Why Won't Microsoft Wirless Base Work For XP?

DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
edited January 2008 in Science & Tech
The question is simple friends, why won't Microsoft Wireless Base Station (MN-700) when the box says it's designed for XP? Is there anything else I can do with other than to 'chuck it' out the window, use it as a cheap door stop or what can I use that will work? I'm running Windows XP Home Edition on an eMachine T5026 3.06ghz...

Comments

  • Park_7677Park_7677 Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    The router itself isn't "designed for XP" because it actually never "touches" the OS. You could use any router with any computer that supports TCP/IP protocol and 802.11 wireless.

    It sounds like your problem is with your wireless card and/or the drivers for it. What wireless card do you have? Does it work with other wireless networks?
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    I was planning on having the pc hooked up directly to the router, and have a laptop connect wirelessly to the router but the laptop has XP Pro and it doesn't let me install it there. :confused: I don't have a wireless card on the pc. By the way, for what I can see on the box, I was lured by false advertising. One of the little stickers says Designed for Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98 and so on
    with such lies as Easy Set Up... which was not wasy because nothing set up :confused:

    Remember friend... "Thou Shall Not Lie"...
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Nothing should need installing.


    Router plugs into cable/DSL model via cat5 cable. Computer 1 plugs into router via cat5 cable. Laptop connects to router via Windows' wireless networking wizard.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    DumNDuMMer wrote:
    I was planning on having the pc hooked up directly to the router, and have a laptop connect wirelessly to the router but the laptop has XP Pro and it doesn't let me install it there. :confused: I don't have a wireless card on the pc. By the way, for what I can see on the box, I was lured by false advertising. One of the little stickers says Designed for Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98 and so on
    with such lies as Easy Set Up... which was not wasy because nothing set up :confused:

    Remember friend... "Thou Shall Not Lie"...

    Okay, I'm going to say this once in hopes that you'll stop running in circles on this one:

    A router works on <b>ANY</b> operating system because it <b>does not know what OS you're running</b>. It has <i>no</i> idea. Companies put "Works with Windows <i>(whatever)</i>" on the box so middling people in Best Buy will say "Oh my gosh! I have Windows XP! This will work for me!" But, in truth, it doesn't matter what OS you're running.

    If the router is not working, you need to check the following things:
    1) Is the router configured correctly?
    2) Are your drivers working?
    3) Are the drivers even installed?
    4) Are any security settings enabled on the router that you need to provide to your network card?

    Remember: For six days you shall labour and do all your work.
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    Ok, ok I got the part where OS doesn't matter. Now regarding the router, there's a disc there along with the other junk in there that says it needs to be installed before I hook anything up, the thing is I get a message saying

    Microsoft Broadband Networking has a known compatibility issue with this version of Windows. For an update that is compatible with this version of Windows, contact Microsoft Broadband Networking (Which offers no help related to that)

    This is why I say I'm struggling, now having said that... Can I just ignore that and continue to install either way without having any problems later on? Or do I not install anything like 'NiGHTS' says?

    Besides, I didn't actually buy it, it was given to me for free and um.. you know
    Beggars can't be choosers. A Free router is a Free router...
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Apparently your selected router's CD doesn't play nicely with XP Home, which is one of the reasons it's throwing that message up. A quick google search of that error message is summed up as the disc trying to install a frontend administration panel for the router. Nothing important, as putting 192.168.1.1 into the address bar does the same thing for you.

    Nothing need installing, you're fine.
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    NiGHTS wrote:
    Nothing important, as putting 192.168.1.1 into the address bar does the same thing for you.

    Nothing need installing, you're fine.

    I'm not fine :confused: and putting that into the address bar doesn't help. I did so as you suggested, connected everything without installing...

    Under Network Connections my Local Area Connection said it was connected but during this time I couldn't connect to the internet just by plugging everything in without installing anything.

    Under Internet Gateway for Internet Connection, I tried to enable it but it said Connection failed! thus connecting to the internet was imposible. Any other suggestions?
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Describe how you have everything set up, right now. I don't think we're getting the whole picture.
    Thrax wrote:
    If the router is not working, you need to check the following things:
    1) Is the router configured correctly?
    2) Are your drivers working?
    3) Are the drivers even installed?
    4) Are any security settings enabled on the router that you need to provide to your network card?
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    1) How would I know if the router is configured correctly?
    2) Don't I have to Install the drivers (from the cd that doesn't let me) for the router for there to actually be drivers installed? or are you talking about other drivers?
    3) I guess the drivers aren't installed based on the above question
    4) I don't think any security settings are enabled that I would need to provide to my network card.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    NiGHTS wrote:
    Describe how you have everything set up, right now. I don't think we're getting the whole picture.
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    The modem is plugged into the router, the router into the pc.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited January 2008
    You don't need to install any software for your PC to see your router. The only networking equipment that would require software to be installed is for network cards.

    Now if you plug your modem into your router and your router into your PC and your PC shows that it has a network cable attached, which you can verify by unplugging the cable, it should then have a message pop up saying network cable disconnected. If this is happening your network is working physically.

    Now go into your control panel and into your network settings and find your LAN adapter. Go into the properties find TCP/IP go into it's properties and make sure that everything is set to DHCP. Then reboot your computer, this step isn't really necessary but just do it anyway.

    Next go into DOS. You can get there by doing Start>Run then typing cmd into the box and hitting enter. That will take you to dos.

    Do ipconfig /all Look for info that looks like

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-15-58-27-38-ED
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
    Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.22.23.110
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.22.23.1
    DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.22.23.254
    DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.22.23.254

    The bolded line will be the IP for your router. Yours will probably say 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1

    In either case. Open up internet explorer and in the address bar type in that IP. That will take you to the setup pages for your router.

    If you have an IP Address that starts with 169 then you don't have something hooked up correctly OR your router doesn't support a dynamic configuration and you would have to use the disk that comes with it to set it up.
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    After I managed to login to the Router's setup page's, here's what I got...

    Windows IP Configuration

    Host name................Something
    Primary Dns Suffix......Blank
    Node Type................Mixed
    IP Routing Enabled......No
    WINS Proxy Enabled....No

    Everything else seems to be ok... other than that I still can't connect
    I managed to connect to the setup pages for the router but that was it...
    Then I got the following

    Wide area network (WAN) settings - PPPoE
    Broadband connection: Disconnected
    WAN IP address: 0.0.0.0
    Default gateway: 0.0.0.0
    Primary Domain Name System (DNS): 0.0.0.0
    Secondary DNS: 0.0.0.0

    Local area network (LAN) settings

    This section displays a summary of settings for your LAN.

    Local IP address: 192.168.2.1
    Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    DHCP server: Enabled

    I still can't connect...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    If you have a cable modem, it should be DHCP, not PPPoE.
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    I'm such a moron sometimes (most of the time) but it works now... thanks! Now I will go click the hell out of those ads.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Glad to hear you're up and running.
  • DumNDuMMerDumNDuMMer New
    edited January 2008
    With simple explanations, from Thrax how can I not be? ;)
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