XP Pro - no internet when I install 802.11b stick

I've tried to solve this problem since February (2004) ... the 802.11b stick manufacturer "assists" by sending Chi'lish installation instructions, not actual problem-solving help. Other forums don't respond. I feel sure the solution is simple but I'm just not a network expert in my day job!

Setup A, PC1: XP Pro with a simple 56k US Robotics cable modem attached to serial port COM2. Works fine and has since the days of Win 3.11.
Setup B, PC1: As Setup A but if I install an 802.11b stick I lose Internet content - I can still connect to my ISP via the good 'ol modem but IE refuses to show anything. No Outlook, no FTP etc etc - you get the picture.

If I restore back to before the 802.11b stick was installed I'm fine again.

I know the cable modem-no-802.11b works OK (Setup A, PC1)
I know the 802.11b network works OK because I've had 3 PC's happily networking (they run XP Pro/98 SE & HP Home). And I know static IP addresses work (fast!) using 192.168.0.1/2/3 and automatic IP addresses network too (slow).

In order to try to solve the problem (on PC1) I've rebuilt Winsock, disabled QOS that get rid of a long-gone 10/100 network card in "Hidden" devices. Uninstalled proprietary firewall and disabled ICF. No joy.

I simply can't solve this no internet problem-with-802.11b stick ...

After 10 weeks or so, it's driving me mad!

Help!!! I will happily post ipconfig details if it helps.

Ray

I'm not sure, but this is worth a try. Go to your ISPs website and look for the IP addresses of their two DNS servers. When you've got these two addresses, open up Network Connections from the Control Panel. Right-click your wireless connection and select Properties. Double click Internet Protocol TCP/IP. Manually enter your IP address/subnet mask and then in the DNS section, enter in the IP addresses of the two DNS servers from your ISP. See if that helps.

Thanks for the reply, edwinbrains.

I ought to make the problem clearer ...

I have a simple 56k US Robotics cable modem attached to serial port COM2. When I install an 802.11b stick I lose Internet content on the cable modem connection.

That is, I'm not trying to connect to the Internet via the 802.11b stick (can't, not physically possible), I'm only using the stick to network the PC's, which works fine.

(FWIW i did try to manually set the cable modem's IP address to 192.168.1.0 and entered the two DNS server IP's but the cable modem connection was instantly dropped with error 735 - connection refused ... IP address has to be obtained dynamically. I tried that using details from two different ISP's, same result.)

Cheers, Ray
PS - other details of the cable modem's TCP/IP properties, if it helps ...
General
"Use Default gateway on remote network" - ticked
"Use IP header compression" - ticked
DNS
All entries - blank except;-
"Append primary and connection specific DNS suffixes" - checked
"Append parent DNS suffixes of the primary DNS suffix" - ticked
WINS
All entries - blank except;-
"Enable LMHOSTS lookup" - ticked
"Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP" - ticked

OK - leave your cable modem with the default settings and check that your Internet works. When you've got that working, plug in the wireless adapter. Now, don't change anything with the cable modem setup. Just change the settings for the wireless adapter. Enter a static IP for the wireless connection, together with the subnet mask and DNS servers. I know that you aren't actually using the wireless connection for the Internet access, but I think this may be something worth trying.

Well I think I've got this problem solved - still testing so when I'm 100% sure I'll post the full story.

Ray

Still testing - things are looking very good (see attachment - isn't that nice?). The pic shows network traffic from three PC's linked via 802.11b sticks and all are communicating to the Internet via my good ol' USB serial cable modem

My final test will be to power-cycle all PC's and re-establish the above conditions with no change to any settings on any PC (one client PC is playing hard to get every now and then).

Ray

It seems to be going well

Keep me posted about what happens when you reboot.

Well I'm happy to share with you what fixed my problem now that I've completed my testing.

What I did was
a) Restore back to the earliest point I could find which was prior to the first install attempt to use the 802.11b stick (mid-February 2004!)
b) With no network equipment fitted, just the old cable modem, I ran Network Setup Wizard and when prompted, I selected "I do not have a network yet".

And that did the trick!

I reinstalled the 802.11b stick and went through the usual "new hardware found" procedure ... rather than list every step here (not enough time!) here are the significant steps I followed after I'd run the restore/"no network yet";-

1) connected & got Internet content
2) installed the 802.11b stick, I set the IP address to 192.168.0.1 and entered the ISP's IP's. I did not type anything in Default Gateway.
3.1) message from my anti-virus software "Winsock Filter detected Winsock changed & you may need to restart" ( ) then ...
3.2) immediately lost Internet content Oh, dear, here we go again? Well, no.
4) restarted with 802.11b stick still fitted
5.1) on the cable modem connection, check Internet Connection Sharing
5.2) immediately got a message from XP that the " ... Lan adaptor will be set to use IP address 192.168.0.1 etc"

After that everything worked and it was pretty much the usual testing stuff with slight delays ensuring client PC's worked ok.

Wizards, eh? You love 'em when they work but when they don't, how do you fix 'em? Answer, go back to square 1, remove all hardware and make out that you've never had the Wizarded stuff fitted! Fortunately for me, it didn't mean opening up the PC case to remove anything because the 802.11b sticks are a USB fitting.

What annoys me most about all this is that no amount of delving (ipconfig/bought an expensive Microsoft book, etc, etc) into the guts of the Internet-connected PC showed what the problem was. I even rebuilt Winsock to no effect.

Ray
(I should add that I previously had a USB 10/100 link but that was sold ages ago. I also ran Network Setup Wizard many, many times with the 802.11b sticks fitted, selecting one of the other options trying to get the problem fixed because, in my head there was a network.)

That's a super amount of info, and I hope that it can help someone else in the future too

I'm glad you were able to figure it out and get it working for yourself.

Just to push the point home ... everything's still working AND;-

Tonight I upgraded one of my older PC's to wireless networking (from 98 not SE) to XP Home and the whole LAN/WEP/ICS procedure was faultless.

There was a slight hiccup IRO OS upgrade from 98 (not SE) to XP on an old PC/big~fast disk/SIIG UATA133 PCI adapter card. I have posted the solution elsewhere on this forum. Consider it as a "thank you" for the moral support during this cable modem/wireless/XP Pro/anti-virus software adventure.

Ray
(PS - a request for sympathy ... the looooooong time it takes us old, slow, cable modem users to load a devshed page is quite off-putting - is there any chance of slimming-down e.g., banners/icons/etc etc before we see the page??? I'm thinking "selectable pop-up options" instead? KISS)

Glad it's still working



You're asking the admins to give people the ability to view the page without looking at adverts and pictures? Sorry, but I don't see that happening!!