Lost wireless network now all confused

CryptoCrypto W.Sussex UK Member
edited February 2007 in Science & Tech
I'll try to keep this brief but I'm in a bit of a pickle now and have lost the plot somewhere.:(

Bought a new laptop last week and got it connected wirelessly to my existing network. Existing network is Main PC hard wired to Linsys router and SM7 hard wired to router. Laptop found about 4 networks and I got it connected OK to my network.

Turned laptop on yesterday morning, no connection. Sometimes it would see the network at full strength but was still unable to connect. Other times it couldn't find the network at all. Laptop is in next room from router.

Fitted wirelss ethernet card in to SM7. Saw 3 networks, one of which was mine but could not connect again.

Struggled all evening trying to rebuild network but eventually gave up.

This morning, laptop can see my network but can't connect. SM7 can't even see the network.

What have I done wrong? Have I got a dodgy router perhaps?

Thoughts and suggestions please.

P.s. Hard wired connections work fine on all three devices.

Comments

  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2007
    God I hate wireless... it's a POS system, but it does sound like a router problem. I suppose you've tried power cycling and resetting?
  • CryptoCrypto W.Sussex UK Member
    edited February 2007
    Yes, power cycled the router several times.

    Not sure if I might have got halway through setting up a new network, I got so confused and frustrated.

    Perhaps i should start again from scratch?

    Although I can't help thinking that even if I've stuffed up the encryption key or something, I should still be able to see the network even if I can't connect?

    Thanks.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited February 2007
    Crypto,

    Two thoughts...just a guess:
    1. These Linksys WRT54G that have come out in the last year and a half have an orange button on the front. You accidently hit that button and the whole encryption scheme is changed. Any chance you hit that so that you now have different encryption?
    2. Do you know what channel your wireless, and the other networks, are on? By default most of them come out with channel 6. Get too many strong signals on the same channel and you have a mess.
  • CryptoCrypto W.Sussex UK Member
    edited February 2007
    mtrox wrote:
    Crypto,

    Two thoughts...just a guess:
    1. These Linksys WRT54G that have come out in the last year and a half have an orange button on the front. You accidently hit that button and the whole encryption scheme is changed. Any chance you hit that so that you now have different encryption?
    2. Do you know what channel your wireless, and the other networks, are on? By default most of them come out with channel 6. Get too many strong signals on the same channel and you have a mess.

    mtrox, yes I have the orange button, it is supposed to invoke SES (Secure easy settings) to like devices.
    Spot on with the channels. ;)
    I thought I posted last night after I fixed it....must have forgot to press submit in the excitement.:D

    After a lot more grief which culminated in me setting the router back to factory defaults, losing internet (forgot to clone MAC address) I'm all up and running again.

    Changed the channel in the router from 11 to 1 and immediately got a connection. Whilst I was at it, I changed security from WEP to WAP Personal and put a new password in the router.

    I currently have about 8 networks showing on my laptop, 3 are insecure! My connection strength shows as poor but I am able to connect at 54 Mbps.

    I might play around with some different channels this evening.

    Cheers :bigggrin:
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited February 2007
    Crypto wrote:

    I might play around with some different channels this evening.

    Cheers :bigggrin:

    Ever try Net Sumbler? You can see every channel of every wireless in your neighborhood. $100 says half of them are on 6.....

    http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/
  • CryptoCrypto W.Sussex UK Member
    edited February 2007
    mtrox wrote:
    Ever try Net Sumbler? You can see every channel of every wireless in your neighborhood. $100 says half of them are on 6.....

    http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

    Thanks mate,
    had a quick look at the site and Net Stumbler does not appear to support Vista. In fact this thread shows quite a high intolerance to any newby type questions. :eek:

    I'll press on with investigations of my own. I think I read elsewhere that only channels 1,6 & 11 were useful for wireless internet.

    Thanks

    Crypto :bigggrin:
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited February 2007
    Ooops...didn't know you had Vista. I can tell from personal experience that Net Stumbler is lost in Vista.
    Crypto wrote:
    I think I read elsewhere that only channels 1,6 & 11 were useful for wireless internet.

    Those are the only 3 channels that will completely stay away from each other. In my neighborhood where 1, 6, and 11 are all used, 8 has proven to be a better option.

    This explains it better than I can.
  • CryptoCrypto W.Sussex UK Member
    edited February 2007
    mtrox wrote:
    Those are the only 3 channels that will completely stay away from each other. In my neighborhood where 1, 6, and 11 are all used, 8 has proven to be a better option.

    This explains it better than I can.

    Thanks for the article. My synopsis is that it pays to be as far away as possible from any other channels in use! Hence if 6 is the most popular then go for 1 or 11.

    I plugged a spare wireless NIC in to SM7 which is running under XP and loaded up NetStumbler. It found 3 networks, 2 on channel 6 and one on channel 11. Strangely it didn't find mine. :confused:

    Anyway, I'm still working OK on channel 1 which would appear to be the best.
    Strangely though, I still only get poor to fair reception even when I plonk the laptop next to the router! Something not right there.

    Thanks for the help folks. :bigggrin:
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