DHCP problem or something else?

I am having trouble getting an old laptop with a wireless card (MN-520) and
Win98 SE settings correct to connect to a wireless hot spot. From what I have
read (as I have little networking experience) I am not being assigned an IP
from the DHCP. The Broadband Network Utility shows an IP of 169.254.xxx.xxx
and that I have some signal strength, 2 Mbps, but that I'm not connected to
the network SSID (which has been plugged in to the Network Adapter
properties.)

An interesting note, when I enter the Broadband Utility and go to the
setting to select from available SSIDs, no networks appear. But if I cancel
and re-enter, then I see the different routers around the building I'm in.

Forgive my ignorance, but will I get a Gateway address from the DHCP server
once I do connect? Anyone that can shed some light on the subject will be
held in high regard. I've been digging in help files and threads for 2 days
now. Thanx

You will only get a default gateway address from the DHCP server if it
has been configured to give that information out with the DHCP request,
however most DHCP servers that are serving an Internet connection will
give you the default gateway address when they give you all of the other
TCP/IP information for your connection.

For the issue with the software not working the first time I'm not sure
why that is happening or if it can be fixed. One last thing if you have
a 169.254.*.* IP address none of the information about the wireless
strength or connection speed in the BNU is accurate, as you are
connected to nothing which makes it a moot point.

The things that are most likely to be causing problems with your network
connection are the following in no particular order, viruses, spyware,
malware, adware, other poorly written software (This includes everything
from Symantec IMO), software firewall, & antivirus software. If you
want a list of many of the programs I know about I can post it, but I
will change the subject to warn people that it is long.

skora wrote:
> I am having trouble getting an old laptop with a wireless card (MN-520) and
> Win98 SE settings correct to connect to a wireless hot spot. From what I have
> read (as I have little networking experience) I am not being assigned an IP
> from the DHCP. The Broadband Network Utility shows an IP of 169.254.xxx.xxx
> and that I have some signal strength, 2 Mbps, but that I'm not connected to
> the network SSID (which has been plugged in to the Network Adapter
> properties.)
>
> An interesting note, when I enter the Broadband Utility and go to the
> setting to select from available SSIDs, no networks appear. But if I cancel
> and re-enter, then I see the different routers around the building I'm in.
>
> Forgive my ignorance, but will I get a Gateway address from the DHCP server
> once I do connect? Anyone that can shed some light on the subject will be
> held in high regard. I've been digging in help files and threads for 2 days
> now. Thanx
>

--
Please do not contact me directly or ask me to contact you directly for
assistance.

If your question is worth asking, it's worth posting.

If it’s not worth posting you should have done a search on
http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg&q= or
http://news.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=nf&ned=us&q= before wasting our
time.

If I sound hostile or arrogant you need to read the following before
posting a question "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" at
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html (The site I've linked
to just has this article I think people should read before posting a
technical question.)

Thanks for the background info Joe. No need to post the list. When the laptop
didn't connect to the hotspot the first time, I nuked the hard drive and did
a clean install of Win98 SE and the updated BNU and drivers for the MN-520.
So that's all that's installed on the system. While I realized I'm not
connected to the hotspot, my system does see it and there's adaquate signal
to connect. I've tried moving the card to the other PCMCIA slot with no luck.
I've tried dumping BNU and just using the windows configurations. Lowering
the Frag Threshold incase they have Linksys routers. Under Winipcfg, the DHCP
is all 255. Is that normal? I'm not connected and am not suprised to see DHCP
server unavailable when I try to renew the IP. Does anyone else have any
guesses?

"Joe Crown" wrote:

