Wifi problem Win 98SE Thinkpad 560

I've got a Thinkpad 560 running Win98SE with all current updates. It
connects to the Net fine via dialup and Ethernet through a Xircom PCMCIA
card, so it appears that the protocol stack is OK. But I've tried two
very different wifi adaptors, an Orinoco PCMCIA card and a Netgear USB
dongle, and neither of them will work. They both indicate a good radio
connection with my access point, and my other laptop (a TP 600) works
fine with that AP, so there appears to be no problem there. But neither
of these adaptors appears when I run winipcfg. They aren't connecting
into the stack.

I've verified all the Control Panel network settings and removed all
unused protocols. I removed the Xircom card and rebooted, so I don't
think there's a conflict with it. I shut down my firewall. I ran
winsockfix, just in case.

I've googled a lot but don't find any discussion of this situation. Any
suggestions?

The Thinkpad is second hand, used originally in a corporate setting.
Perhaps their admins disabled something inside? Any idea what to look for?

BBB wrote:
> I've got a Thinkpad 560 running Win98SE with all current updates. It
> connects to the Net fine via dialup and Ethernet through a Xircom
> PCMCIA card, so it appears that the protocol stack is OK. But I've
> tried two very different wifi adaptors, an Orinoco PCMCIA card and a
> Netgear USB dongle, and neither of them will work. They both
> indicate a good radio connection with my access point, and my other
> laptop (a TP 600) works fine with that AP, so there appears to be no
> problem there. But
> neither of these adaptors appears when I run winipcfg. They aren't
> connecting into the stack.
>
> I've verified all the Control Panel network settings and removed all
> unused protocols. I removed the Xircom card and rebooted, so I don't
> think there's a conflict with it. I shut down my firewall. I ran
> winsockfix, just in case.
>
> I've googled a lot but don't find any discussion of this situation. Any
> suggestions?
>
> The Thinkpad is second hand, used originally in a corporate setting.
> Perhaps their admins disabled something inside? Any idea what to
> look for?

Forget the computer for a moment, and check the AP... Sometimes they put in
the mac addresses of what is allowed, and your's aren't on the list.

> BBB wrote:
> > I've got a Thinkpad 560 running Win98SE with all current updates.
It
> > connects to the Net fine via dialup and Ethernet through a Xircom
> > PCMCIA card, so it appears that the protocol stack is OK. But
I've
> > tried two very different wifi adaptors, an Orinoco PCMCIA card and
a
> > Netgear USB dongle, and neither of them will work. They both
> > indicate a good radio connection with my access point, and my
other
> > laptop (a TP 600) works fine with that AP, so there appears to be
no
> > problem there. But
> > neither of these adaptors appears when I run winipcfg. They aren't
> > connecting into the stack.
> >
> > I've verified all the Control Panel network settings and removed
all
> > unused protocols. I removed the Xircom card and rebooted, so I
don't
> > think there's a conflict with it. I shut down my firewall. I ran
> > winsockfix, just in case.
> >
> > I've googled a lot but don't find any discussion of this
situation. Any
> > suggestions?
> >
> > The Thinkpad is second hand, used originally in a corporate
setting.
> > Perhaps their admins disabled something inside? Any idea what to
> > look for?
>
> Forget the computer for a moment, and check the AP... Sometimes they
put in
> the mac addresses of what is allowed, and your's aren't on the list.

In your protocol stack do you have (along with tcpip) "WLAN
Transport"?
When you installed the cards did it ask for your win98SE CD?

Thanks for the two suggestions I've received so far concerning my
problem in getting a wireless connection to work with my Thinkpad 560
(as described below).



Airhead suggested: In your protocol stack do you have (along with
tcpip) "WLAN Transport"?
When you installed the cards did it ask for your win98SE CD?

Reponse: Where should I be looking for "WLAN Transport"? Nothing like
this shows up anywhere in the Control Panel / Network area, either on
the 560 or on my other laptop (TP 600), which is presently working fine
with the Orinoco card that won't work in the 560. Yes, as I recall the
installation process did ask for the Win98SE CD. Then it found the
required files when I pointed it at the right folders on the hard drive.



