[nomar102175]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop with a Netgear wireless card. I have Windows XP Professional. My family has a home desktop with a wireless network. My laptop says that I am connected to the wireless network with a strong signal, yet I can't access the internet. I get the notorious "This page cannot be displayed" exlporer screen. I used to be able to get online, and I can't remember anything happening that would have spurred this, other than I haven't had to use my laptop in a while, so it's been sitting around untouched.
I've done a few things to try to fix the problem, but I'm almost completely ignorant with computers, so I'm a bit lost and nothing has worked yet.

Some of my attempts:
- Right clicked on the "Wireless Network Connection" icon on the bottom tool bar and selected "View available wireless networks." When the "Wireless Network Connection" box opened, the text box showed the wireless network we have in my home. The "WNC" box also showed the standard warning icon (exclamation point in yellow triangle), noting that my wireless network was not secure. I clicked the box to allow me to connect to the network anyways, but that didn't work. Still no internet access, despite being connected to the wireless network with excellent signal strength.
- While in the "WNC" box, I clicked "Advanced". I then selected the "Wireless Networks" tab. I'm sure anyone reading this is probably aware that tab featured three things: a checkbox titled "Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings"; a text box titled "Available Networks" that contained the name of my wireless network and two buttons, "Configure" and "Refresh"; and third, a text box titled "Preferred Networks", which also contained my wireless network. In the "Available Networks" box I clicked Configure. That didn't work. I tried clicking "Refresh". That didn't work either.
- I right clicked the "WNC" icon again, and this time selected "Repair." A small box popped up that said "The following steps of the repair operation failed: Renewing the IP address. Please contact your network administrator or ISP"
- I right clicked the "WNC" icon again, and this time selected "Open Network Connections". The "Network Connections" box opened, I double clicked "Wireless Network Connection", and the "Wireless Network Connection Status" box opened. I clicked the "Support" tab, which revealed my IP address. I clicked the "Repair" button, but the same "repair operation failed: renewing the IP address" box appeared as in the previous bullet I wrote.
- When I clicked Start - Run and typed in "ipconfig/refresh" and "ipconfig/release", a box with an X in a red ball appeared and said "Windows cannot find "ipconfig/refresh", etc. I got those suggestions from the transcript of a help forum I found on a Google search.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm totally lost. I have had a few friends who are MIS professionals look at it, and they're lost. Dell support has been useless, and Netgear support pointed me to Dell. One of my friends said my IP address was very weird, because it starts with 169, which he said is invalid. Any thoughts? I don't know, this stuff makes my head spin. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

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Hi
Sounds like your not getting DHCP addresses from the wireless router. The commands you tried are alittle off also. Try start>run>cmd that will open a dos box then type ipconfig /release space after the g in ipconfig. press enter then type ipconfig /renew again space after the g in ipconfig. then enter. If if returns an error then you are not receiving a DHCP address from the router... let us know the results maybe we can help more

Also 169.X.X.X addresses are normally provided by windows if a dhcp server can not be found.

Edited by waynescheffler, 19 January 2006 - 07:13 PM.

[waynescheffler]

Hi
Sounds like your not getting DHCP addresses from the wireless router. The commands you tried are alittle off also. Try start>run>cmd that will open a dos box then type ipconfig /release space after the g in ipconfig. press enter then type ipconfig /renew again space after the g in ipconfig. then enter. If if returns an error then you are not receiving a DHCP address from the router... let us know the results maybe we can help more

Also 169.X.X.X addresses are normally provided by windows if a dhcp server can not be found.

Edited by waynescheffler, 19 January 2006 - 07:13 PM.

[nomar102175]

I followed your steps and the error message you predicted came up.
After I entered the renew command, the following came up:

Windows IP Configuration

An error occurred while renewing interface Wireless Network Connection : An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.

No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection while it has its media disconnected.

So, as you can probably guess from my first post, I'm still lost.