> You will only get a default gateway address from the DHCP server if it
> has been configured to give that information out with the DHCP request,
> however most DHCP servers that are serving an Internet connection will
> give you the default gateway address when they give you all of the other
> TCP/IP information for your connection.
>
> For the issue with the software not working the first time I'm not sure
> why that is happening or if it can be fixed. One last thing if you have
> a 169.254.*.* IP address none of the information about the wireless
> strength or connection speed in the BNU is accurate, as you are
> connected to nothing which makes it a moot point.
>
> The things that are most likely to be causing problems with your network
> connection are the following in no particular order, viruses, spyware,
> malware, adware, other poorly written software (This includes everything
> from Symantec IMO), software firewall, & antivirus software. If you
> want a list of many of the programs I know about I can post it, but I
> will change the subject to warn people that it is long.
>
> skora wrote:
> > I am having trouble getting an old laptop with a wireless card (MN-520) and
> > Win98 SE settings correct to connect to a wireless hot spot. From what I have
> > read (as I have little networking experience) I am not being assigned an IP
> > from the DHCP. The Broadband Network Utility shows an IP of 169.254.xxx.xxx
> > and that I have some signal strength, 2 Mbps, but that I'm not connected to
> > the network SSID (which has been plugged in to the Network Adapter
> > properties.)
> >
> > An interesting note, when I enter the Broadband Utility and go to the
> > setting to select from available SSIDs, no networks appear. But if I cancel
> > and re-enter, then I see the different routers around the building I'm in.
> >
> > Forgive my ignorance, but will I get a Gateway address from the DHCP server
> > once I do connect? Anyone that can shed some light on the subject will be
> > held in high regard. I've been digging in help files and threads for 2 days
> > now. Thanx
> >
>
> --
> Please do not contact me directly or ask me to contact you directly for
> assistance.
>
> If your question is worth asking, it's worth posting.
>
> If it’s not worth posting you should have done a search on
> http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg&q= or
> http://news.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=nf&ned=us&q= before wasting our
> time.
>
> If I sound hostile or arrogant you need to read the following before
> posting a question "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" at
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html (The site I've linked
> to just has this article I think people should read before posting a
> technical question.)
>

For a 169.254.*.* address also called an APIPA - "Automatic Private IP
Addressing" the default subnet is 255.255.0.0 because this is a class B
IP address. This in known because the first octet is 169 in decimal or
10101001 in binary which is how v4 IP addresses should be read. The
computer converts it for you as it is easier for you to understand the
decimal number then the binary number that is actually being used.

As for winipcfg showing a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255 I'd bet that
you are looking at the wrong network adapter. I likes to default to the
PPP adapter which is not the one you are interested in. to actually see
the information on thew MN-520 you will need to select it from the
selection box. If I remember correctly it is labeled something like
network adapter.

Well at this point I'm going to ask several questions to see if it is
the MN-520 or the network you are trying to connect to.

1) Has the MN-520 been able to connect to any other wireless network?



2) What kind of wireless security is the network using? (WEP, WPA, MAC
filtering, ETC.)



3) What are you using to configure the MN-520? (The BNU, Windows
settings for the network card, or some other piece of software.)

skora wrote:
> Thanks for the background info Joe. No need to post the list. When the laptop
> didn't connect to the hotspot the first time, I nuked the hard drive and did
> a clean install of Win98 SE and the updated BNU and drivers for the MN-520.
> So that's all that's installed on the system. While I realized I'm not
> connected to the hotspot, my system does see it and there's adaquate signal
> to connect. I've tried moving the card to the other PCMCIA slot with no luck.
> I've tried dumping BNU and just using the windows configurations. Lowering
> the Frag Threshold incase they have Linksys routers. Under Winipcfg, the DHCP
> is all 255. Is that normal? I'm not connected and am not suprised to see DHCP
> server unavailable when I try to renew the IP. Does anyone else have any
> guesses?
>


--
Please do not contact me directly or ask me to contact you directly for
assistance.

If your question is worth asking, it's worth posting.

If it’s not worth posting you should have done a search on
http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg&q= or
http://news.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=nf&ned=us&q= before wasting our
time.

If I sound hostile or arrogant you need to read the following before
posting a question "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" at
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html (The site I've linked
to just has this article I think people should read before posting a
technical question.)

I really appreciate you taking the time to help me work through this.

As for winipcfg, I believe the mn-520 was the only option to select. I did
look at the drop down so if there was more than one, I'm sure I covered that.
For your other questions, yes, the laptop connects fine to my home wireless
network (MN-500 base station.) I used the BNU to configure it originally and
changed the frag thresh from the control panel/network settings. I used the
BNU to enter my WEP at home. The Hotspot I'm trying to connect to is at the
airport I work at. There is no security enabled as it is a free service to
all passengers. The BNU recognizes there is no security when it scans for
available networks but when I select the access point with the best signal
and try to connect, an error came back to the effect of "WEP key is
incorrect" This was after a clean install before I had any of my home
settings re-entered. My next idea is to try and find out what type of
hardware the airport installed and see if there are known compatability
issues with the MN-520 and their hard ware. So much for standardization.
Thanks again.

