WLAN card trouble...
 

Previously I had a wired network which ran fine. 2 units, Xbox 360 and lappy connected to a BEFSR41 v3 router.

I recently installed a Gigabyte PCI WLAN card (GN-WPKG) and as a result lost the lan support on this computer. Internet is fine, I have just lost file sharing abilities. :(

I am going to uninstall the driver and see how I get on...

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Confused as to what you have lost here.

If you can get to the internet, then the network side of things is working.
Which fileshares? Where were they? What used to connect to what?

If its a new network interface then it will have a new IP address, how did you connect to shares? \\192.168.0.2\sharename$ etc?

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Sorry... Ill try and be more accurate.

I have 3 comps, with comp 1 being my main rig. All 3 could see each other on the network thru "My Network Places" connected with RJ45 with a Linksys router.

I installed a WLAN card on comp 1 (main rig) Now when I goto "My Network Places" I can no longer see the other 2 comps. They can see each other but neither can see me.:confused:

I have recently uninstalled the driver for WLAN card and all is well again. However this is not a good first impression for me regarding wireless as I need to know I can use both wired and wireless at the same time if I am to invest in a wireless router sometime in the futre.

Hope that makes it clearer... any questions feel free to ask. :)

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

When the wireless card was installed did you get any specific errors? like
"Unable to browse the network" or anything like that?

Check out this site, this might be your issue.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/art...s/nethood.html

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Thanks but this wasnt the problem...

I think its time to ditch the whole wireless idea, its causing nothing but problems which I dont have with my current wired setup...

thnx anyways... :)

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

just re run setup network wizard. Its possble the machine is looking for wire lan maybe

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Going to jump in at the deep end today and get a WRT54GS. Im assuming my wireless laptop would be able to see my wired rig and share files between each other when its all setup correctly ?

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

All the shops were out of stock.. going to have to look around on the net and see who has the best prices. If it dosnt let all my wired and wireless devices see each other, its going straight back. :)

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Do you use the windows firewall, if so go to your wireless connection in network connections and check that file and print sharing is enabled on that connection, also try disabling your onboard LAN card and see if that works.

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

*Bump... sorry folks.. but I would really appreciate if someone could confirm this. Can I mix my network up of wired and wireless devices and share files between each. Or is it like you can only use wired or wireless one at a time.

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Of course you can, you just have to set it up correctly ;)

You mentioned that you were getting a Linksys WRT54G router, did you get it or are you using different one?!

If you think that you have messed with one too many setting for adapters, drivers etc, uninstall the device and start again.

If you have DHCP running on the router, anything that is connected to it, wired or wireless, will be given an ip address, subnet mask and gateway address. Once all of your computers have an ip address of the same 192.168.*.* (or what ever ip range you have set) make sure they are all running on the same workgroup name - press windows key + pause break to bring up the System Properties box, then click on hardware tab then click on the change button at the bottom right - might be a different button for XP home. The next box that appears give you the option to change your computer name, workgroup name and the option to join a domain if available - the last option deffinately is not available with XP home edition.

Once you've messed around in that, set your name and workgroup, you will be asked to restart your computer for the settings to take effect. Once your back in, click on the my network places if you have it on your menu or go to network connections then click on my network places icon on the left hand side. Next click on the Entire Network icon on the left, then dbl click on Microsoft Windows Network and you should then see the workgroup name you have created on the machines you are wishing to connect. Dbl clikc on your workgroup name and you should then see computers that are in your Workgroup.

If you have the windows firewall running, go to your network connections panel, right click on your adapter and then click on properties. In the new box, click on the Exceptions tab, then make sure that file and printer sharing is ticked. Go back to your Entire Network View window, workgroup etc as before and then see if you can dbl click one of the computers and see if you can see the deafult share.

Make sure you have wireless encryption setup, WPA preferably over WEP.

Hope that helps some.

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Oh yeah... thanks Mr J.. thats answered my questions. :)

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

Thats what I wanted to hear... I was reading people buying access points and bridges to get a wired talking to wireless network thou. :confused:

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

The wrt54g is OK for straight forward use, I've had one for about six weeks now. If you are uncertain about setting up file & printer sharing etc, or if you want to check network settings and connections I can recommend running a trial of NetworkMagic from http://www.networkmagic.com.

If you get the wrt54g post back with problems or visit http://www.linksysinfo.org. If you use bittorrent or other p2p software you might have to delve a bit deeper into settings.

Best regards

Mick

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

With the linksys router make sure you have it set in the right network infrastrucutre mode, something to do with ad-hoc I recall. Only one way will allow your wired and wireless to speak to each other.

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

I have a setup of six computers (laptops and towers), wired and wireless. Sometimes I have the problem you have described - to fix it, I temporarily disable my anti-virus/internet shield/firewall (F-Secure), then establish the connection, then re-enable F-Secure.

Re: WLAN card trouble...
 

It worked first time out of the box Rob... see this is why I wanted to stay with Linksys... simplicity.. :)