wireless connection lost

Greetings - have a network consisting of my hardwired PC, a spare hardwired
PC, and my wife's wi-fi PC connecting through a Linksys WAG54GS. The wi-fi
PC uses a Linksys USB wi-fi adaptor. All PCs on Win XP SP2

This has been working fine for some time.

Our phone exchange then developed a fault and phone line went down, and is
still giving a lot of wierd noises and BT say it is still being fixed.
Anyway, before my wife realised the line was down, she realised she couldn't
connect to the internet and switched the router off at the mains and
switched back on - a number of times, testing for a connection in between
each attempt.

Once the line came back, albeit with lots of noise still, I could connect to
the net with the hardwired PCs, but the wi-fi one showed as not connected. I
checked the router setup and saw that the WEP settings had been disabled. I
re-enabled, and now the wi-fi PC shows "limited connectivity". The setup
software for the wi-fi adaptor said it is connecting to the access point but
can't detect the internet. I have checked that the WEP key is exactly the
same as for the router. Also, the two hardwired PCs are visible on the
network, but the wi-fi PC is not visible from either, and cannot see either
of them.

Where do I look for answers?

Thanks

"wasted" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:468a6b62$0$8724$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Greetings - have a network consisting of my hardwired PC, a spare
> hardwired PC, and my wife's wi-fi PC connecting through a Linksys WAG54GS.
> The wi-fi PC uses a Linksys USB wi-fi adaptor. All PCs on Win XP SP2

Does the wi-fi PC and/or the router require WEP rather than WPA? I tend to
find that WPA is less of a problem because if for some reason the PC and
router keys don;t match, you simply fail to connect rather than get a
connection that cannot be used for anything such as DHCP ("limited
connectivity" usually means that the router's DHCP has failed to give the PC
an IP address).

Start simply: can the PC connect when wireless encryption is turned off? (If
you're worried about security, unplug the Ethernet PCs and the ADSL line
temporarily - you'll still get a PC-router connection which will allow the
laptop to ping and browse to the router).

Now turn on your preferred type of encryption. Connect the laptop by
Ethernet temporarily and browse to the router. Find the encryption key on
the router and select+copy it. Paste it into a text fil eon the laptop. Now
disconnect the Ethernet and try to establish a wireless connection, pasting
in the saved key - this way, you eliminate any re-keying errors.

Check also for MAC address filtering on the router, whereby the router will
only talk to pre-programmed MAC addresses of known PCs. Turn this off if
it's enabled, and see if it makes any difference.

Good luck. Report back if you have further problems.

Mortimer wrote:
>
> Does the wi-fi PC and/or the router require WEP rather than WPA? I
> tend to find that WPA is less of a problem because if for some reason
> the PC and router keys don;t match, you simply fail to connect rather
> than get a connection that cannot be used for anything such as DHCP
> ("limited connectivity" usually means that the router's DHCP has
> failed to give the PC an IP address).
>
Thanks for the reply - in the end I solved it by returning the router
settings to factory default, then inputting all the settings I had used
previously, and bingo, it worked. This was inspite of previously checking
that all the router settings were showing as they should.

But I do appreciate your efforts - thanks.