Re: Can't connect to Internet and e-mail.

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Lem, in view of your comments re: item #4, I ran that test again, this
time with a cable I know to be good. This cable is attached to one of
of the PCs which does connect to the 'Net, etc. The result was that
the problem computer was able to connect to the 'Net and e-mail. I
have dumped the first cable I used for the test. However, the icon
representing the wired connection had a small yellow dot moving back
and forward just below the icon. This also occurs when the problem PC
tries to connect to the 'Net. What does this mean?

Would it be wise to run the Windows Wireless Wizard again on all three
PCs?

Peter.


"Lem" <lemp40@unknownhost> wrote in message
news:OsZgcox1JHA.4416@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PVR wrote:
Lem, many thanks for your answer and further suggestions. Because
the other two PCs have access to the 'Net and e-mail I concluded
that the modem/wireless router were working OK. The problem has to
be with the XP PC which cannot access the 'Net and e-mail.

"What actually happens when you attempt to connect to the
internet?" Answer. The Start bar Wireless icon has a small yellow
dot moving back and forth and I do not obtain access to the 'Net. I
receive a message "No connection to the Internet is currently
available." When I access the list of available wireless networks I
find that the default is "Acquiring network address" but this never
succeeds.

"What was the wrong choice you made?" Answer. I did choose (in
error) to have Windows install a driver from Windows Update. As far
as I can tell this is when things went wrong. I did try the Windows
"roll back driver" feature but this did not correct the problem.

"What drivers were you told to install?" Answer. Here I list a
series of suggestions obtained from another forum.

Things to try:

1. Delete the current wireless network on the problem computer.
Create it
again and test. Result, Done with no improvement.

2. If that didn't work, check the settings on the wireless network
adapter
to make sure it is set to get an IP address/DNS automatically and
that
there is no Alternate setting. Result, IP address is set to
automatic.

3. Also check the security on the problem computer. What
antivirus/security
software do you have? I've seen cases where McAfee security handled
access
to the outside world separately for wired and wireless connections.
Perhaps
an update to this software messed things up. Result, I temporarily
removed
security software. No improvement.

4. What happens when you connect to the router with an Ethernet
cable?
Result, no change.

5. Perhaps you updated the wireless network adapter drivers, either
on
purpose or by mistakenly accepting this from Windows Update. Try
installing
the latest drivers for this adapter. Get them from the OEM's
website if you
have that sort of computer (Dell, HP, etc.) or from the wireless
network
adapter's mftr. if you installed it yourself. What is the wireless
network
adapter hardware? Result, Have not yet tried to update the
driver(s). The
wireless adapter was built-in to the HP Pavilion laptop as
bought.>>

As indicated I checked all of these without success.

Also, would a System Restore help here? I haven't done this as yet.

I hope this was not too long.

Peter.





"Lem" <lemp40@unknownhost> wrote in message
news:e5NZ1RX1JHA.5728@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PVR wrote:
I have three PCs on a home wireless network, 2 XPs and a Vista.
One of the XPs cannot access the 'Net or e-mail. No problem with
the other two PCs.

This problem developed very recently during a Windows update. It
is likely I made the wrong selection during the update. I have
been advised to obtain the current driver(s) from HP.

How do I do this if connection to the 'Net is not possible on the
HP machine? Is it possible to download the driver(s) to an
external drive using another PC and then install the new
driver(s) from this drive?

Many thanks.

Peter.
The answer to your asked question is yes. Download the driver and
copy it to a USB "thumb" drive.

But unless you are very confident of the advice you have already
received, you might do well to post back here with some additional
information. For example,

- what actually happens when you attempt to connect to the
Internet? Do you get any error message?
- what was the "wrong choice" you made?
- if the wrong choice was to install a driver from Windows Update,
have you tried the "roll back driver" button (never install
drivers from Windows Update)?
- what drivers were you told to install?

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm



The most troubling item in your list is #4. If you can't connect
through an Ethernet connection then whether or not you installed a
bad driver for your wireless adapter is irrelevant (that may be an
*additional* problem).

The "acquiring network address" message usually appears on
*wireless* connections if there is a security mismatch between the
router and the computer. The first step in diagnosing this is to
(temporarily) disable all security on the router's wireless
configuration page (i.e., no encryption, no MAC filter, no other
"security" configuration).

However, wireless security has no effect whatsoever on the ability
to connect to the router with an Ethernet cable. If that also
doesn't work for you (any error message?), then you have a deeper
problem

You need to do some methodical diagnostic work. The two sites below
offer help on how to do that. Chuck's site is more hands-on.
Hans-Georg Michna's site should pinpoint the problem(s) if you
answer the questions accurately.

http://networking.nitecruzr.net/2005/05/troubleshooting-internet-service.html
http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm



--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm


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