Wifi Wierdness..

I have a laptop with XPSP2 which has an internal miniPci 802.11a/b/g wifi
card installed. The card works perfectly at every wireless hotspot I use it
at, EXCEPT for the ones at McDonalds.. To get online there, I have to break
out an old Orinoco PCMCIA 802.11b card, at which time life is good again...
This happens at every MickyD's I've been to, which is about 5 in my local
area... What ARE they doing different???

LVDave

Thanks for replying!

When I say I cannot connect at MickyD's, I mean I don't even see a signal
in the XP wifi connection window. In fact, the first time this happened, I
just
assumed that the AP was down at that restaurant.. The next time I went
to a MickyD's, I checked the presence of a signal with my Pocket PC, sure
enough a good signal, so I fired up the laptop, where I then found nada. I
dug out the old PCMCIA card, and it saw the signal fine. As for "manual
settings", every AP I ever connect to are automatically set via DHCP, so that
shouldn't be any
problem. In fact, at one McD's I occassionally visit, there are several
linksys/default 802.11b and g signals in range of the restaurant and the
machine sees and connects to those fine, but NOT the McD's signal... Since
the nic that
is having this problem is an a/b/g dual-band card, I wonder if that could be
contributing to the problem??

LVDave

"Diamontina Cocktail" wrote:

>
> "LVDave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:B87BD3E8-3775-49F6-97ED-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I have a laptop with XPSP2 which has an internal miniPci 802.11a/b/g wifi
> > card installed. The card works perfectly at every wireless hotspot I use
> > it
> > at, EXCEPT for the ones at McDonalds.. To get online there, I have to
> > break
> > out an old Orinoco PCMCIA 802.11b card, at which time life is good
> > again...
> > This happens at every MickyD's I've been to, which is about 5 in my local
> > area... What ARE they doing different???
> >
> > LVDave
> >
>
> Check your original wi-fi tcp/ip settings. If you have them manually
> assigned, that would be why it doesn't work there. You don't actually say
> whether you connect but get nothing or don't even find a signal or something
> in between but I am replying assuming you mean you get a signal but cannot
> get any data.
>
>
>

LVDave wrote:
> Thanks for replying!
>
> When I say I cannot connect at MickyD's, I mean I don't even see a signal
> in the XP wifi connection window. In fact, the first time this happened, I
> just
> assumed that the AP was down at that restaurant.. The next time I went
> to a MickyD's, I checked the presence of a signal with my Pocket PC, sure
> enough a good signal, so I fired up the laptop, where I then found nada. I
> dug out the old PCMCIA card, and it saw the signal fine. As for "manual
> settings", every AP I ever connect to are automatically set via DHCP, so that
> shouldn't be any
> problem. In fact, at one McD's I occassionally visit, there are several
> linksys/default 802.11b and g signals in range of the restaurant and the
> machine sees and connects to those fine, but NOT the McD's signal... Since
> the nic that
> is having this problem is an a/b/g dual-band card, I wonder if that could be
> contributing to the problem??
>
> LVDave
>
> "Diamontina Cocktail" wrote:
>
>
>>"LVDave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>news:B87BD3E8-3775-49F6-97ED-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>>I have a laptop with XPSP2 which has an internal miniPci 802.11a/b/g wifi
>>>card installed. The card works perfectly at every wireless hotspot I use
>>>it
>>>at, EXCEPT for the ones at McDonalds.. To get online there, I have to
>>>break
>>>out an old Orinoco PCMCIA 802.11b card, at which time life is good
>>>again...
>>>This happens at every MickyD's I've been to, which is about 5 in my local
>>>area... What ARE they doing different???
>>>
>>>LVDave
>>>
>>
>>Check your original wi-fi tcp/ip settings. If you have them manually
>>assigned, that would be why it doesn't work there. You don't actually say
>>whether you connect but get nothing or don't even find a signal or something
>>in between but I am replying assuming you mean you get a signal but cannot
>>get any data.
>>
>>
>>

could it be that all those other hotspots where you connect are g-spots
(so to speak) and your a/b/g card is set to g only or a & g only? I
know that Intel a/b/g cards can be set to see a/b/g; g; a/g; or b/g.

Yikes!!! Brain Phart!!! I never thought about that switch in the driver..
It's gotta be something like that.. I'll check it when I get home...

Thanks diamontina and lem!!

LVDave


"Diamontina Cocktail" wrote:

>
> "LVDave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:3ECCA9B2-4D26-4DA1-90BA-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Thanks for replying!
> >
> > When I say I cannot connect at MickyD's, I mean I don't even see a signal
> > in the XP wifi connection window. In fact, the first time this happened, I
> > just
> > assumed that the AP was down at that restaurant.. The next time I went
> > to a MickyD's, I checked the presence of a signal with my Pocket PC, sure
> > enough a good signal, so I fired up the laptop, where I then found nada. I
> > dug out the old PCMCIA card, and it saw the signal fine. As for "manual
> > settings", every AP I ever connect to are automatically set via DHCP, so
> > that
> > shouldn't be any
> > problem. In fact, at one McD's I occassionally visit, there are several
> > linksys/default 802.11b and g signals in range of the restaurant and the
> > machine sees and connects to those fine, but NOT the McD's signal... Since
> > the nic that
> > is having this problem is an a/b/g dual-band card, I wonder if that could
> > be
> > contributing to the problem??
> >
>
> Shouldn't be a problem. I use a USB wi-fi NIC that does the same and no
> probs here. So the next thing is this - I know you say it is all auto but it
> is possible that someone or something changed things. Check that your IP and
> DNS server settings are still automatic and that your NIC setting isn't set
> to a certain frequency. See, a neighbour's network is a only and when I set
> mine to higher than that, I can see him but he cant see me. Also try
> downloading Netstumbler and using it with the troublesome NIC. If it doesn't
> pick it up then for whatever reason, you don't have it. You might also try a
> complete reset of your networking in case there is something I cant think of
> inserted somewhere.
>
>
>