linksys network

I have a Linksys router which supports wireless networks and 2 computers. One computer, call it 1, is connected to cable internet directly (via the router). The other one, 2, has a wireless network card and the antenna.

We don't have an internet account that supports more computers connecting to the internet at once. If one is off the other can connect but not both at once. The first week it worked but now the ISP probably has found out and made it impossible to make 2 connections

The computer which is connected wireless, only has an IP address if the computer is able to connect to the internet. My problem is I can't make the network seem to work (probably because of the lack of the IP). My first thought was that if I'd enable ICS computer one would use DHCP to give computer 2 an own IP address, but this didn't work.
I installed the network program which makes you see the other connections and computer can 'see' the network.

I tried to set the IP address on computer 2. The IP address of the first computer is 192.168.1.101 subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and the default gateway is 192.168.1.1

I set the following on the other computer:
IP: 192.168.1.102 subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and default gateway 192.168.1.1
This didn't work (I think cause the default gateway seems to be the router's address )

An ad hoc connection doesn't seem to work because computer 1 is directly connected to the router and doesn't have a wireless antenna.

What do I have to do to get the IP on the second computer so I can connect to the other computer? Isn't it a problem that we don't have an internet account that allows routing (I don't use it for internet yet but I need to get in some folders for a couple of files)?

Thank you very much for any help you can give me!

edit: Both have WinME

Hi,

Try going to your router's web admin pages. There should be an option to enable DHCP and NAT. The router should be able to hand out IP addresses to the client and enable multiple computers to connect to the Internet. Making sure that both computers are connected to the router (one with network cable and the other via wireless), set their IP settings to both obtain automatically from a DHCP server. Reboot then and check "ipconfig /all". They should have been assigned IP addresses by the router. Then, if NAT is enabled on the router, they should both be able to access the Internet (and share files between computer etc.)

HTH,

Edwin

Thank you very much!

Looks like that's not the problem

Yesterday I checked and computer 1 recognised computer 2, the IP and all configuration seemed right. So I tried on computer 2 and the winipcfg gave me the following:

IP: 0.0.0.0
subnet mask: 0.0.0.0

while the IP the router says it has given is a normal 168.*** address. I tried connecting to the network via the linksys software, which still detects the network and it said connecting... then after a few seconds disconnected.

After that the IP address field in winipcfg connection is.. (can't read more because the field is too small and I can't resize it). I did the ipconfig and it gave connection is closed and all the numbers were 0.0.0.0

Today the router can't find computer 2 and hasn't given it any IP address, the results of checks on computer 2 are the same as above.


I disabled all software firewalls. I didn't think this would work, and it didn't. I had a connection to the internet for a week, but since we're not allowed to have more computers hooked up on the internet with our account I though the ISP might be blocking it somehow.

The signal is only 24% but it worked for a week so I thought this would neither be a problem.

I didn't change any settings and suddenly it stopped working.

I reset the network by running the home network program provided by WinMe but still it didn't work.

I checked all settings and theyre the same in which they were working on computer 2. The settings in computer 1 haven't changed.

Also I did a full format yesterday cause I got the following error when running winipcfg:
Fatal error. Can't read IP address.
I've only got WinME and the program and drivers for the wireless network card.



What I found a bit strange was that computer 2 had the lowest ip (last number was 100 and computer 2 had 101 as last number.

Thanks for the help!

OK - why don't you try to get each computer working separately. Disconnect the wireless computer (or turn it off and concentrate on the wired computer). Make sure that it is set to obtain its IP address automatically, has a valid workgroup name (such as WORKGROUP), has a valid computer name (such as computer1).

Check the router to see if NAT is enabled and DHCP is enabled. Reboot the computer and check winipcfg. You should have an address like 192.168.0.x and the default gateway should probably have been set to 192.168.0.1 (the address of the router). If you check in the router web admin, it should say that one Ip address has been handed out to computer1.

If this works, then you know that what you have setup here works OK. If it doesn't, then don't complicated it with the other computer until you have this one working. However, if the router works fine, I can't see how the computer can't have been assigned an IP address. It should also be able to access the internet fine.

When this is working ok, then try the second wireless computer.

HTH,

Edwin

Thanks for the help!

