Linksys router and wirless card not talking - BEFW11S4 and WMP11

Hello-

I have an interesting problem with my wireless network. I have the
BEFW11S4 Linksys wireless router. It works great. My laptop (having
a built in wireless card) connects to it just fine. Another laptop
with a PCMCIA card connects just fine. Both of those computers are
running XP SP1. I'm using a 64 bit WEP key as well.

I installed the Linksys WMP11 in a desktop computer. It sort of
works. I say that because it sees two wireless networks... That
aren't mine! It is seeing my neighbors unencripted networks. It will
even connect to them just fine. But it won't even SEE my network,
which is 6 feet away!

I removed the WEP key temporarily, thinking that might have somthing
to do with it. Nope, it still won't see my network. I was running
SP2 on this computer, so thinking this was the problem, I wiped the
computer and started over. Still no luck.

So why can't I even SEE my network? Any ideas??? Please help!

Thanks!

Carl Sundermann
(E-Mail Removed)

On 16 Nov 2004 08:10:25 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (Carl Sundermann)
wrote:

>I have an interesting problem with my wireless network. I have the
>BEFW11S4 Linksys wireless router. It works great. My laptop (having
>a built in wireless card) connects to it just fine. Another laptop
>with a PCMCIA card connects just fine. Both of those computers are
>running XP SP1. I'm using a 64 bit WEP key as well.

So far so good. Out of curiousity, which BEFW11S4 version? I have a
V4 mutation. Also, some clue as to the firmware would be nice. Some
version have bugs.

>I installed the Linksys WMP11 in a desktop computer. It sort of
>works. I say that because it sees two wireless networks... That
>aren't mine! It is seeing my neighbors unencripted networks. It will
>even connect to them just fine. But it won't even SEE my network,
>which is 6 feet away!

Can I assume that you have SSID broadcasting ENABLED in the BEFW11S4
box? If not, you will not "see" anything. Your other laptops may
have the SSID and WEP keys preset for the "preferred" network, and
therfore would not need to "see" the SSID broadcasts.

>I removed the WEP key temporarily, thinking that might have somthing
>to do with it. Nope, it still won't see my network. I was running
>SP2 on this computer, so thinking this was the problem, I wiped the
>computer and started over. Still no luck.

Windoze... What do you want to reinstall today?
Hint: The solution to most problems is NOT to reinstall everything.
Since you were able to connect to the neighbors, it's a fair
assumption that the WMP11 is working as expected.

>So why can't I even SEE my network? Any ideas??? Please help!

Some possibles:
1. You don't have SSID broadcast enabled on the access point.
2. You've cleverly setup the WMP11 in "ad-hoc" mode instead of
"infrastructure" and arbitrarily selected the wrong channel. In
"ad-hoc" mode, it will not scan for channels.

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

Thanks for your responses Jeff... Here's the deal...

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> So far so good. Out of curiousity, which BEFW11S4 version? I have a
> V4 mutation. Also, some clue as to the firmware would be nice. Some
> version have bugs.
Well, at this time, I'm not at home so I can't look at the unit, but I
believe it's a version 4. I can, however look at the firmware version
from where I am, and that is 1.45.10, Apr 15 2004. I actually tried to
update the firmware from the linksys site, but it keeps erroring out,
saying there's bad code in that file...

> Can I assume that you have SSID broadcasting ENABLED in the BEFW11S4
> box? If not, you will not "see" anything. Your other laptops may
> have the SSID and WEP keys preset for the "preferred" network, and
> therfore would not need to "see" the SSID broadcasts.
Yes, I am broadcasting my SSID, and other computer pick it up just
fine. So no luck there....

> Windoze... What do you want to reinstall today?
> Hint: The solution to most problems is NOT to reinstall everything.
> Since you were able to connect to the neighbors, it's a fair
> assumption that the WMP11 is working as expected.
Yea, I figured everything was installed properly, but I didn't know if
SP2 actually did something crazy to my configuration. Plus, it was
time for a reinstall anyway.


> Some possibles:
> 1. You don't have SSID broadcast enabled on the access point.
> 2. You've cleverly setup the WMP11 in "ad-hoc" mode instead of
> "infrastructure" and arbitrarily selected the wrong channel. In
> "ad-hoc" mode, it will not scan for channels.

The WMP11 is in infrastructure mode.
SO.... Still no luck. I don't get it. :-P

I've tried changing the channel on my wireless, and even taking the
encription totally off...

Other ideas? Thanks!

Carl Sundermann

On 17 Nov 2004 10:01:54 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Well, at this time, I'm not at home so I can't look at the unit, but I
>believe it's a version 4. I can, however look at the firmware version
>from where I am, and that is 1.45.10, Apr 15 2004. I actually tried to
>update the firmware from the linksys site, but it keeps erroring out,
>saying there's bad code in that file...

1.50.14 is the current version for v4. 1.45.10 was never released for
the v4 router. 1.45.10 is the latest version for v2, 2.1, 3, or 3.2
which may explain why a "later" version didn't work.

>Other ideas? Thanks!

Nope. For lack of a better clue, it seems to be some compatibility
issue between your BEFW11S4 and the WMP11. You've done all the right
tests. The problem is that I don't know which one to blame. My seat
of the pant guess (i.e. coin toss) is that it's the BEFW11S4 that's
causing this problem. However, I don't know what to do about it other
than to replace it. Sorry.



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

> Nope. For lack of a better clue, it seems to be some compatibility
> issue between your BEFW11S4 and the WMP11. You've done all the right
> tests. The problem is that I don't know which one to blame. My seat
> of the pant guess (i.e. coin toss) is that it's the BEFW11S4 that's
> causing this problem. However, I don't know what to do about it other
> than to replace it. Sorry.

Alrighty, well thanks for your time! Anyone else have any other ideas!? Thanks!