Computer help needed...

[NickD 202]

My entire home is wired for LAN, peace was having each kid have their own computer, except for my bedroom, need someplace to go where there isn't a computer. When my wife first came here, thought it would be wonderful to use her laptop in bed like she did in her home country where we spent hours chatting. Was quite a long run, so I got her wireless feeding that from a port from my distribution center. No problems with that, just her laptop was wireless. But she never used it, we found we could do other things in bed rather than just chat on a box.

[Otto 83]

So S&L, did you connect yet? (Or did you give it a rest for the night?)

[swtrick 0]

From the start menu in Vista go to the control panel, Find Network and Internet and click on View network status and tasks. On the left under Tasks you will see Manage network connections. When the Network connections window comes up find your wireless network connection, Right click and scroll down to properties. In the window that pops open you will see settings for Internet Protocol v4 and Internet Protocol V6. Highlight them one at a time and click the Properties icon and make sure that Obtain address automatically is checked and Obtain DNS server address automatically is also checked. You could also clear any static ip settings and set your own router gateway and IP settings if you want to manually assign an IP from your wireless router at this point. Hope this helps.

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

169.* address are usually assigned when it cant get an IP address from the router.

Just have some questions about what you are trying to do, are you trying to connect both computers together using an adhoc network, or do you have an access point that both computers will be connecting to.

If you have an AP, make sure the laptop is connected to it, and the signal strength is ok. If it does not automatically obtain an IP, you can manually set one within the subnet of 192.168.0.x

apipa instead of dhcp.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

My entire home is wired for LAN,

So you had to wire for wireless?

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

My entire home is wired for LAN,

So you had to wire for wireless?

a lan isn't wireless.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

My entire home is wired for LAN,

So you had to wire for wireless?

a lan isn't wireless.

I thought you could have a wireless LAN.

[Scott & Lai 12]

From the start menu in Vista go to the control panel, Find Network and Internet and click on View network status and tasks. On the left under Tasks you will see Manage network connections. When the Network connections window comes up find your wireless network connection, Right click and scroll down to properties. In the window that pops open you will see settings for Internet Protocol v4 and Internet Protocol V6. Highlight them one at a time and click the Properties icon and make sure that Obtain address automatically is checked and Obtain DNS server address automatically is also checked. You could also clear any static ip settings and set your own router gateway and IP settings if you want to manually assign an IP from your wireless router at this point. Hope this helps.

Still not connected. Tried the above, but the computer didn't like the new number combinations I put in. Obtaining the address automatically wouldn't work either....

[thepizzadude 26]

My entire home is wired for LAN,

So you had to wire for wireless?

a lan isn't wireless.

I thought you could have a wireless LAN.

A LAN can be wired or wireless, I take it the NickD meant his whole house was WIRED for a LAN setup.

[Rings 10]

You have DSL? If so, you have to reset your modum and call your local phone company to set the new passcodes so you can get the wireless connection. If you hook up the ethernet cable and the blue cable directly into your laptop, then can walk you through the set up process. They have do do it through the phone company though.. not sure why, but call them they will help you. Ask for the internet department.

Edited September 15, 2009 by Rings

[Scott & Lai 12]

You have DSL? If so, you have to reset your modum and call your local phone company to set the new passcodes so you can get the wireless connection. If you hook up the ethernet cable and the blue cable directly into your laptop, then can walk you through the set up process. They have do do it through the phone company though.. not sure why, but call them they will help you. Ask for the internet department.

I have cable. And my desktop computer's wireless connection works fine, so I don't think it is the modem.

[NickD 202]

My entire home is wired for LAN,

So you had to wire for wireless?

a lan isn't wireless.

I thought you could have a wireless LAN.

A LAN can be wired or wireless, I take it the NickD meant his whole house was WIRED for a LAN setup.

Yeah, kind of like wire came before wireless, all rooms were wired except the master bedroom, the kitchen, and the dinning room. So when my new wife thought she would like to use her laptop in bed, added wireless for just that one room. But we found we no longer needed to chat over the internet, so never used it. We also discovered we could do other things in bed, but that took awhile to learn that.

While fooling around with wireless, learned I could tap into my neighbors internet, but he only uses his computer a couple of hours each night and is gone on weekends, so wasn't very reliable, so have to pay my own internet bill. If you see a white van parked in front of your house, could be the FBI sneaking in, they can't do that with a wired LAN. Gave me the idea of buying my own white van so I can tap into various neighbors, but figured that would be death by sheer boredom.

Can also easily tap into a cellular phone for even more boredom. When I got my first cordless phone, could also listen to my neighbors, encrypting those now, but was another means to really get bored in a hurry.

[HAL 9000 96]

Didn't catch the manufacturer of your wireless router... you might just want to reset it (like other devices... pencil lead into reset hole button) and start your wireless configuration from scratch.

Or make sure your wireless security settings match for both systems- your desktop might be one variant while the laptop another. (WEP- etc)

[annaprice 17]

I'm trying to set up a wireless network for our computers, a desktop and a laptop. The desktop wireless connection is fine, but I cannot get the laptop connected. The laptop's wireless IP address 169.254.148.124, instead of the expected close variant of 192.168.0.253 on my desktop. The desktop is running Windows XP, and the laptop is running Vista. No matter what I try, I can't get the laptop to set the correct IP address. It will connect to the internet using a direct ethernet connection to the router.

Any one have any ideas?

HI.i used to be a technical support for Dlink wireless and AT&T internet,based on what you said you are still trying to setup a wireless network. use the installer CD.Connect the Ethernet port of the Laptop to LAN port of the router..Use the ethernet cable to do that (yellow cable) .then Connect the modem to the WAN port of the router.then check for the IP address on the laptop. look for the default gateway. then open a web browser on the laptop. type in the default gateway address. you will be able to access the routers config page. =)

[Scott & Lai 12]

Update:

We had a friend over who brought her notebook PC. She was able to connect it to our network. We then got the IP address her computer was using, then she disconnected, and we input that info into our laptop. It's working fine now :-) It still wouldn't configure the settings automatically, though. Our friend thinks it might be that the laptop's internal wireless adapter is G, while our router is N, but wasn't sure about that. Any way, the problem is solved! Thanks for the help, everyone :-)