day. After I'd connected the cables to his router, he happened to unplug the
ADSL lead to see what sort of connector it had because he was looking for a
longer lead. I didn't check that he'd plugged it into the correct socket
afterwards... I couldn't understand why, when the router was plugged in, the
phone line was absolutely dead - not even a click when you picked up a
phone. It turned out that he'd plugged the ADSL cable into one of the
network sockets - this is perfectly possible because both have the same type
of socket, except that the ADSL has 4 pins and the network 6 pins.
Consequently a narrow plug will fit into a wider socket :-( It turns out
that doing this shorts out the phone line - fortunately not irreparably: as
soon as I plugged the lead into the correct socket, the phones came back and
the router connected to broadband. But it was a heart-stopping few minutes
till I'd got to the bottom of this little problem!

Hi Martin,
I've passed on the tip - just in case! Thanks.
Regret to say, we're back almost to square one! (;<((((.
Eager to use the internet having got the router working, dad installs Norton
Internet Securities 2005 for son so that he can surf safely.
All appears to go well and Live Update is run to get all the latest files.
Machine re-boots and all is lost. John is not sure of the exact message (so
incensed that it is so difficult to set up) but it is something like "cannot
find DNS server"?
Very much appreciate any thoughts as he can't access the internet to get
help at all and PC World are being PC World.!!
AOL don't want to refund the fees and cancel even though he has hardly used
it - it's taken so long to set up.
Oh dear - oh dear.
Very many thanks
Regards
Bob.

"Bob .-.-." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:da1c68$6fc$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Martin,
> I've passed on the tip - just in case! Thanks.
> Regret to say, we're back almost to square one! (;<((((.
> Eager to use the internet having got the router working, dad installs
> Norton
> Internet Securities 2005 for son so that he can surf safely.
> All appears to go well and Live Update is run to get all the latest files.
> Machine re-boots and all is lost. John is not sure of the exact message
> (so
> incensed that it is so difficult to set up) but it is something like
> "cannot
> find DNS server"?
> Very much appreciate any thoughts as he can't access the internet to get
> help at all and PC World are being PC World.!!
> AOL don't want to refund the fees and cancel even though he has hardly
> used
> it - it's taken so long to set up.
> Oh dear - oh dear.

So it worked after he'd installed Norton, but stopped working once he did a
Live Update. That's a strange symptom. I can imagine it stopping working
when he installed Norton, but not failing only when he does a Live Update.

Get him to check the exact error message. Might also be worth him rebooting
the router - unplug the power connector for about 10 seconds then plug it
back in.



Things to check:

1. Does this affect both wireless and wired connection to the router?

2. Try running ipconfig:
* Start
* Run
* cmd
* (at the C:\ prompt) ipconfig /all

This should produce a listing similar to:



Windows IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Martin-Mesh
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No



Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:


Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast
Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-BF-E7-6C-99
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 30 June 2005 17:15:08
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 3 July 2005 17:15:08


The crucial things to check are that the IP address is 192.168.0.x and that
the Gateway, DHCP and DNS servers are 192.168.0.1 (assuming that's the
address of the router).

If the IP address starts with 169, that indicates that the router isn't
giving the PC a valid address so the PC is making one up. Let me know if
that's the case.


3. Then check the router's view of the world:

Using Internet Explorer, browse to 192.168.0.1 and check that the IP address
and DNS servers are sensible - something like

ADSL Port
MAC Address 00:0F:B5:<censored>
IP Address 84.<censored>
Network Type PPPoA
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.255.255
Gateway IP Address 195.166.128.72
Domain Name Server 212.159.13.49
212.159.13.50

LAN Port
MAC Address 00:0F:B5:<censored>
IP Address 192.168.0.1
DHCP On
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0

Modem
ADSL Firmware Version A2pB018b.d15h
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 2272 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 288 kbps
VPI 0
VCI 38



4. Open a "cmd" window (as for Step 2) and try

ping 1.2.3.4 (subtituting the IP and DNS addresses in Step 3 for
"1.2.3.4")

In each case, there should be four "Reply from" lines.

This checks that the PC can use the router to access the outside world.

5. In Internet Explorer, try browsing to address 212.58.226.19 - this is
news.bbc.co.uk. If he can access the site by its address but not by its
domain name, that suggests that the router isn't performing DNS lokups
properly - that it has lost the ablility to translate a domain name (eg
news.bbc.co.uk) into its address (eg 212.58.226.19).



Report back with the results to these tests and I'll see if anything springs
to mind. There is one thing that you'd need to configure in Norton - but
only if you had more than one PC and wanted them to be able to talk to each
other as well as to the internet. I don't think that's the case with this
setup, is it - he's just got one PC? If the need arises, I'll give you
instructions on what needs to be configured in Norton.