Re: Queries about LAN Connectivity and Wireless Network Connection Properties

Enquiring Mind wrote:
"Robert L [MVP - Networking]" <noreply@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uuMF8BBNHHA.4172@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This search result may help,

Troubleshooting limited or no connectivity "This connection has limited or no connectivity. " "You might not be able to access the Internet or some network resources" ...
http://www.chicagotech.net/troubleshooting/noconnectivity.htm



Thanks for the links. Based on the information therein, I suppose the cause of "Limited or no connectivity" warning could be some problem with the DHCP server or PPPoE assignments. The problem arises with a wired LAN of just 2 computers that I recently set up without enabling Internet Connection Sharing on either computer. I understand that Windows XP only provides a DHCP server on the computer set up to share its internet connection. Both computers have a dial-up modem, an Ethernet LAN interface, and a Wireless Network adapter. I do not wish to have the dial-up internet connection shared - hence I set the internet connection option for both computers to "This computer connects to the Internet through a residential gateway or through another computer on my network". There is also a wireless broadband router in the vicinity.

Executing ipconfig /all on computer 'A' indicates that that DHCP is enabled for the wired and wireless ethernet adapters. Moreover in the case of the wireless adapter the IP address 192.168.1.1 is given for "Default gateway", "DHCP Server", "DNS servers", while 192.168.1.2 is the adapter's IP address. Executing ipconfig /all on computer 'B' gives the same IP address for the DHCP server under the wireless adapter, and 192.168.1.3 for the wireless adapter's IP address. I do not understand which device hosts the DHCP server, given that both wireless adapters give the same address. Can anyone explain the meaning of these settings?

In spite of the warning, the printer and file sharing works over the wired network, and both computers can access the internet through the wireless router. I could therefore remove the warning icon by unchecking the "Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity" check box in the Wireless Network Connection Properties dialog box. However I would prefer to solve the problem at source by eliminating any underlying errors in the network configuration are removed. Should I have I set the internet connection option for both computers to "This computer connects directly to the internet. The other computers on my network connect to the Internet through this computer", and later disabled Internet Connection Sharing?

Thanks for any guidance.

Enquiring Mind


First, your understanding that "Windows XP only provides a DHCP server on the computer set up to share its internet connection" is correct.

It appears as though you have set up two separate networks. Assuming that the "wireless broadband router in the vicinity" is yours, you don't need to do this, and doing so may be causing problems. If the wireless router is not yours, you should be aware that the owner of the router has access to your Internet activity, and that the owner and probably anyone else connected to the router will have access to your hard drive unless you take adequate precautions. You also should probably not use someone else's router for Internet access unless you have permission to do so.

The router -- which actually is a computer also, probably running Linux or some other non-Windows OS -- has two IP addresses. One, exposed to the Internet, is assigned by the ISP. You can see this while browsing the Internet by going to a site such as http://whatismyipaddress.com/

The other is the router's IP address on the LAN, and in your case is 192.168.1.1. That is, the router is the "default gateway" that is shown for your wireless adapters when you do ipconfig. Typically, the router also is shown as the DNS Server, although you can manually substitute the actual DNS servers available to you from your ISP (you can find these in the router's web-based configuration status page). The router also has the DHCP server and hands out (internal LAN) IP addresses in the same subnet as its own LAN address. In this case, the router hands out IP addresses in the range 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.255. (Often, the router will start handing out IP addresses starting at 192.168.1.100, in order to leave address 2-99 available for devices that can have static IP addresses, such as print servers, NAS devices, and the like).

What most people with wireless routers (and a mix of wireless and non-wireless computers) do is:

1. connect the WAN input of the wireless router to the Internet connection (i.e., to the cable or DSL modem)
2. connect the non-wireless computers to the (usually 4) LAN ports on the router
3. configure the wireless network to permit the wireless devices to communicate with the router.
4. configure the network to allow resource sharing

After this, all of the computers are on one LAN, all will have IP addresses in the same subnet (e.g., 192.168.1.xxx, where xxx is 2-255), and all will both have access to the Internet and be able to share resources.

You seem to have done something differently. How are the two computers wired together? A cross-over cable? When you ran ipconfig /all, you should have seen an IP address etc., for the non-wireless NIC as well as for the wireless adapters; what are they?

Note that, as near as I can determine from your description, you should NOT set "This computer connects directly to the Internet. The other computers on my network connect to the Internet through this computer" on any of the computers, and you should NOT enable ICS on any computer.


--
Lem MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
.

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