Routing problem with two network cards

I've got an old Compaq Armada E500 notebook which has an internal
network card, I want to network it when it is away from my desk. It is
running Windows 98SE (not powerful enough for anything more modern)

I have a Belkin Wireless ADSL modem/router.

When the notebook is connected to the router by cable everything works
correctly, I can access other PCs and the internet no problem.

When I try and use the Wireless LAN Card (Safecom 802.11g based on
Texas Instruments chip set) it can see the network but will not use
it. No ping on the router, "xxx is not accessible" on accessing other
PC's, timeout on internet access.

If I go into My Computer and disable the internal network card
everything works fine.

If the network cable and the wireless card are both in then everything
works fine but the traffic seems to be just on the cable.

I've tried setting the internal IP addresses of the network cards to
different numbers and this will sometimes allow access to other PCs
but will not allow access to the internet ever

I suspect that when both cards are enabled the system is still trying
to route everything through the cable network even when no cable is
connected.

I don't particularly want to keep having to disable the internal NIC
as this means it is not useable by other members of the family.

Any ideas?
--
Pete
diving 'at' melbourne 'dot' me 'dot' uk

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Pete Melbourne wrote:

>I've got an old Compaq Armada E500 notebook which has an internal
>network card, I want to network it when it is away from my desk.

>If the network cable and the wireless card are both in then everything
>works fine but the traffic seems to be just on the cable.

Yup. That's what you told it to do.

>I suspect that when both cards are enabled the system is still trying
>to route everything through the cable network even when no cable is
>connected.

Yup. If you don't want it to use one or the other, that choice has
to be disabled. Otherwise, you have two routes leading to the same place,
and the operating system ignores the second one - EVEN IF THE CHOSEN
ONE DOESN'T WORK AT THE MOMENT.

>I don't particularly want to keep having to disable the internal NIC
>as this means it is not useable by other members of the family.

[compton ~]$ grep window .newsrc | grep tcp
comp.os.ms-windows.networking.tcp-ip
[compton ~]$

Fundamental networking question - nothing to do with wireless. You'd
also find this by searching for this problem at http://groups.google.com

Old guy

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 08:27:15 +0000, Pete Melbourne <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I've got an old Compaq Armada E500 notebook which has an internal
>network card, I want to network it when it is away from my desk. It is
>running Windows 98SE (not powerful enough for anything more modern)
>
>I have a Belkin Wireless ADSL modem/router.
>
>When the notebook is connected to the router by cable everything works
>correctly, I can access other PCs and the internet no problem.
>
>When I try and use the Wireless LAN Card (Safecom 802.11g based on
>Texas Instruments chip set) it can see the network but will not use
>it. No ping on the router, "xxx is not accessible" on accessing other
>PC's, timeout on internet access.

When you're using the wireless card, do you have the built in ethernet
card on the Armada laptop disconnected? Two simultaneous connections
to the internet through to paths will be a problem for Windoze 98SE.

>If I go into My Computer and disable the internal network card
>everything works fine.

Yep. I can see where this is going.

>If the network cable and the wireless card are both in then everything
>works fine but the traffic seems to be just on the cable.

Yep. Open an MSDOS window and run:
ipconfig
You'll see two sets (or more) of ethernet adapters including the wired
and wireless connections. Note the gateway address. That's the
default route. Windoze will select *ONE* of the interfaces for the
default route where it sends all packets destined for the internet.

Now, you don't need to accept the DHCP delivered gateway addresses as
your default route. You can manually configure the desired default
route in the network control panel. However, that's a pain as W98SE
wants to reboot every time you make the change.

A good alternative for such systems is Netswitcher:
http://www.netswitcher.com
$14. I use Netswitcher to rapidly reconfigure my network connections
when I drop into my various customers, each of which has a radically
different configuration. It will also work to switch the default
router (gateway) on the fly.

Please note that W2K and XP do a much better job of switching default
routes when one or the other interface is disabled. Of course, Unix
does it with a simple "ifconfig" incantation.

>I've tried setting the internal IP addresses of the network cards to
>different numbers and this will sometimes allow access to other PCs
>but will not allow access to the internet ever

How different? The DHCP server in your router(s) will deliver the IP
addresses and default gateway.

>I suspect that when both cards are enabled the system is still trying
>to route everything through the cable network even when no cable is
>connected.

Well, Win98SE does not monitor the lan cable connection. W2K and XP
do monitor if something is plugged in and automatically disable the
interface if it's unplugged.

>I don't particularly want to keep having to disable the internal NIC
>as this means it is not useable by other members of the family.

Use Netswitcher to do the enable/disable thing, with different
configurations for whatever each member of the family finds useful.

>Any ideas?

Yes. Why do you want BOTH wired and wireless connections at the same
time? One or the other should be sufficient. Simplify the laptop and
eliminate one of the interfaces.


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