Daughter connecting to her roomates wireless

[rcv]

when my daughter attempts to connect to her roomates wireless Linksys, on the Intel wireless display box, the wireless shows up and is not security enabled, so she hits "connect" and it does connect. However she cant get on the internet. She said the computer sais she is connected, the signal strength is excellent, it is running at 54 Mbps however the IP address is 0.0.0

then she said that is will change to a normal looking IP address for a moment, and she can get on for a few seconds and then it goes right back to 0.0.0

any ideas? thanks! RCV

[cszeto]

Does the same notebook/system connect to other "hotspots" (i.e. library)?

[rcv]

Yes, she can connect on to several places on campus. . . . . . . ?

[cszeto]

Then it's her roommate's Linksys. Possible considerations:

- Wrong SSID (if multiple APs are using the factory default of "Linksys")
- Incorrect encryption setting, if used

[rcv]

Ok, I will look into that, thank you!!
Another question though, is it possible for the signal to be poor and still show on the computer as "good or Excellent"? The reason I ask is that I'm wondering if she might be on a Linksys from further away, and not from her roommates linksys. I have had unsecured wi-fi signals that were showing as "good" on my own laptop, but my computer would connect and then disconnect due to what I am convinced was a poor signal. Your thoughts?

Thanks!

[cszeto]

If there are multiple radio sources (e.g. interference), then the signal measurements may be distorted.