Wireless Connectivity Issues

On Thu, 8 May 2008 15:21:54 -0400, "Christopher Muto"
<muto@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>"Mark E. Bye" <fxdyna@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:n49624h7ukaepjtd73qohvagerorcu8ol5@4ax.com.. .
>> On Mon, 05 May 2008 15:04:18 -0500, Mark E. Bye <fxdyna@hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 05 May 2008 12:58:10 -0500, RnR <rnrtexas@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Mon, 05 May 2008 12:54:17 -0500, RnR <rnrtexas@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On Mon, 05 May 2008 12:13:28 -0500, Mark E. Bye <fxdyna@hotmail.com>
>>>>>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>I have a Dell Inspiron 1200 laptop running XP and a Dell Wireless 1350
>>>>>>(802.11 b/g) card. I recently purchased a Linksys WRT54G wireless
>>>>>>router to replace my Linksys BEFSR41 router.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>After about an hour online with Linksys tech support, I finally got
>>>>>>the thing to connect via wire.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Another good hour was spent with a second Linksys online tech support
>>>>>>person in our attempt to get it to connect wirelessly.
>>>>>>Unsuccessfully.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Any suggestions? I do have a transcript of what we did in that
>>>>>>session if anyone would be interested in taking a look at it and make
>>>>>>a suggestion.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Any help would be most appreciated.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Thanks!
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Mark
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Having gone down this road myself with different routers several times
>>>>>I can understand the frustration. Once I had the same router but I
>>>>>returned it and went with a different option. That said, I can think
>>>>>of several possibilities that are software related that can cause a
>>>>>problem but it would help if someone has the same router in case it's
>>>>>a router setup problem too.
>>>>>
>>>>>I think the transcript would be helpful so we don't have to ask too
>>>>>many questions like which OS are you using to begin with? Are you
>>>>>using any firewall? Are you using the card's wireless utility or
>>>>>windows builtin stuff (ie- Wireless Zero Confirguration)? Do you need
>>>>>to use any mac address in the router's setup? Usually when first
>>>>>setting up any wireless connection, it's best to use NO security
>>>>>(firewalls, wep, etc...) initially to know you can make a wireless
>>>>>connection, then you can begin to use the security features so that if
>>>>>it drops the connection, you can pin point the problem right away.
>>>>>You can also ping the router to see if that works. These are just
>>>>>the first things I can think of but I'm sure Ben, Chris, Journey, Tom
>>>>>and several others can also make some good suggestions to help you.
>>>>>Hang in there and be patient. I'm pretty confident as a group, we can
>>>>>get you connected wirelessly !!!
>>>>>
>>>>>ps-- sometimes I've seen suggestions about using the same brand
>>>>>router and card to make setup easier but I wouldn't spend more money
>>>>>to do this but if this option is available to you, you might consider
>>>>>it as a last resort. Personally I never needed to resort to this
>>>>>method but I've had to chew my nails more than once <g>.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Oops.... Ok I see you already said XP for the OS (my bad).
>>>>BTW, if anyone suggests a new card, well all I can say is I have the
>>>>same wireless card (using XP too) and it works flawlessly for me in a
>>>>large 2 story home. I know some don't like this card.
>>>
>>>Ok, gang! I have uninstalled the wireless router (i couldn't even get
>>>a wired connection with any of the three computers i have hooked up to
>>>it last night) and reinstalled my BEFSR41.
>>>
>>>I will reinstall the WRT54G, get it going with all computers on my
>>>network via wire, then check out the firewall issues as you mention
>>>and try to get the thing going via wireless. I will let you know one
>>>way or the other how things work out.
>>>
>>>Thanks for your suggestions... I'll be getting back!
>>>
>>>Mark
>>
>> Well, I tried to reinstall the WRT54G, and my computer wouldn't even
>> recognize it. Packed it up and sent it back to Newegg.com.
>> As an alternative, I ordered a US Robotics 5451 Wireless MAXg Access
>> Point. Hopefully, I can just plug that in to my existing Linksys
>> BEFSR41 router and get connected wirelessly to the laptop and the
>> I-touch's while maintaining wired connectivity to the other desktops
>> on my home network.
>>
>> Thanks again,
>>
>> Mark
>
>what do you mean by you tried to 'reinstall' it? did you try the approach I
>sugested? how far did you get? i think having an access point actually
>adds complication to what should be a very simple setup.
>

I know the WRT54G is a "good" router but my experience has not been
too good with it either. It was giving me some problems trying to get
it to handshake with a new dsl modem and I've read stories from some
with setup problems too. I'm confident I'd get it to work if I was
more patient but at the time I had other problems so I wasn't looking
for any more and luckily had another option which worked for me with
less stress. But if I had to buy a router, all said, it would be my
router of choice.