Help.... Laptop used on Wired and Wireless Network (longish...)

I am hoping there is someone out there that can help me. I can work most
things out but will admit to only knowing the very basics about networking.

My sister asked me to set up a wireless network for them since they had
recently ordered ADSL, so I bought a ADSL Modem/Router (3Com 3CRWE754G72).
This works fine, no problem, it connects directly via wire to a main desktop
PC and connects to the internet.

The problem I have revolves my sisters laptop, she is a teacher and connects
it to the School's wired network when at school. Over Christmas we connected
to the home wireless network and it all worked fine. Then after Christmas
she took the Laptop back to school and it refused to connect to the wired
network. It would appear that simply connecting to the router wirelessly had
reconfigured the PC's network settings totally. In my naiveity I thought
Windows XP would have separate profiles for wireless and wired so it
wouldn't be a problem (well it shows them separately on 'Network
Connections' anyway).

I suspect this is something to do with the Modem/Router using a DHCP server
and dynamically configuraing the IP address for the laptop and the school
possibly having a fixed IP address (I don't know this for sure however).
Surely this must be an extremely common scenario and Windows XP should
allow this without having to manually configue each time?

After much tweaking the School finally managed to get the Laptop to
reconnect to their network (they don't have a capable IT whiz) and I am
loathed to fiddle without knowing what I am doing in case I mess things up
again. Ideally though my sister would like to be able to do both with
minimum bother, surely this is possible? Do I need to manually set IP
addresses for the home network to emulate the school, in which case how do I
do this? What happens if you connected wirelessly to another offsite
wireless network (say in Starbucks) that used DHCP, would XP reconfigure it
all again?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Patrick
Worcs, UK

"pgnl" <patstuff{removethis}@post.com> wrote in message
news:FDoLd.25013$(E-Mail Removed) k...
> I am hoping there is someone out there that can help me. I can work
most
> things out but will admit to only knowing the very basics about
networking.
>
> My sister asked me to set up a wireless network for them since they
had
> recently ordered ADSL, so I bought a ADSL Modem/Router (3Com
3CRWE754G72).
> This works fine, no problem, it connects directly via wire to a main
desktop
> PC and connects to the internet.
>
> The problem I have revolves my sisters laptop, she is a teacher and
connects
> it to the School's wired network when at school. Over Christmas we
connected
> to the home wireless network and it all worked fine. Then after
Christmas
> she took the Laptop back to school and it refused to connect to the
wired
> network. It would appear that simply connecting to the router
wirelessly had
> reconfigured the PC's network settings totally. In my naiveity I
thought
> Windows XP would have separate profiles for wireless and wired so it
> wouldn't be a problem (well it shows them separately on 'Network
> Connections' anyway).
>
> I suspect this is something to do with the Modem/Router using a DHCP
server
> and dynamically configuraing the IP address for the laptop and the
school
> possibly having a fixed IP address (I don't know this for sure
however).
> Surely this must be an extremely common scenario and Windows XP
should
> allow this without having to manually configue each time?
>
> After much tweaking the School finally managed to get the Laptop to
> reconnect to their network (they don't have a capable IT whiz) and I
am
> loathed to fiddle without knowing what I am doing in case I mess
things up
> again. Ideally though my sister would like to be able to do both
with
> minimum bother, surely this is possible? Do I need to manually set
IP
> addresses for the home network to emulate the school, in which case
how do I
> do this? What happens if you connected wirelessly to another offsite
> wireless network (say in Starbucks) that used DHCP, would XP
reconfigure it
> all again?
>
> Any help would be most appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Patrick
> Worcs, UK

I would try disabling the wireless adapter before connecting at
school, at home
with the cat5 cable unplugged the ethernet adapter is disabled. Could
be a conflict with both adapters enabled.

The laptops wireless NIC is independent of the wired NIC. You shouldn't of
had to of messed with anything other than to of setup the passwords and
encryption level for the Wireless connection to your 3com wireless router.
Don't even plug the wired connection in to the 3com router, and don't change
the laptop computer and/or user names, domain and/or workgroup name and/or
passwords and that will totally screw her up when she tries to connect to
the schools network. If you didn't do any like that and only focused on the
wireless connection's passwords and encryption to get hooked to the 3com
router, you should of been ok. To share resources between the home computer
and the laptop just do From the startbar, do [start] [run]
[\\desktopcomputername] if on the laptop, or [start] [run]
[\\laptopcomputername] to connect from one to the other. After you learn a
bit about it, you could make the workgroup network setup on the home
computer the same as is on the schools network, which if both systems are
using the same subnet mask, should allow you to browse the home system with
my network places or network neighborhood or what ever in the hell your
version of windows calls it.