Peter Pan suggested: Forget the computer for a moment, and check the
AP... Sometimes they put in the mac addresses of what is allowed, and
your's aren't on the list.

Response: It's my AP, so there isn't any "they" involved! I did a
hardware reset of the AP before starting this, restoring it to default
values. It's working fine with the TP 600. Not mentioned in my
original post was the fact that I also had identical problems on a
different AP.



Keep the ideas coming! Thanks.




My original post:

> I've got a Thinkpad 560 running Win98SE with all current updates. It
> connects to the Net fine via dialup and Ethernet through a Xircom PCMCIA
> card, so it appears that the protocol stack is OK. But I've tried two
> very different wifi adaptors, an Orinoco PCMCIA card and a Netgear USB
> dongle, and neither of them will work. They both indicate a good radio
> connection with my access point, and my other laptop (a TP 600) works
> fine with that AP, so there appears to be no problem there. But neither
> of these adaptors appears when I run winipcfg. They aren't connecting
> into the stack.
>
> I've verified all the Control Panel network settings and removed all
> unused protocols. I removed the Xircom card and rebooted, so I don't
> think there's a conflict with it. I shut down my firewall. I ran
> winsockfix, just in case.
>
> I've googled a lot but don't find any discussion of this situation. Any
> suggestions?
>
> The Thinkpad is second hand, used originally in a corporate setting.
> Perhaps their admins disabled something inside? Any idea what to look for?

Okay, so much for that idea...just seemed like an easy thing to check and
would fit the problems you described...
A question.. When you switch cards, do you change the software too?

Okay, another question.. Do you have any easy way to back up your system?
(example, I have Ghost and a DVD burner, just backup the laptop to DVD so I
can play and not kill it) If so, then you may want to do an emergency
restore of a fresh system and try it with absolutely nothing else installed.


(LAST RESORT- only consider this when you have a hammer in your hand, or are
thinking of pulling your hair out)
There is one other thing I have run across (bad-- hope it isn't your
problem), one of my laptops can NOT work with wireless stuff at all (looks
like it's working but won't connect, i've tried 4 different cards, and 2 usb
adapters... Nada... Drove me nuts, I finally traded my WAP54G for a WRT54G
and use it as wired to the router. Still have no idea why a 2 year old
toshiba sattelite won't work, when a 1 year old and 3 year old one do....

BBB wrote:
> Peter Pan suggested: Forget the computer for a moment, and check the
> AP... Sometimes they put in the mac addresses of what is allowed, and
> your's aren't on the list.
>
> Response: It's my AP, so there isn't any "they" involved! I did a
> hardware reset of the AP before starting this, restoring it to default
> values. It's working fine with the TP 600. Not mentioned in my
> original post was the fact that I also had identical problems on a
> different AP.
>
>
>
> Keep the ideas coming! Thanks.
>
>
>
>
> My original post:
>
>> I've got a Thinkpad 560 running Win98SE with all current updates. It
>> connects to the Net fine via dialup and Ethernet through a Xircom
>> PCMCIA card, so it appears that the protocol stack is OK. But I've
>> tried two very different wifi adaptors, an Orinoco PCMCIA card and a
>> Netgear USB dongle, and neither of them will work. They both
>> indicate a good radio connection with my access point, and my other
>> laptop (a TP 600) works fine with that AP, so there appears to be no
>> problem there. But
>> neither of these adaptors appears when I run winipcfg. They aren't
>> connecting into the stack.
>>
>> I've verified all the Control Panel network settings and removed all
>> unused protocols. I removed the Xircom card and rebooted, so I don't
>> think there's a conflict with it. I shut down my firewall. I ran
>> winsockfix, just in case.
>>
>> I've googled a lot but don't find any discussion of this situation. Any
>> suggestions?
>>
>> The Thinkpad is second hand, used originally in a corporate setting.
>> Perhaps their admins disabled something inside? Any idea what to
>> look for?