"Joe Crown" wrote:

> For a 169.254.*.* address also called an APIPA - "Automatic Private IP
> Addressing" the default subnet is 255.255.0.0 because this is a class B
> IP address. This in known because the first octet is 169 in decimal or
> 10101001 in binary which is how v4 IP addresses should be read. The
> computer converts it for you as it is easier for you to understand the
> decimal number then the binary number that is actually being used.
>
> As for winipcfg showing a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255 I'd bet that
> you are looking at the wrong network adapter. I likes to default to the
> PPP adapter which is not the one you are interested in. to actually see
> the information on thew MN-520 you will need to select it from the
> selection box. If I remember correctly it is labeled something like
> network adapter.
>
> Well at this point I'm going to ask several questions to see if it is
> the MN-520 or the network you are trying to connect to.
>
> 1) Has the MN-520 been able to connect to any other wireless network?
>
>
>
> 2) What kind of wireless security is the network using? (WEP, WPA, MAC
> filtering, ETC.)
>
>
>
> 3) What are you using to configure the MN-520? (The BNU, Windows
> settings for the network card, or some other piece of software.)
>
> skora wrote:
> > Thanks for the background info Joe. No need to post the list. When the laptop
> > didn't connect to the hotspot the first time, I nuked the hard drive and did
> > a clean install of Win98 SE and the updated BNU and drivers for the MN-520.
> > So that's all that's installed on the system. While I realized I'm not
> > connected to the hotspot, my system does see it and there's adaquate signal
> > to connect. I've tried moving the card to the other PCMCIA slot with no luck.
> > I've tried dumping BNU and just using the windows configurations. Lowering
> > the Frag Threshold incase they have Linksys routers. Under Winipcfg, the DHCP
> > is all 255. Is that normal? I'm not connected and am not suprised to see DHCP
> > server unavailable when I try to renew the IP. Does anyone else have any
> > guesses?
> >
>
>
> --
> Please do not contact me directly or ask me to contact you directly for
> assistance.
>
> If your question is worth asking, it's worth posting.
>
> If it’s not worth posting you should have done a search on
> http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg&q= or
> http://news.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=nf&ned=us&q= before wasting our
> time.
>
> If I sound hostile or arrogant you need to read the following before
> posting a question "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" at
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html (The site I've linked
> to just has this article I think people should read before posting a
> technical question.)
>

Well I'm out of ideas now. When you talked to them did you find
anything out that helped you?

skora wrote:
> I really appreciate you taking the time to help me work through this.
>
> As for winipcfg, I believe the mn-520 was the only option to select. I did
> look at the drop down so if there was more than one, I'm sure I covered that.
> For your other questions, yes, the laptop connects fine to my home wireless
> network (MN-500 base station.) I used the BNU to configure it originally and
> changed the frag thresh from the control panel/network settings. I used the
> BNU to enter my WEP at home. The Hotspot I'm trying to connect to is at the
> airport I work at. There is no security enabled as it is a free service to
> all passengers. The BNU recognizes there is no security when it scans for
> available networks but when I select the access point with the best signal
> and try to connect, an error came back to the effect of "WEP key is
> incorrect" This was after a clean install before I had any of my home
> settings re-entered. My next idea is to try and find out what type of
> hardware the airport installed and see if there are known compatability
> issues with the MN-520 and their hard ware. So much for standardization.
> Thanks again.
>


--
Please do not contact me directly or ask me to contact you directly for
assistance.

If your question is worth asking, it's worth posting.

If it’s not worth posting you should have done a search on
http://www.google.com/ http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg&q= or
http://news.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=nf&ned=us&q= before wasting our
time.

If I sound hostile or arrogant you need to read the following before
posting a question "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" at
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html (The site I've linked
to just has this article I think people should read before posting a
technical question.)