"pgnl" <patstuff{removethis}@post.com> wrote in message
news:FDoLd.25013$(E-Mail Removed) k...
>I am hoping there is someone out there that can help me. I can work most
>things out but will admit to only knowing the very basics about networking.
>
> My sister asked me to set up a wireless network for them since they had
> recently ordered ADSL, so I bought a ADSL Modem/Router (3Com 3CRWE754G72).
> This works fine, no problem, it connects directly via wire to a main
> desktop PC and connects to the internet.
>
> The problem I have revolves my sisters laptop, she is a teacher and
> connects it to the School's wired network when at school. Over Christmas
> we connected to the home wireless network and it all worked fine. Then
> after Christmas she took the Laptop back to school and it refused to
> connect to the wired network. It would appear that simply connecting to
> the router wirelessly had reconfigured the PC's network settings totally.
> In my naiveity I thought Windows XP would have separate profiles for
> wireless and wired so it wouldn't be a problem (well it shows them
> separately on 'Network Connections' anyway).
>
> I suspect this is something to do with the Modem/Router using a DHCP
> server and dynamically configuraing the IP address for the laptop and the
> school possibly having a fixed IP address (I don't know this for sure
> however). Surely this must be an extremely common scenario and Windows XP
> should allow this without having to manually configue each time?
>
> After much tweaking the School finally managed to get the Laptop to
> reconnect to their network (they don't have a capable IT whiz) and I am
> loathed to fiddle without knowing what I am doing in case I mess things up
> again. Ideally though my sister would like to be able to do both with
> minimum bother, surely this is possible? Do I need to manually set IP
> addresses for the home network to emulate the school, in which case how do
> I do this? What happens if you connected wirelessly to another offsite
> wireless network (say in Starbucks) that used DHCP, would XP reconfigure
> it all again?
>
> Any help would be most appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Patrick
> Worcs, UK
>

"Morty McSnerd" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:iNvLd.24$(E-Mail Removed)...
> The laptops wireless NIC is independent of the wired NIC. You shouldn't of
> had to of messed with anything other than to of setup the passwords and
> encryption level for the Wireless connection to your 3com wireless router.
> Don't even plug the wired connection in to the 3com router, and don't
> change the laptop computer and/or user names, domain and/or workgroup name
> and/or passwords and that will totally screw her up when she tries to
> connect to the schools network. If you didn't do any like that and only
> focused on the wireless connection's passwords and encryption to get
> hooked to the 3com router, you should of been ok. To share resources
> between the home computer and the laptop just do From the startbar, do
> [start] [run] [\\desktopcomputername] if on the laptop, or [start] [run]
> [\\laptopcomputername] to connect from one to the other. After you learn
> a bit about it, you could make the workgroup network setup on the home
> computer the same as is on the schools network, which if both systems are
> using the same subnet mask, should allow you to browse the home system
> with my network places or network neighborhood or what ever in the hell
> your version of windows calls it.
>
> "pgnl" <patstuff{removethis}@post.com> wrote in message
> news:FDoLd.25013$(E-Mail Removed) k...
>>I am hoping there is someone out there that can help me. I can work most
>>things out but will admit to only knowing the very basics about
>>networking.
>>
>> My sister asked me to set up a wireless network for them since they had
>> recently ordered ADSL, so I bought a ADSL Modem/Router (3Com
>> 3CRWE754G72). This works fine, no problem, it connects directly via wire
>> to a main desktop PC and connects to the internet.
>>
>> The problem I have revolves my sisters laptop, she is a teacher and
>> connects it to the School's wired network when at school. Over Christmas
>> we connected to the home wireless network and it all worked fine. Then
>> after Christmas she took the Laptop back to school and it refused to
>> connect to the wired network. It would appear that simply connecting to
>> the router wirelessly had reconfigured the PC's network settings totally.
>> In my naiveity I thought Windows XP would have separate profiles for
>> wireless and wired so it wouldn't be a problem (well it shows them
>> separately on 'Network Connections' anyway).
>>
>> I suspect this is something to do with the Modem/Router using a DHCP
>> server and dynamically configuraing the IP address for the laptop and the
>> school possibly having a fixed IP address (I don't know this for sure
>> however). Surely this must be an extremely common scenario and Windows
>> XP should allow this without having to manually configue each time?
>>
>> After much tweaking the School finally managed to get the Laptop to
>> reconnect to their network (they don't have a capable IT whiz) and I am
>> loathed to fiddle without knowing what I am doing in case I mess things
>> up again. Ideally though my sister would like to be able to do both with
>> minimum bother, surely this is possible? Do I need to manually set IP
>> addresses for the home network to emulate the school, in which case how
>> do I do this? What happens if you connected wirelessly to another offsite
>> wireless network (say in Starbucks) that used DHCP, would XP reconfigure
>> it all again?
>>
>> Any help would be most appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Patrick
>> Worcs, UK
>>
>
>
Thanks for both replies.

Actually I am not bothered about sharing resources between the two machines,
it's sharing the ADSL connection that is the main objective. The Laptop has
a Centrino Processor, uses WinXP and no settings were changed manually. In
fact I hadn't even got to setting encryption levels, so no manual adjustment
was necessary. We just did a 'site survey' on the laptop and selected
'connect' and it connected to the 'net. Unfortunately it wasn't OK. It would
appear that simply doing this altered everything and screwed up the wired
ethernet connection for use at school.

Any other suggestions? That might point me in the right direction?

Patrick