WAG54G Ping Problem

I have a laptop on XP v2, with a WPC54G and, temporarily, a Belkin usb
wireless dongle. I also have a Toshiba E800 wireless PPC on 11b. Both the
laptop and the a PPC can communicate with the internet quite happily and the
PPC used to be able to communicate with the laptop, but now can't. Both are
only a few feet away from the WAG54G router.

Neither can ping the other, although the router lights do reflect the
pinging. This, I think rules out a firewall problem, but I initially
disabled Zonealarm, then de-installed it, without effect.

On the router, no wireless clients are recorded. I've powered off the
router, reset it, and reverted to an older firmware, all without a cure.

Very puzzled. What now, please?


--
Allan Anderson

{Please reply to newsgroup. My email address has TRAPs.}

"Allan Anderson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a laptop on XP v2, with a WPC54G and, temporarily, a Belkin usb
>wireless dongle. I also have a Toshiba E800 wireless PPC on 11b. Both the
>laptop and the a PPC can communicate with the internet quite happily and
>the PPC used to be able to communicate with the laptop, but now can't.
>Both are only a few feet away from the WAG54G router.
>
> Neither can ping the other, although the router lights do reflect the
> pinging. This, I think rules out a firewall problem, but I initially
> disabled Zonealarm, then de-installed it, without effect.
>
> On the router, no wireless clients are recorded. I've powered off the
> router, reset it, and reverted to an older firmware, all without a cure.
>
> Very puzzled. What now, please?

Not having received any response to my posting, the saga continued.

I'm posting again in case the outcome is of some help to another. Briefly,
both my laptop and PPC were able to connect to the net without apparent
problem, and I only realised there was a problem when I checked the wireless
connection between them, via the WAG54G router. I couldn't connect from the
PPC to the laptop and neither could ping the other via wireless, although
each could be pinged from the router. Some while previously the connection
had worked.

To cut a long story short, eventually I found that the PPC didn't like
channel 1 that I had switched to sometime earlier. Changed to channel 6,
and bingo, it worked first time. The two wireless connections presently on
the laptop were quite happy on channel 1, and the PPC was for browsing and
email purposes, but not for connecting to the laptop. The environment
appears quiet and I've never picked up another network. Signal strength was
full-scale.

Odd, I thought. Does anyone have an answer? Is it just down to error
handling?


--
Allan Anderson

{Please reply to newsgroup. My email address has TRAPs.}

On 30/01/2005 Allan Anderson wrote:

>
> "Allan Anderson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > I have a laptop on XP v2, with a WPC54G and, temporarily, a Belkin
> > usb wireless dongle. I also have a Toshiba E800 wireless PPC on
> > 11b. Both the laptop and the a PPC can communicate with the
> > internet quite happily and the PPC used to be able to communicate
> > with the laptop, but now can't. Both are only a few feet away from
> > the WAG54G router.
> >
> > Neither can ping the other, although the router lights do reflect
> > the pinging. This, I think rules out a firewall problem, but I
> > initially disabled Zonealarm, then de-installed it, without effect.
> >
> > On the router, no wireless clients are recorded. I've powered off
> > the router, reset it, and reverted to an older firmware, all
> > without a cure.
> >
> > Very puzzled. What now, please?
>
> Not having received any response to my posting, the saga continued.
>
> I'm posting again in case the outcome is of some help to another.
> Briefly, both my laptop and PPC were able to connect to the net
> without apparent problem, and I only realised there was a problem
> when I checked the wireless connection between them, via the WAG54G
> router. I couldn't connect from the PPC to the laptop and neither
> could ping the other via wireless, although each could be pinged from
> the router. Some while previously the connection had worked.
>
> To cut a long story short, eventually I found that the PPC didn't
> like channel 1 that I had switched to sometime earlier. Changed to
> channel 6, and bingo, it worked first time. The two wireless
> connections presently on the laptop were quite happy on channel 1,
> and the PPC was for browsing and email purposes, but not for
> connecting to the laptop. The environment appears quiet and I've
> never picked up another network. Signal strength was full-scale.
>
> Odd, I thought. Does anyone have an answer? Is it just down to
> error handling?


You can get interference on some channels so changing channels can
sometimes help.

Not sure quite how you have this set up. Normally each PC communicates
with the router (either wired or wirless) and then the router handles
traffic between them. You wouldn't normally have the PC's communicating
directly with each other if you have a router with a WAP.

