DELL wireless card stuck "Aquiring Network Address"

Folks,

I have a DELL Vostro 1500 laptop that came with Windows XP SP2 Home
Edition.
It came with the entire drive partitioned for XP which I don't want.
So I formated the drive and re-installed XP on a smaller partition so
that I can partition the drive for Linux as well.

The XP install went fine. I then went to Dell and installed the
driver for my Dell wireless card that came with the machine. (Dell
1395 802.11g Wi-Fi internal card).

NOTE: Prior to re-installing XP, the wireless card connected to my
Linksys wireless router just fine.

Now, when I attempt to connect to the Linksys wireless router, I gain
a connection (after putting the WEP 128bit key in) but it is stuck in
the "Aquiring Network Address". Eventually, it times out and I have
no wireless connection. If I connect a hard wire ethernet cable to
the laptop, I can ping the Wireless Router so I know it's reachable
via my wired network.

I've seen people recommend hard coding an IP address but then I have
to screw around with the wireless IP settings when I travel which I
don't want to do.

Does anyone have any ideas what else I should look for?

On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 09:39:19 -0700 (PDT), JP <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I have a DELL Vostro 1500 laptop that came with Windows XP SP2 Home
>Edition.
>It came with the entire drive partitioned for XP which I don't want.
>So I formated the drive and re-installed XP on a smaller partition so
>that I can partition the drive for Linux as well.
>
>The XP install went fine. I then went to Dell and installed the
>driver for my Dell wireless card that came with the machine. (Dell
>1395 802.11g Wi-Fi internal card).

Did you install XP SP3? If not, do it now.

>NOTE: Prior to re-installing XP, the wireless card connected to my
>Linksys wireless router just fine.
>
>Now, when I attempt to connect to the Linksys wireless router, I gain
>a connection (after putting the WEP 128bit key in) but it is stuck in
>the "Aquiring Network Address".

There are three different methods of converting from an ASCII WEP key
to the Hex equivalent. When you upgraded the drivers, you apparently
changed methods. You can make it work by using the WEP Hex key, which
always works.

However, the correct method is to change your unspecified model
wireless router to WPA or WPA2 encryption. This does not have the
ASCII to Hex conversion nonsense, and is much better for security as
WEP is easily cracked.

>Eventually, it times out and I have
>no wireless connection. If I connect a hard wire ethernet cable to
>the laptop, I can ping the Wireless Router so I know it's reachable
>via my wired network.
>
>I've seen people recommend hard coding an IP address but then I have
>to screw around with the wireless IP settings when I travel which I
>don't want to do.

Don't bother. The problem is that Microsloth, in their infinite
wisdom, decided that their wireless drivers do not require any
connection progress indication. Although it says "aquiring network
address" it really means "can't negotiate a suitable encryption key".

>Does anyone have any ideas what else I should look for?

Some instructions on how to use various partition managers. You
didn't have to reinstall everything just to change the partition size.
There are various partition managers that will do it for you. As I
recall (not sure), Disk Druid will resize the Windoze partition for
you on installation.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Jun 8, 1:21 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 09:39:19 -0700 (PDT), JP <jpseba...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >I have a DELL Vostro 1500 laptop that came with Windows XP SP2 Home
> >Edition.
> >It came with the entire drive partitioned for XP which I don't want.
> >So I formated the drive and re-installed XP on a smaller partition so
> >that I can partition the drive for Linux as well.
>
> >The XP install went fine. I then went to Dell and installed the
> >driver for my Dell wireless card that came with the machine. (Dell
> >1395 802.11g Wi-Fi internal card).
>
> Did you install XP SP3? If not, do it now.
>
> >NOTE: Prior to re-installing XP, the wireless card connected to my
> >Linksys wireless router just fine.
>
> >Now, when I attempt to connect to the Linksys wireless router, I gain
> >a connection (after putting the WEP 128bit key in) but it is stuck in
> >the "Aquiring Network Address".
>
> There are three different methods of converting from an ASCII WEP key
> to the Hex equivalent. When you upgraded the drivers, you apparently
> changed methods. You can make it work by using the WEP Hex key, which
> always works.
>
> However, the correct method is to change your unspecified model
> wireless router to WPA or WPA2 encryption. This does not have the
> ASCII to Hex conversion nonsense, and is much better for security as
> WEP is easily cracked.
>
> >Eventually, it times out and I have
> >no wireless connection. If I connect a hard wire ethernet cable to
> >the laptop, I can ping the Wireless Router so I know it's reachable
> >via my wired network.
>
> >I've seen people recommend hard coding an IP address but then I have
> >to screw around with the wireless IP settings when I travel which I
> >don't want to do.
>
> Don't bother. The problem is that Microsloth, in their infinite
> wisdom, decided that their wireless drivers do not require any
> connection progress indication. Although it says "aquiring network
> address" it really means "can't negotiate a suitable encryption key".
>
> >Does anyone have any ideas what else I should look for?
>
> Some instructions on how to use various partition managers. You
> didn't have to reinstall everything just to change the partition size.
> There are various partition managers that will do it for you. As I
> recall (not sure), Disk Druid will resize the Windoze partition for
> you on installation.
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060http://802.11junk.com
> Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Hi,

Thanks so much for all of this good information. I changed my
wireless router to use WPA Personal. I then changed my laptop's
wireless settings to use WPA Personal as well. I copied the key from
the router's settings to the laptop's settings and it's all working
flawlessly. Thanks again for this.

Cheers,

John Sebastian