Can't Connect To Wireless Home Network

[joebeaven]

Hi,

I have a wireless home network with four computers connected to it. The other three are still working fine. On Friday my computer disconnected itself and wouldn't reconnect. The network connection icon in my tray had a red cross next to it and said a network connection was unplugged. Since nothing about the physical network had changed,

I assumed the PCI card (Edimax IEEE 802.11g Turbo Mode) had developed a fault, so I installed a new one (Tenda TWL541C(P)), but that hasn't helped. If I click on the network icon in the tray it can't find a connection. I tried setting up a new network after installing the new PCI card but it still says there's no connection. I've checked Device Manager which doesn't indicate any problems.

I've setup a profile for my network in the Tenda Wireless LAN Adapter Configuration Utility, but it won't connect. It just says "No Connection" under Status. Originally when I installed the utility it said "Card Unplugged" under Status and Site Survey was grayed out. It also told me I needed to disable Wireless Zero Config. When I did so "Card Unplugged" changed to "No Connection" and Site Survey became available. When I go to Site Survey my network is listed, but I can't connect to it.

Here's some useful info:
ISP - Bulldog Broadband (now owned by Pipex)
Modem - Origo ASR-8000
Router - BT Voyager 1500 Wireless Router
Connection Type - Wireless
Encryption - WPA
Operating System - Windows XP SP3
Browser - Firefox

Here's some info from CMD:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe>PING 206.190.60.37

Pinging 206.190.60.37 with 32 bytes of data:

Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 206.190.60.37:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe>PING yahoo.com
Ping request could not find host yahoo.com. Please check the name and try again.


C:\Documents and Settings\Joe>NBTSTAT -n

Wireless Network Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

Local Area Connection 4:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : sg-66607df05674
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TENDA TWL541C(P) Wireless NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-11-22-35-0D-9E

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 4:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-60-3A-5E-18

C:\Documents and Settings\Joe>



Thanks,
Joe

[joebeaven]

Today I tried resetting the TCP/IP stack and WINSOCK entries to defualts in CMD and configuring a static IP address, but neither helped. I also disabled my WPA encryption to see if I could connect to the unprotected network, but I couldn't.

Finally I tried connecting to the router with an ethernet cable. Doing so, I was able to connect with Skype, AIM and ICQ and Kaspersky Internet Security was able to update it's databases. I wasn't, however, able to connect with Internet Explorer, Firefox or FileZilla and Counterspy wasn't able to update it's databases. Also, when I was connected with the ethernet cable, I was unable to connect wirelessly with the other computers on my network.

Has anyone got any suggestions for what I should try next?

[joebeaven]

I have two PCI slots, one containing the LAN adapter, and the other containing a card with extra USB ports. I took them both out, put the old LAN adapter in the slot containing the USB ports and put the USB ports card in the slot that had contained the LAN adapter. Now both the LAN adapter and USB ports work perfectly. I have no idea what happened, but I'm glad everything's working now.

[cszeto]

That's good that it worked out for you and thank you for sharing your outcome. From your accounts, it sounds like you may have been experiencing hardware IRQ conflicts. It happens from time to time with PCI cards, sometimes with the drivers or the settings and has nothing to actually do with networking itself as it is a hardware issue.