--
Jeff Gaines
Posted with XanaNews 1.17.1.2

"Jeff Gaines" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 30/01/2005 Allan Anderson wrote:
>
>>
>> "Allan Anderson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>> message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > I have a laptop on XP v2, with a WPC54G and, temporarily, a Belkin
>> > usb wireless dongle. I also have a Toshiba E800 wireless PPC on
>> > 11b. Both the laptop and the a PPC can communicate with the
>> > internet quite happily and the PPC used to be able to communicate
>> > with the laptop, but now can't. Both are only a few feet away from
>> > the WAG54G router.
>> >
>> > Neither can ping the other, although the router lights do reflect
>> > the pinging. This, I think rules out a firewall problem, but I
>> > initially disabled Zonealarm, then de-installed it, without effect.
>> >
>> > On the router, no wireless clients are recorded. I've powered off
>> > the router, reset it, and reverted to an older firmware, all
>> > without a cure.
>> >
>> > Very puzzled. What now, please?
>>
>> Not having received any response to my posting, the saga continued.
>>
>> I'm posting again in case the outcome is of some help to another.
>> Briefly, both my laptop and PPC were able to connect to the net
>> without apparent problem, and I only realised there was a problem
>> when I checked the wireless connection between them, via the WAG54G
>> router. I couldn't connect from the PPC to the laptop and neither
>> could ping the other via wireless, although each could be pinged from
>> the router. Some while previously the connection had worked.
>>
>> To cut a long story short, eventually I found that the PPC didn't
>> like channel 1 that I had switched to sometime earlier. Changed to
>> channel 6, and bingo, it worked first time. The two wireless
>> connections presently on the laptop were quite happy on channel 1,
>> and the PPC was for browsing and email purposes, but not for
>> connecting to the laptop. The environment appears quiet and I've
>> never picked up another network. Signal strength was full-scale.
>>
>> Odd, I thought. Does anyone have an answer? Is it just down to
>> error handling?
>
>
> You can get interference on some channels so changing channels can
> sometimes help.
>
> Not sure quite how you have this set up. Normally each PC communicates
> with the router (either wired or wirless) and then the router handles
> traffic between them. You wouldn't normally have the PC's communicating
> directly with each other if you have a router with a WAP.
>
> --
> Jeff Gaines

I mentioned the router (WAG54G) in both my posts. I was a little clearer in
my second post::-
<<....when I checked the wireless connection between them, via the WAG54G
>> router.

As both the laptop and the PPC could get through the router to the net
successfully, initially I took it that the problem had to be internal to the
router, to do with the routing.

I was aware of the possibility of interference, but couldn't see why it
wasn't interfering with net access but was with connection attempts and
pings. Even now, if there was interference on channel 1, why didn't it
affect pings from the laptop to net sites? Perhaps it's not interference.
Perhaps it's a quirk on the PPC with channel 1? Nope, can't be that either
as it could ping the net. But wait....

Just double-checking on my last statement and another confusion arises.
Originally, I had the PPC on a static IP and I've just rechecked on channel
1. It can ping the net without error. It can ping the laptop wirelessly to
the router then via lan cable connection. It cannot connect to either
laptop wireless connection. However, connection speed is only 1mbs. When
set to DHCP, it only picks up a 169.254 IP, but at first glance the pings
all appear to work, but the IP displays as 224.232.3.24 and the RTT is
ridiculously high. DHCP doesn't want to know on any channel. Static is
fine on channel 6 and 11.

Ah well


--
Allan Anderson
{Please reply to newsgroup. My email address has TRAPs.}

On 01/02/2005 Allan Anderson wrote:

> However, connection speed is only 1mbs. When set to DHCP, it only
> picks up a 169.254 IP, but at first glance the pings all appear to
> work, but the IP displays as 224.232.3.24 and the RTT is ridiculously
> high. DHCP doesn't want to know on any channel. Static is fine on
> channel 6 and 11.


Allan

I am using the WAG54G and have it set up to dish out IP addresses as I
plug different PC's in and out quite frequently.

If a PC is set up to 'Obtain an IP Address Automatically' and it can't
'see' the WAG54G when it boots then Windows doles out a 169 IP address
which is a curse.

If the WAG54G is using its default address of 192.168.1.1 what about
setting the two PC's up with manual IP addresses of 192.168.1.2 and
192.168.1.3 (with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0). If you do this then
turn off DHCP on the WAG54G. Also set them both to use 192.168.1.1 as
the DNS Server Address.

I must admit I have not used more than 1 PC with a wireless connection
so I don't know if the two would interfere with each other, they must
be though because offices use whole reams of wireless connections so it
must be able to work.

--
Jeff Gaines
Posted with XanaNews 1.17.1.2

"Jeff Gaines" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 01/02/2005 Allan Anderson wrote:
>
>> However, connection speed is only 1mbs. When set to DHCP, it only
>> picks up a 169.254 IP, but at first glance the pings all appear to
>> work, but the IP displays as 224.232.3.24 and the RTT is ridiculously
>> high. DHCP doesn't want to know on any channel. Static is fine on
>> channel 6 and 11.
>
>
> Allan
>
> I am using the WAG54G and have it set up to dish out IP addresses as I
> plug different PC's in and out quite frequently.
>
> If a PC is set up to 'Obtain an IP Address Automatically' and it can't
> 'see' the WAG54G when it boots then Windows doles out a 169 IP address
> which is a curse.
>
> If the WAG54G is using its default address of 192.168.1.1 what about
> setting the two PC's up with manual IP addresses of 192.168.1.2 and
> 192.168.1.3 (with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0). If you do this then
> turn off DHCP on the WAG54G. Also set them both to use 192.168.1.1 as
> the DNS Server Address.
>
> I must admit I have not used more than 1 PC with a wireless connection
> so I don't know if the two would interfere with each other, they must
> be though because offices use whole reams of wireless connections so it
> must be able to work.
>
> --
> Jeff Gaines


Hi Jeff

The DHCP thing was a red-herring. I'd turned off WEP during trouble
shooting, but my DHCP profile on the PPC still had WEP allowed.

Channels 1 to 5 till look dodgy, but 6 to 11 seem OK. I'll do some more
checking later, but thanks for your interest.


--
Allan Anderson

{Please reply to newsgroup. My email address has TRAPs.}