Misterious Windows 2000 Wireless Network problems

[ShadoWolf]

Hay all!

I have a problem which I hope someone can help me with as it is driving me crazy.

I have recently got myself a laptop (an old 1.8 MHz P4 with Win2000) and connected successfully to my wireless router with a Belkin Wireless G USB NIC.

However, all of a sudden it has stopped being able to connect to the internet!? The network icon says it is connected but it just won’t connect to the net. The IP that is being assigned is 169.254.179.110 which I believe is the IP address that is given if the DHCP server is not contactable or is unable to issue an IP. When I try ipconfig/relese I get this error message "All adapters bound to DHCP do not have DHCP address. The addresses were automatically configured and can not be released"

I have tried many things to fix this problem but nothing is working. I know it’s not an issue with the router as I have another laptop with XP on which connects fine using the same model of USB NIC and I have tried connecting to another router which I know works fine and it still doesn’t connect. It’s not the NIC as this connects fine using the other laptop as well. I can connect to the internet fine if I’m connecting using Ethernet. So I thought it must have something to do with the wireless settings on the laptop. I checked out all the NIC Properties and everything is as expected (exactly the same as the XP Laptop). The only other thing I thought it might have been was a corrupt Winsock but I checked this out and that was fine also. At the end at my tether I decided to format the drive and start from the beginning as it connected fine when I first installed it. But this didn’t help either; I am getting exactly the same problem. The only thing that I could imagine hasn’t changed is the MAC address so I thought maybe my mac address is blocked, so I attempted to change my mac address in Regedt32 (this doesn’t explain why I am unable to connect to 2 completely different routers though but I have run out of options) but this didn’t work either.

I have run out of ideas what it may be? The fact that it can connect fine if I connect it with Ethernet cable instead of wireless would suggest it has something to do with the wireless encryption which is WEP? any help and suggestions would be very much appreciated.

[Jay]

Have you turned WEP off and tried?

[ShadoWolf]

That is one of few things I havent done! god knows why!?

Thanks, I will give it a go and report back

[Jay]

I'll keep an eye out for your reply

[TiG]

What error do you get if you do ipconfig /renew from a command prompt?.

TiG

[ShadoWolf]

Right. Took my Laptop home last night and tested the connection with no security... It worked! So I turned the WEP back on and tryed to reconnect my laptop again... and it worked again!? Seems to be working fine at home now, however Its still not connecting to the work router and I dont have access to it to turn WEP off. Why would this fix the problem? and does anyone have any Ideas how I can fix it with the works router without turning WEP on and off??

@ TiG - When I type ipconfig/renew it will display "Windows 2000 IP Configuration" for a couple of minutes, then finaly it will display "The following error occurred when renwing adapter Local Area Connection: DHCP Server unreachable"

[ShadoWolf]

Dont wory, seems to be conecting fine to the work router now. Does anyone have any insight why it wouldnt connect untill i connected to my home router with no security? very strange.

[Jay]

I think your putting the key in wrong.

Dont forget its case sensitive

[ShadoWolf]

Not a chance, The ammount of times I have re-entered the key you would have thought at least once I would have typed it correctly, plus it is all numbers.