[Eversica]

Hi there,

I seem to be in some sort of a predicament. I recently moved, along with my brother, to a new apartment for the school year (we're both college students) and decided to set up our usually wired PCs on a wireless network. So we picked up two Belkin F5D7000 802.11g wireless PCI cards and a Belkin F5D7230-4 802.11g router.

My brother popped both cards in, I hooked the router up, set his computer up, and he was up and running in minutes. I wasn't around for a week (finishing my last week of work at home before I moved), and his internet connection was working perfectly.

I had him check on my computer off and on throughout the week to make sure that it had an internet connection (yeah, I'm paranoid about my internet going out), and he said it was working fine. I come back Friday night to finally move in once and for all, and my connection's not working.

After four hours Friday evening and four more Saturday morning/afternoon, I managed to establish a connection and all was good in the world...until it went out fifteen minutes later. I had this lovely 169.254.9.66 IP address and couldn't do anything. I "repaired" what felt like a zillion times, to no avail.

After a few hours of tinkering around and repairing the connection relentlessly, I managed to gain myself an internet connection and an IP of 192.168.2.3...for about an hour. That was about five hours ago, and I've managed to get short ten-to-fifteen-minute connections here and there, but nothing that lasts.

I've networked many a computer in the past (this is, to be honest, my first time setting up an 802.11g network--I've always worked with 802.11b) and have had problems like this before, but nothing that can't be solved in a matter of minutes. Obviously the router works--my laptop and my bro's PC are connected to it just fine. And I believe the PCI card works as well, since I have been able to connect here and there. At the moment, though, I have the correct IP address as assigned by the router (192.168.2.3), but no internet connection. This is something new for the evening/morning, and I have yet to figure out how that one works.

I've tried some ipconfig commands (/renew and /refresh, I believe), disabling the LAN card so the wireless is the only one left, uninstalling and reinstalling the wireless card, repairing x 1,000,000 times, setting a static IP addy, removing said static IP addy and going auto-config, installing the KB884020 update from Microsoft, among other things.

When I did ipconfig /all just a minute ago (PC still has router-assigned IP, not 169--but no internet connection), I got the following (sorry if it looks a little funky--I'm typing it all up from the other screen):

Host name..................: pcforalisha
Primary Dns Suffix......:
Node Type..................: Unknown
IP Routing Enabled......: No
VINS Proxy Enabled....: No
DNS Suffix Search List.: Belkin

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix....: Belkin
Description................................: Belkin 802.11g Wireless Card
Physical Address........................: 00-11-50-65-81-22
Dhcp Enabled............................: Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled..........: Yes
IP Address................................: 192.168.2.3
Subnet Mask.............................: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway........................: 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server.............................: 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers.............................: 192.168.2.1
Lease Obtained.........................: Sunday, August 13, 2006 12:30:57 AM
Lease Expires...........................: Monday, April 06, 1903 3:17:18 AM

That last line confuses me to no end--the 4/6/1903 one, but yeah...this is getting confusing and frustrating and I've finally broken down and come here to ask for help instead of being stubborn and in my usual "I'll fix it myself" mode.

The PC running the wireless card, if that helps, is a homebrew PC running Windows XP Pro SP2, Celeron 2.5GHz, 768 MB RAM and almost identical to my bro's PC (XP SP2, Celeron 2.8GHz, ~1GB RAM).

My brother and I are both downright confused about this matter--we can't figure out if it's hardware issues (more his domain) or software (right up my alley) and just can't seem to make it work.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice y'all can give--I just want to get my 'net connection working and my World of Warcraft up and running again!

-Alisha

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Since posting, I've upgraded the card's drivers and rebooted the PC a few times. I had a solid, steady internet signal from about 11:30am this morning up until about 2:15pm, but now I'm back to 169.254.81.210 (different from the 169 IP I had before). What could be causing the connection to cut out like this and then not restart immediately?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Eversica]

Since posting, I've upgraded the card's drivers and rebooted the PC a few times. I had a solid, steady internet signal from about 11:30am this morning up until about 2:15pm, but now I'm back to 169.254.81.210 (different from the 169 IP I had before). What could be causing the connection to cut out like this and then not restart immediately?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[amusinglisa]

For what it is worth:

I was reading your post because it parallels some of the isssues I have been having with my wireless connection on my HP notebook (including the fact that my other notebook is having no problem). I had purchased an extended warranty so called HP. Here is what the tech had me do (and it seems to have worked, much to my surprise):

power down the router

turn off the notebook

remove the battery from the notebook and unplug it

hold down the power button for 30 seconds

power up the router

power up the notebook

...and Bob's your uncle. The guy was telling me something about static electircity building up in the notebook because I had not used it in "quite some time" (I was out of town a week) and that was causing the problem.

I guess I can't complain, as it worked.

Hope This Helps

~(Amusing)Lisa

[Eversica]

Thanks for the advice Lisa. I ended up trying something similar before reading your post.

My brother and I restarted the router (after I moved it a few feet closer to where my comp is) and our computers at the same time, and my PC took the IP addy he'd been using, and he got mine. I'd been at 58% on the 192.168.2.3 IP, and right now, I'm at 72% signal strength on the 192.168.2.2 IP, and my connection doesn't cut out but for a minute or two here and there. He's now running at around 60%, down from his 80+% he'd had before, and his connection cuts out for a minute or two, versus the connection he'd had before that never cut out.

I don't know what the link between the IP and signal strength is (I can't see how there could honestly be one), but what I do know is that I have a good, fairly solid connection on my PC, and so does my brother, so all seems to be okay right now.

[hax0rz]

who did u say your provider of internet was? mines verizon

[Eversica]

I have Comcast...they're so "Comcastic" sometimes that they suck, lol. My mom has had them for years and they shut off at the most random times for "maintenance" and don't let anybody know in advance of it and then don't come back on for up to ten hours!

How's Verizon's service?