Connecting to High Speed Internet Wireless laptop

[chewie8008]

My brother just got a PC from his work to use at home and we're trying to get it to be able to hook up to wireless internet. We took it to the library to use their free unsecured wireless internet and am having problems.

Here are the specs for the laptop:

Windows XP
Service Pack 2
1024MB memory
40GB HDD
1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M processor
ATI Mobility Radeon X300(0x5460) Video Card
Broadband card: Dell Wireless 1470 Dual Band WLAN Mini-PCI Card

Let me know if there is something else you need to know about it to tell me something...

Anyways, here's the deal. I click on the wireless connection wizard and where normally the list of wireless providers would be listed it says this...

"Windows cannot configure this wireless connection

If you have enabled another program to manage this wireless connection, use that software.

If you want Windows to configure this wireless connection, start the Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) Service. For information about starting the WZC service, see article 871122 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base on the microsoft.com Web site."


I went to the site and checked the knowledge base. It told me how to check if my adapter supports Wireless Zero Configuration, I did it and it does not support it.

There is a seperate utility already on the PC for connecting to the internet. It's down in the icon tray next to the wireless connection icon is. It's called Dell Wireless WLAN Card utility.

So I clicked there and it automatically detects the internet connection nearby. So I clicked connect. It connect flawlessly. Full signal, 54MBps. So then I click back over to the Wireless Network Connection(which i assume is windows's connection wizard and the other is dell's own little wizard). and it shows it's connected also. But then whenever I go to where it would normally show the list of internet connections it just still shows that same quoted message I typed above.

So I just ignore, still both wizards showing it's connected, full strength signal. So I click Internet Explorer, it pops up just as if i'm not online.

At this point i'm thinking it's somehow connected twice through both wizards, so I try to disconnect the windows version and you can't.

I don't know what the deal is, I checked all over and everything seems to be working properly.

The only deal is when I go to the Wireless Network Connections Properties, it says ""Some of the controls on this property sheet are disabled because you do not have sufficient privleges to access or change them". Which means the username, my bro's username, is not the administrator for the PC. So maybe that has something to do with it, but he said that the reason they gave him the PC is so he could work with it at home, so it's not like they're trying to prevent him from accessing the internet.

I thought maybe the anti-virus or the firewall was preventing it to access basically every website. So I temporarily disabled the anti-virus and it didn't help. And since i'm not an administrator for this PC I can't disable the windows firewall for the internet connection.

I have tried everything I can think of...any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

[chewie8008]

One more thing, if this means anything, I set up a dialup connection and have connected w dialup.

[gadgetguy]

My guess is that you're not acquiring the IP information from the library. Once the wireless connection is established, run ipconfig and release and renew the network connection.

[chewie8008]

I did go in and disconnect and reconnect. And I thought it said renewing and acquiring IP address. Is that the same, or does running ipconfig do something different?

[gadgetguy]

It basically does the same thing, but with better feedback. However if it did acquire the IP address from the library it must be something else. Does it work at the office?

[chewie8008]

I'm not sure if they use internet there or not. Dell is who he works for, but i'm not sure what all he does on it. I'll have to ask him later. Get back to ya on that ASAP.

[Nelson37]

You only get to use ONE wireless card configuration program. Windows or manufacturer-supplied, pick one and totally ignore the other. In your scenario, the windows configuration is apparently useless. Do not even open it, as it may interfere with the one which functions correctly.

Whatever the goal of his employer is, his username does not have administrator rights and they did not supply an admin password. Your opinion of their intentions is irrelevant. He does not have admin rights, and he needs them. I gather the PC was loaned, rather than given? If so, then this was almost certainly intentional. It is the best way to keep clueless users from screwing up the machine, and tying up the time of IT personell eliminating viruses and spyware. It may not be possible to do what you want to do.

There are cracks available to change the admin password, but using such software on a company PC is a termination offense in many companies.

Acquiring an IP address is NOT the same as having one. This msg could simply time out without ever obtaining one. You need to check if "obtain automatically" is checked, or if pre-existing addresses are present, whether Firewalling is on, and for the presence of WEP or WPA password security.

Fire up the PC away from a network. Start, Run, "CMD", "IPCONFIG /ALL", note the IP address, Gateway, and DNS servers. Then go to where the network is, connect, run the same check. If the addresses do not change, then they are statically set on the PC and unless by pure chance fall within the same range as the library, it cannot be made to work without changing the IP address settings. If you do in fact get a new address, then run "PING" followed by a space and first the gateway address, press enter and note results. "REPLY FROM" means communication. Then ping the DNS server. If DNS is in same subnet, then it is supplied by the router. Final PING test is for 63.75.167.11, which is an Internet-based DNS server. If you get reply from that, you are on-line. Possible Firewall, Internet security, Gateway issues but that should do it.

[chewie8008]

I tested all the different addresses PING ###### and kept getting "Destination host unreachable" "Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)" for all four; Gateway,
DNS, IP and the Internet DNS # you gave. Whenever I did IPCONFIG/ALL when out of network range none of those numbers where given...

Not having much luck.

[gadgetguy]

What did you get when you did it away from the network?

[Nelson37]

What actual numbers do you get, in both places?

Are you saying that you pinged the PC's IP address and got Unreachable? that is, you cannot ping yourself? ( don't ping yourself too often, the screen will go dim)

If you cannot ping yourself, this sounds like there is some sort of firewall software configured to allow the network range at work but not the one you are encountering. The only other reason would be TCP/IP screwed up or someone else with the same IP address, and if TCP was screwed up it would not function at work and the router should not hand out identical addresses, though this can happen. Two or three reboots or a release/renew should take care of that possibility.

When you state "none of those numbers are given" do you mean they do not show up at all, they are all zeros, or they are all different than those at the library?

Is this machine supposed to return to work? If not, then you should be able to get the Admin password.

Does the work done at home require Internet Access? If so, then you need to be able to configure the Firewall.