Zonet PCMCIA wireless card -- Excellent signal, no connectivity.

This question concerns excellent wireless network signal strength but no
connectivity whatsoever on a certain wireless network.

I use XP Home Edition on a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop. I have a Zonenet
Wireless cardbus (2.4Ghz, IEEE802.11b/g) that plugs into my PCMCIA slot. I
installed the drivers that came with the card.

The wireless card and its software work perfectly with a public open
wireless network. I can also use the Windows wireless connection manager with
this card on the public open wireless network. It is not a defective card.

My home wireless network is the problem. It uses WEP security, and when I
give the security key to others, they can access the network with no problem.
My system, however, connects with excellent signal strength to the network
(I'm two feet away from the router), but refuses to assign a “default
gateway� and I wind up with “limited or no connectivity� and cannot access
the internet at all.

Even going in and manually assigning IPs and default gateways (disabling the
Zonenet program and using the Windows configuration management program) does
no good. What is the problem? It is a Dlink router, and another desktop
computer and friends' laptops (when I give them the secuity key) have no
problem connecting.

"Moxieman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6D7A6B4B-0DB2-4C38-9A5A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> This question concerns excellent wireless network signal strength but no
> connectivity whatsoever on a certain wireless network.

Your PC can get excellent signal strength from a Microwave Oven that is
sitting too close but it won't get you any communication. Signal Strength
and Signal Quality are two different things.

> Even going in and manually assigning IPs and default gateways (disabling
> the
> Zonenet program and using the Windows configuration management program)
> does
> no good. What is the problem? It is a Dlink router, and another desktop
> computer and friends' laptops (when I give them the secuity key) have no
> problem connecting.

You probably have a Personal Firewall running on the machine that blocks the
DHCP Queries.

Statically giving it TCP/IP Specs should have worked but I have no way to
know if you did those correctly.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

Hi
Assuming that the basic settings (IP etc) are correct.
May be this can Help, http://www.ezlan.net/faq.html#wep
BTW, WEP is Not really secure anymore, if your Router, or the Wireless cards
do not support WPA, consider getting new hardware that support WPA. You can
find either hardware for less than $30.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

"Moxieman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6D7A6B4B-0DB2-4C38-9A5A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> This question concerns excellent wireless network signal strength but no
> connectivity whatsoever on a certain wireless network.
>
> I use XP Home Edition on a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop. I have a Zonenet
> Wireless cardbus (2.4Ghz, IEEE802.11b/g) that plugs into my PCMCIA slot. I
> installed the drivers that came with the card.
>
> The wireless card and its software work perfectly with a public open
> wireless network. I can also use the Windows wireless connection manager
> with
> this card on the public open wireless network. It is not a defective card.
>
> My home wireless network is the problem. It uses WEP security, and when I
> give the security key to others, they can access the network with no
> problem.
> My system, however, connects with excellent signal strength to the network
> (I'm two feet away from the router), but refuses to assign a “default
> gateway� and I wind up with “limited or no connectivity� and cannot access
> the internet at all.
>
> Even going in and manually assigning IPs and default gateways (disabling
> the
> Zonenet program and using the Windows configuration management program)
> does
> no good. What is the problem? It is a Dlink router, and another desktop
> computer and friends' laptops (when I give them the secuity key) have no
> problem connecting.
>
>

Well, the microwave wasn't on, so that's not it, but the firewall on the
laptop (XP default firewall) is. I will try disabling that. It is on,
however, when I access the public one.

I will let you know what happens.

"Phillip Windell" wrote:

> "Moxieman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:6D7A6B4B-0DB2-4C38-9A5A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > This question concerns excellent wireless network signal strength but no
> > connectivity whatsoever on a certain wireless network.
>
> Your PC can get excellent signal strength from a Microwave Oven that is
> sitting too close but it won't get you any communication. Signal Strength
> and Signal Quality are two different things.
>
> > Even going in and manually assigning IPs and default gateways (disabling
> > the
> > Zonenet program and using the Windows configuration management program)
> > does
> > no good. What is the problem? It is a Dlink router, and another desktop
> > computer and friends' laptops (when I give them the secuity key) have no
> > problem connecting.
>
> You probably have a Personal Firewall running on the machine that blocks the
> DHCP Queries.
>
> Statically giving it TCP/IP Specs should have worked but I have no way to
> know if you did those correctly.
>
> --
> Phillip Windell
> www.wandtv.com
>
> The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
> or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
>
>

Zonet card does handle WPA. I don't know about the router. It is fairly new,
so I assume so. I will check the whole security key generation question in
the next few days. Thank you.



"Jack (MVP-Networking)." wrote:

> Hi
> Assuming that the basic settings (IP etc) are correct.
> May be this can Help, http://www.ezlan.net/faq.html#wep
> BTW, WEP is Not really secure anymore, if your Router, or the Wireless cards
> do not support WPA, consider getting new hardware that support WPA. You can
> find either hardware for less than $30.
> Jack (MVP-Networking).
>
> "Moxieman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:6D7A6B4B-0DB2-4C38-9A5A-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > This question concerns excellent wireless network signal strength but no
> > connectivity whatsoever on a certain wireless network.
> >
> > I use XP Home Edition on a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop. I have a Zonenet
> > Wireless cardbus (2.4Ghz, IEEE802.11b/g) that plugs into my PCMCIA slot. I
> > installed the drivers that came with the card.
> >
> > The wireless card and its software work perfectly with a public open
> > wireless network. I can also use the Windows wireless connection manager
> > with
> > this card on the public open wireless network. It is not a defective card.
> >
> > My home wireless network is the problem. It uses WEP security, and when I
> > give the security key to others, they can access the network with no
> > problem.
> > My system, however, connects with excellent signal strength to the network
> > (I'm two feet away from the router), but refuses to assign a “default
> > gateway� and I wind up with “limited or no connectivity� and cannot access
> > the internet at all.
> >
> > Even going in and manually assigning IPs and default gateways (disabling
> > the
> > Zonenet program and using the Windows configuration management program)
> > does
> > no good. What is the problem? It is a Dlink router, and another desktop
> > computer and friends' laptops (when I give them the secuity key) have no
> > problem connecting.
> >
> >
>
>

Yes that is true.
I have seen the security fail to negotiate properly and the client would
never get an IP from DHCP.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

"smlunatick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:dd4b6204-119e-40fb-b867-(E-Mail Removed)...

WEP is probably not correctly set up on this adapter. WEP can be set
to receive the key from the router or be set up where you enter in at
the Zonet "client software" end.

WEP WiFi protocol can be easily broken into. The recommended security
protocol for most WiFi now is WPA nad WPA2.