Issues setting up a wireless connection

[Tac]

I've given my old pc to a kid whose parents couldnt afford it. They have internet connection as part of their apt. lease and now that they have a computer im setting it up.

The cable modem box works fine, the router works fine.. if I connect the router to the pc directly via cable it works fine... but I need to have a wireless set up so that the pc can be in the room they need it to be not in the living room.

thing is, my laptop connects to it wireless perfectly.. but the desktop for some reason detects the network but will not connect to it.

im positive im typing the same network key.. but it still wont connect.

what settings should I be tinkering with on the desktop?


or could it be the router and the adapter are incompatible? (router: netgear, usb wireless adapter=belkin)

[Ghastly]

I've seen that before when XP doesn't have all the proper drivers to support WPA2.  

Are you using the most recent driver for the Belkin wireless device is? If the computer is XP, is it upgraded to SP3?  (If it's Vista I don't have a clue.)

<S>

[cattb]

ssid set up the same?
Ip address of router in the pc?
I hear using windows to set up a wireless connection sucks, something I have never done my self.
You could also try without security and encryption if the router will let you. This is to just get connected.
If you do get connected remember to change router name, use encyption and security and have a strong passphrase.

[Tigger29]

I've had some that I ended up using windows to configure the wireless connection (might need to manually start the "zero wireless configuration" service).

I've had others that I ended up having to use the junky third party software to get it to work.

And others I've had were touchy I would switch it from WEP to WPA to WPA2 then back to WEP and back to WPA and it finally worked.

The first thing you want to do is disable ALL encryption and see if it connects.  Obviously, don't leave it like that but this will tell you that the hardware is in fact working.  Then set the encryption back up and see what happens.

[Tac]

yep the first thing i did was enable the wireless zero thing.


funny thing is, it works now. we did everything correctly its just the silly usb adapter took 30 minutes to negotiate with the router.

lets just say the kid is all smiles now