Base no, Wireless yes (WinXP SP-2)

[CWBillow]

I'm not at all sure this belongs here, but I couldn't figure where else, so:

I have a home network -- base station upstairs, wireless desktop downstairs, laptop wireless around and about.

I was having fickle issues last week, and hooked up a new NETGEAR router and NETGEAR wireless modem in the downstairs machine. The laptop, being new, I left alone. I had some trouble getting the NETGEAR software settings right, so I reverted to the built in XP networking.

It seemed to be OK...

I was having problems this evening with other networks in the area, and found that a couple had done what I did, setting up and accepting defaults, so their network(s) were/are named NETGEAR just like mine. As I was having a bit of flicker in the connection, I was looking to adjust the settings. But because we (all) had named our networks the same, it was hard to tell them apart. So I was going to rename ours, which I was told should be done at the base station.

Know what I saw? The wireless (desktop) and the laptop could both connect to the net fine. The base station could not -- not even after turning everything off and re-booting and starting over. Three times.

THEN I discovered that the (normal, I think) address that you go to to adjust the XP settings (http://192.168.2.1) was in accessible from ANY of the machines, even when two COULD get on the net.

So is this something that'll just fix itself overnight or such, or is there something else I could/should do?

And CAN I rename the (home) network from one of the wireless machines or do I HAVE to use the base station?

Regards,
Chuck Billow

[rory]

I presume the base station is an XP PC hard wired to the Netgear router? If so, it sounds like your other machines may actually be connected to someone else's network and your own network is not actually working. If you type <code>ipconfig /all</code> at a command prompt on each machine, what IP addresses do you see for the wired/wireless network adapters?
Did you configure your netgear router with your ISP settings when you installed it, and are you sure the IP address for the router is 192.168.2.1 and not 192.168.0.1 (I ask because that is the factory default for my netgear). It might also be useful if you tell us which model of router you have.

[StuartR]

It is very important to do things in the right order when you want to make this change.
<UL><LI>First: Change the network name on the Wireless Access Point. Note the new name (SSID), the encryption type (WAP best, WEP not so good), the password, and any other settings.
<LI>Then change the network name on one PC, set matching encryption type and password, get it working correctly before you move on.
<LI>Then change the network name, passwords etc. on all the other PCs.[/list]It sounds like you have only done the first step so far.

StuartR

[rory]

<img src=/S/whisper.gif border=0 alt=whisper width=29 height=17>WPA, not WAP. They are very different! <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

[StuartR]

<img src=/S/yep.gif border=0 alt=yep width=15 height=15> WPA is what I meant.

StuartR

[CWBillow]

Rory/Stuart:

Thanks for the help... I THINK I've not only got it fixed, but understand it a bit now as well..

As it turns out, the NETGEAR router had a firmware upgrade/update, and with that in place a good many of the problems disappeared.

I'm still not sure how the base couldn't connect if the wireless (s) could, but, oh well... at least it's now up and running.

They should have an update notification service for things like routers and such that are so critical to operating.

Thanks again,
Chuck