I completely reinstalled everything and now it works. The router worked fine for one computer but didn't with the other and this wasn't the first time something worked by deleting everything

Another question - damn bugs or me being newb

I don't think it's possible for my ISP to only block the internet to computer 2, caus eit's behind the router which has the normal address. That's right?
First I could internet from computer 2 so that makes me think there's a setup problem somewhere. I have everything back to how it was working but I don't have access to the internet from computer 2 (no ping also not on localhost). What things could I be thinking of to fix it?

Now I think there's a problem in my setup I first want to check if there's no problem before paying lots of extra to my ISP for other modems and stuff. That's why I wanted to install ICS. The problem is that when I click it it says the size of it is 0.0 MB and after installing it, I get the usual network wizard. In this wizard I get every step except for the share options. Also I only got to see once that a IP/TCP protocol was setup but once I rebooted it was deleted. Also there never was a share option under the IP/TCP protocol which has to be here according to tutorials. (In win98SE this was a bug but I couldn't find it for WinME and the solution for the problem in 98 didn't work for WinME)

I read that for ICS you needed 2 network cards in computer 1 but could also do it via the router. I only have one network card but the router works and there's a connection between the different PCs. Is it even possible to do it via the router?

Is the wizard just to make things easy or can I just do the settings normally as well (Manually created new IP/TCP don't get deleted after reboot AFAIK)

Thanks for the help again!

If you still have the setup where both computers are plugged into the router which has Internet access, I can't see why it should be restricted to one computer. As long as NAT (network address translation) is enabled, the ISP should only see the one routers. When either of the computers requests a page from the Internet, it will look like it is coming from the one external IP address of the router.

Secondly, there should be no need for ICS. ICS is really when you have a modem (not a router) plugged into one pc which you want to share with others. In this situation, you have the one computer with the modem which is shared to other users. One network interface connects to the modem and the second connects to the network. However, you have a router, not a modem. Routers are more intelligent than modems, and can share the Internet themselves. The routers have all the equivalent software to ICS built inside them, to allow the whole network to access the Internet. ICS wouldn't really help because you don't have a modem plugged into one of the computers.

If the one computer can access the Internet and the other can't, I think it must be a problem with the second computer setup. Double check all network settings, like ip address, subnet, default gateway, computer name, workgroup and try pinging the other computer and router. Then try pinging a web address (www.google.com) and its ip address (66.102.9.104).

With regards the wizard or manual - it shouldn't matter as long as you end up with a TCP/IP connection setting which is set to obtain its address from the router.

HTH,

Edwin

It wasn't the second computer setup. It was the router. Strange things were going on. I could only ping when I set the router to dynamic routing which it never was set to.

Obviously the reset button on the router itself doesn't work, as it didn't reset correctly. I assumed deleting the router and reinstalling it would work. Luckily I found the reset settings button in the webbased setup so it works right now.

Thanks for your patience and help!

strange things, computers!

Well it seems there are more things I can't find anywhere and haven't been able to fix them

The shop we bought the linksys stuff at said the setup would divide the bandwith one on one. After trying everything it seems that it doesn't go one on one.
Especially computer 2 (wireless and upstairs) seems to suffer from it, having a download speed of 100 bit on cable connection. Also going to google takes a few minutes. When I go on computer 1 which is directly connected while or immediately after trying to download on computer 2, it gives over 100k speed on the same download.
The signal on computer 2 is excellent, around 80%, and the quality is around 50% sometimes lower sometimes a bit higher, but not poor.
Ping from 2 to some different servers/sites always resulted in normal return time, the same as I have on computer 1. So I assume that comp 2 just doesn't get much bandwith, ping packets are small sites are bigger.

Is it really so that the bandwith should be divided one on one?
What could make computer 2 so slow (especially if bandwit should be divided one on one)?

seems I figured it out. I noticed that I could slow the connection down by putting a cable near the antenna and by moving my computer to different places. Only the different place influnced the monitor utility with lower signal and lower quality. The cable near the antenna didn't and I found it out by accident when I pulled a cable out of my computer when I tried readjusting the antenna.

So I got all the cables out of the way and rearranged my room. Besides the quality going from good to very good, and the signal being better it solved all speed problems I had.

I can repeat what I said before:

make it strange monitoring utilities then It's just like windows, me: I want to delete that file. Win: No you don't
me: yes I want *opens dos*. Now with linksys: me: something's wrong with the speed. monitor:no there isn't quality good, signal very good. me: yes there is, * pings* lot of packet loss

Lol