Newbie needs help 'Limited or no connectivity'

[BuddyB]

Hi,

I have a small wireless network made up of a desktop PC (with ntl cable modem & wireless router attached) plus two laptops which has been working fine until two days ago.

When I started up one of the laptops it showed 'limited or no connectivity'. I tried rebooting and got 'excellent connectivity' but then when I rebooted again the problem was back.

I run Win XP on all 3 machines. The wireless router is a D-Link DI 624+. The problem laptop has a D-Link Air Plus G+ DWL-G650+ card adaptor.

Here's what I've tried so far that hasn't solved the problem -

Removing the existing wireless connection and going through the procedure to connect again (several times both with firewall on and off).

Temporarily disabling the WPA encryption to see if the laptop connects (both with firewall on and off).

Rebooting millions of times. At one point on rebooting I did get an live internet connection, but the rest of the laptop screen was completely blue - i.e. no taskbar, desktop icons, etc. and when I closed Internet Explorer I just had a plain blue screen. My only option was to turn off the machine and when I rebooted I'd lost the connection again (although everything else had gone back to normal).

This laptop is quite old now and it does take a long time to to start up - although it is usually fine then. I keep it clear from clutter cleaning it up regularly to get the best out of it - it has an Intel Pentium 11 processor - 363 Mhz, 128 RAM and a 6Gb hard disk. It has limited software on it to keep it running well. The machine is squeaky clean - my internet settings are set to remove temporary files when the browser closed to stop them building up, I regularly run CrapCleaner, SpyBot and Ad-Aware - I even defragged it yesterday.

Any ideas what else I can try (please give step by steps for a newbie - I managed to set up the network without too much bother but I've not had to touch it since!)?

Regards,

BuddyB

[andyandy]

Have you checked the IP address settings in the properties of the wireless network connection?

For example, is it automatically assigned by the router, or have you manually set them.

If the problem laptop's settings have been changed, I pretty sure this would cause this message.

[BuddyB]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me. In the side bar part on the right hand sign of the network connections screen shows

IP Address: 192.168.0.101
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Assigned by DHCP

The IP address seems to fit with the other two machines.

Is this what you mean?

BuddyB

[BuddyB]

Help! Did I give the wrong answer to the question?

[andyandy]

Hi, no - only just read your reply!

It looks like the router is assigning the IP addresses to the computers
(Assigned by DHCP) so that should be ok.

On the laptop - is it expecting to have the IP assigned to it?

If you go to Start->Connect to->Show All Connections. Select the wireless device, then right click and then click properties. Scroll down to Internet Protocol and then click properites. It should be set to "obtain address automatically, as should the DNS.

Failing that, can you right click the wireless connection and click "repair"?

[BuddyB]

Hi,

I found a very simple simple solution! I did a system restore to before I re-installed the printer to the laptop and it works fine now. I've also re-installed the printer without any problem, so what ever the problem was it has now disappeared.

Thank you very much for all your help.

BuddyB

[andyandy]

Great stuff. Glad you're all working again!!

[BuddyB]

Should have remembered the KISS principle - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!

Doh!