Joe

[waynescheffler]

Ok that helps...
You are not receiving an ip from the wireless router.
Most the time when this happens to me its because the wireless system has some type of security setup on it and im using the wrong key.

you could also check to make sure you do not have a static ip set in the tcp/ip stack to do this go to
start>run then type control ncpa.cpl and hit enter.
right click you wireless connection and pick properties.
on the general tab highlite "Internet Protocal(TCP/IP)"
it should have a check mark in it.
then click properties button
and make sure both settings are set to automatic.

[nomar102175]

I followed the steps and both were set to automatic.
Still no internet.
Is there a way I can check for the problems with the security settings that you suggested?

[waynescheffler]

There are a few ways to do it.
The easiest would be to plug your laptop directly into the router with a cat5 cable.
do the start>run>cmd
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
trick then after you do the renew and it lists the ip(probably in the 192.X.X.X range)
look for the entry that says default gateway(probably a number like 192.168.1.1 with a netgear)
open your browser (internet explorer) and in the address bar type that default gateways address number.
the DOTS must be there IE: 192.168.1.1 or whatever the numbers are. No www or https:// needs to be on the address line.

If you did it correctly a login box will probably popup. I think the default for netgear is admin for the username and admin for the password if no one has changed it. If it accepts the login you should be looking at the setup screen for the router. Find the wireless area and look at the security settings. set your laptops wireless security settings to match them

If you do not have a cable you can do it from another machine that is connected to the router wired or wireless does not matter.

[nomar102175]

To a person like me, that sounds like a project. I think I'll pick it up again tomorrow or over the weekend, and opt now for sleep. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I've gotten more definitive answers in the last few hours than I have in weeks. If you get a chance and check back in to see how I've done tomorrow or Monday, I would greatly appreciate it. If not, still, thanks again.

Joe

[nomar102175]

wait, what does "trick then" mean. i got a second wind and tried it, but after i enter renew i don't get an IP address like you said.

[waynescheffler]

disreguard trick

you have it connected with a cable?
what ip did it give you on a renew if any?

If it did not give you an ip (or gave the 169.X.X.X) with a cable connection or on wireless one of 3 things are happening.
1. the dhcp is turned off on the router
2. there is a hardware problem with the router
3. there is a software problem with the dhcp client on your laptop (can be conflict with virus or spyware as well)


I dont think it would be a hardware problem on you laptop unless both the wireless and wired cards on the laptop were damaged (unlikely)

Sometimes routers get "confused" if they get a voltage spike or drop.
you might want to disconnect the power from the router, count to ten and reconnect it.
redo the ipconfig /release and renew

Edited by waynescheffler, 19 January 2006 - 09:37 PM.

[nomar102175]

it gave me one after i entered release. it said: autoconfiguration IP address first three numbers where 169

[nomar102175]

I connected with the cat5 cable, and then did the release/renew. then i wrote back to you. then i tried disconnecting the power to the router, counted, reconnected, and i'm getting the same result from the release/renew attempt.

[waynescheffler]

Kk sleep well tomorrow let me know
did you say there were any other computers connected to the wireless?
If so what do you get if you do a normal ipconfig on them without the release or renew?
do they have valid ip addresses IE: not 169.X.X.X ?
If they do have valid IPs can you check the connection tcp settings to see if they are set to automatic or if they have numbers typed into them?

Ill check back tomorrow(friday) after work

[nomar102175]

My laptop is the only computer on the wireless network. All the lights are green on the router, i'm assuming that doesn't have to mean it isn't broken though, huh? thanks for the help. have a good one.

[mcpscomp]

Your problem is not that your computer not on line. Your computer is online as it already told you. what isn't on line is your wireless router!!!!
read the router's manual and go to set up .....
What you want is have your router optain an IP from your up stream router or your modem depend on how you have it hook up. The reason I can tell you exact detail how to set up your router is I don't know what router you're using but every step of setup should be in the manual. If you use LINKSYS or DLINK , the de falt address is 192.168.0.1
Type this in your address bar of your browser then it will ask you for password. The defalt set up is USER: ADMIN and PASSWORD: (leave emty).
good luck.

Edited by mcpscomp, 20 January 2006 - 12:50 AM.