Can't ad hoc with D Link

[rschoner]

Good Day to All,

I can not seem to set up a peer to peer network between my desktop and Toshiba laptop. Both run Windows XP. I have a D-Link DWL650 Cardbus adapter and a DWL520 PCI adapter. The blue "D" icon shows ok on both machines, signal strength is 92+, but Link Quality is N/A greyed out.

Not much help from DLink tech support. Settings they suggested:
IP: 192.168.0.52/53 (52 laptop, 53 desktop )
SubNet MAsk: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Preferred DNS Server 4.2.2.2
Alternate DNS Server 192.168.0.1

Both have same SSID, Encryption disabled, Authentication Open, Channel 1.

When this did not work, tech support said to buy a router.

Any suggestions? Can I get ad hoc to work?

Thanks in Advance,
Bob

[rschoner]

After a few more hours with DLink tech support on the phone I decided to give up on ad hoc and bought a router. Installed it and had the same problem. Another call to DLink tech support and I was escalated to a higher level of support

Apparently the problem is that when you configure a home office network with Windows XP it adds a bridge to the network. When this bridge was deleted on both the laptop and the desktop, the machines could see the router and talk to each other. I have not tried disconnecting the router and seeing if this fixes the ad hoc peer to peer problem but I think it will.

A suggestion for talking to DLink tech support. They will ask a question like "What are you trying to do?" If you reply "I am trying to get two machines to talk to each (File share) other over a network", you will get a reply "We do not support file sharing". The key to getting support is to say " I am trying to construct a wireless network between two (or more) machines". Then they will guide you through a trouble shooting routine to figure out if the machines really do see the router and each other. I was surprised to see that even though the Icon showed a good connection and had excellent signal strength, there was no connection.

Good luck to anyone else who tries.

Bob