Having some trouble with networking - advice needed

[t_ski]

It never fails: I always seem to come up with some kind of problem no one has ever seen before, nor have any idea how to fix. However, with my desparation (ie: the wife is very pissed @ me right now), I figured I'd put our Networking forum to the test and see if you guys can figure this one out. Let's start at the beginning...

I have one PC running Windows XP Pro SP2 (the one in my sig & System Profile) which is wired into a DSL modem/gateway/router/WAP. I also have two laptops with b/g Broadcom cards preinstalled (with no PCMCIA slots available to use). I previously had the network running smoothly, sharing files on each machine as well as a printer connected to the main PC. For security, I was using 128-bit WEP. After taking several classes dealing with wireless and security, I felt WEP was no longer a wise choice, and wanted to switch to WPA-PSK.

At first, I was able to get WPA-PSK configured and working, but my wife's laptop kept getting the "Limited connection or no availability" warning whenever she booted the laptop. Every single time she turned it on, she would have to go in and "repair" the connection for it to work. It seemed as though this may have something to do with DHCP, as the error occurred with the laptop's IP address being outside the pool. I tried to assign a static IP address, and that worked everytime i rebooted. However, the first time it powered down completely and then back up, the error was back.

In the process of trying to figure this out, I realized that the machines were no longer connecting to each other, although the laptops could still access the internet just fine. I talked with two of my teachers, who gave me the standard line about updating drivers and firmware. I updated the drivers on the wife's laptop, as well as the HP Wireless Assistant. I also updated the firmware on my DSL modem to the latest one available. Unfortunately, nothing is working. The firmware update may have even caused more issues, because I can't even get back to WEP.

Things I have tried:

Reset the DSL modem - no change
Made sure the computers were in the same network - MSHOME
Tried renaming the network to HomeNetwork - no change
Pinged the main PC's loopback address - works
Pinged the main PC's IP address (192.168.1.35) - works
Pinged the laptop's IP address (192.168.1.33) from the main PC - times out (as it should if it is not finding anything in Network Places anyway)
Pinged the laptop's loopback address - works
Pinged the laptop's IP address - works
Pinged the main PC's IP address from the laptop - times out (as it should if it is not finding anything in Network Places anyway)
Ran Window's Network Connection Wizard - no change
Ran Window's Wireless Network Connection Wizard - no change

Probably tried a few other things too, but I can't remember them offhand. I'll add them as I remember them.

Anybody have any suggestions?

 

[t_ski]

OK, I uninstalled McAfee firewall on the laptop and restored XP's firewall. I tried connecting the two machines with a crossover cable. At first it didn't work, but then I disabled the firewall on the laptop and it immediately found the PC.

So now I need to figure out how to allow the laptop to see the pc again...

 

[t_ski]

Does anyone have any good links on configuring the XP firewall? I'm not having much luck finding something that talks about letting two machines talk to each other.

 

[RoBo]

Running the network setup wizard should sort out the firewall.

 

[thedintedcan]

Honestly I just can the windows firewall all together. I find it more bothersome than a help, and so i just rely on a strong appliance firewall. Also, you might want to try a traditional network setup rather than an all in one gateway modem wap. Just about everyone I know that has had one, has had trouble with it.

 

[vectravl400]

I would also suspect a compatibility issue between the gateway and the specific wireless card models that you're using. I've seen this happen with my 2wire gateway from Telus. A Dlink dwl-g650 works flawlessly with the 2wire, but the internal Intel minipci card in my Latitude constantly drops the connection to it. Try a pcmcia or usb adapter.

 

[t_ski]

Running the network setup wizard should sort out the firewall.

I have done that several times and it still doesn't work. Funny thing is, that with the Exceptions list for the firewall, it was "File and Print Sharing" checked/allowed. I'm thinking of going with Zone Alarm, although I'm hoping that won't be too advanced or bothersome for my wife. I heard it's alway popping things up. Not a problem for me (I'd rather know I was protected), but she'll see it as an annoyance.

Honestly I just can the windows firewall all together. I find it more bothersome than a help, and so i just rely on a strong appliance firewall. Also, you might want to try a traditional network setup rather than an all in one gateway modem wap. Just about everyone I know that has had one, has had trouble with it.

Not sure if that's in the budget right now. I might look into it some after the holidays.

I would also suspect a compatibility issue between the gateway and the specific wireless card models that you're using. I've seen this happen with my 2wire gateway from Telus. A Dlink dwl-g650 works flawlessly with the 2wire, but the internal Intel minipci card in my Latitude constantly drops the connection to it. Try a pcmcia or usb adapter.

I don't see why it worked perfectly fine, up until recently. The only thing I could think of is that McAfee screwed me when I uninstalled it.

 

[t_ski]

OK, I think I may have this figured out. I changed the IP address on the router to 192.168.1.2, and left the laptop and PC set to DHCP. The two could see eachother just fine. I put on WPA after that and it connects without any issues. Now to set up the other laptop with the shared key and make sure it works OK, and cross my fingers hoping that's all it was.