Right now I've deinstalled the Orinoco card and still have the USB
dongle installed. I've got GoBack on the computer, so I can generally
pull myself out of any kind of problem if I recognize it soon enough,
unless the amount of file activity has overwhelmed its storage.

I'm going to inventory the dll's on the good and the bad machine ot see
whether anything that looks critical might be missing, but I would
expect the computer itself to tell me if it couldn't find anything.

Last resort is to reinstall Windows. I've never done that before, but
all I hear say that laptop are never quite the same afterwards.






Peter Pan wrote:
> Okay, so much for that idea...just seemed like an easy thing to check and
> would fit the problems you described...
> A question.. When you switch cards, do you change the software too?
>
> Okay, another question.. Do you have any easy way to back up your system?
> (example, I have Ghost and a DVD burner, just backup the laptop to DVD so I
> can play and not kill it) If so, then you may want to do an emergency
> restore of a fresh system and try it with absolutely nothing else installed.
>
>
> (LAST RESORT- only consider this when you have a hammer in your hand, or are
> thinking of pulling your hair out)
> There is one other thing I have run across (bad-- hope it isn't your
> problem), one of my laptops can NOT work with wireless stuff at all (looks
> like it's working but won't connect, i've tried 4 different cards, and 2 usb
> adapters... Nada... Drove me nuts, I finally traded my WAP54G for a WRT54G
> and use it as wired to the router. Still have no idea why a 2 year old
> toshiba sattelite won't work, when a 1 year old and 3 year old one do....
>

Just remember, that is an absolute last resort... I don't usually recommend
it, I just have the stuff at work to make a backup before I do it, and
unfortunately I usually get em to fix after people REALLY screw it up trying
to fix it. I have just seen a few that either a) will not work without
re-installing, or b) will not work at all/even after reinstalling -
something in the way that revision of the system was designed/made (that why
I mention some work some don't of the exact same models)

I'm not sure since I'm not at work and don't have my notes (on vacation in
Vegas, time to play online, but no work stuff), but many models of systems
have upgrades to win xp... If you have been thinking about doing it, may be
an option if you are gonna reinstall anyway. It will replace pretty much
everything, and it's probably a good thing to get rid of Win98
(not all stuff works with win98se... look for a compatible with line in the
ad or documentation.. some will say something like Compatible with
Win98SE/ME/2000/XP" and others will say Compatible with "Windows
ME/2000/XP"... no Win98se...

Whatever you do, good luck!


BBB wrote:
> Right now I've deinstalled the Orinoco card and still have the USB
> dongle installed. I've got GoBack on the computer, so I can generally
> pull myself out of any kind of problem if I recognize it soon enough,
> unless the amount of file activity has overwhelmed its storage.
>
> I'm going to inventory the dll's on the good and the bad machine ot
> see whether anything that looks critical might be missing, but I would
> expect the computer itself to tell me if it couldn't find anything.
>
> Last resort is to reinstall Windows. I've never done that before, but
> all I hear say that laptop are never quite the same afterwards.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Peter Pan wrote:
>> Okay, so much for that idea...just seemed like an easy thing to
>> check and would fit the problems you described...
>> A question.. When you switch cards, do you change the software too?
>>
>> Okay, another question.. Do you have any easy way to back up your
>> system? (example, I have Ghost and a DVD burner, just backup the
>> laptop to DVD so I can play and not kill it) If so, then you may
>> want to do an emergency restore of a fresh system and try it with
>> absolutely nothing else installed. (LAST RESORT- only consider this when
>> you have a hammer in your
>> hand, or are thinking of pulling your hair out)
>> There is one other thing I have run across (bad-- hope it isn't your
>> problem), one of my laptops can NOT work with wireless stuff at all
>> (looks like it's working but won't connect, i've tried 4 different
>> cards, and 2 usb adapters... Nada... Drove me nuts, I finally traded
>> my WAP54G for a WRT54G and use it as wired to the router. Still have
>> no idea why a 2 year old toshiba sattelite won't work, when a 1 year
>> old and 3 year old one do....