And its pissing me off. I bought a linksys wireless bb router a few weeks ago and a card for my sisters laptop. After 3 hrs on the phone with the guy from tech reconfig everything to try and get it to work, it finally did. For about an hour. Then, she would get kicked off, or much worse, I would get kicked off, it reminded me of my days on aol. Anyway, I went to bestbuy told them my problem and they said it was the router bc that is not suppose to happen, so I exchanged it for a d-link. Now I have a Linksys wireless laptop card in my sisters laptop and a d-link router on my desktop. My desktop is fine, but her comp cant get online. Tech support at d-link was useless, but I know there are a lot of people on here who could probably do this in their sleep. Any help would be greatly appreciated, specifically how to get her laptop to work from the desktop router. Thank you.
Is the laptop getting any signal at all? (it may have a light on the task bar or the PC card itself). You may have the WEP encryption enabled or the settings might be different because of different manufacturs... in other words, there are security features that protect you from other people using your ISP... I'm not an expert on these..but I bought some Netgear equip and had it running in 10minutes....and just installed a different brand system for my girlfriends father. No problem there either.
If you're using WEP encryption on the router you need to make sure that the WEP key matches the one on the laptop. Otherwise, the best way to go out configuring the thing is to disable any type of encryption and security settings. Get it working then start adding security. You should be able to enter the network address of the router in your browser and configure it that way. The address should be in the documentation. On the router, disable WEP security (for now), set the authentication type to "Open" and make sure it broadcasts its SSID which is like the name of the wireless network. If the SSID is being broadcast, regardless of whether a connection can be made or not, a laptop will be able to "see" that there's a network available. If the laptop is also configured for no security then you should be able to establish a connection right there. Also, is your router set to use DHCP? If so, make sure the laptop is configured to accept a dynamic IP. Don't worry about the fact that the brands are different, they should work together flawlessly. --opm8
One other thought and perhaps one you've already checked - but make sure the router and the laptop card use the same speed/frequencies for the wireless networking. Also, make sure you have the wireless network defined in the router the same as you have it defined on the laptop (e.g., name of network, region, etc.).
I disabled the encryption, the guy from bestbuy said he had a dlink and a linksys running together, no problem. I am getting reception from the laptop the green lights on the card are flashing....I presume its working, I am just trying to figure out how to get the card to recognize the router. Thanks for the tips so far, but its still not working, should I call linksys?
If you have a 2.4 ghz phone base next or close to the router then consider that a potential source of your problems. John
If the green light is flashing, it's not connecting. When it's connected, the green light stays on solid. I have a netgear router, desktop connected by hardwire and a laptop with a little usb wireless adapter. The usb adapter worked great for a few weeks and when it was working the green light stayed on solid. It quit a few days ago, and I can only assume it's a hardware failure. When the laptop powers on, the green light blinks and blinks, and it never connects. It's currently back tethered to a 25 foot cat5 cable. My daughter's pc upstairs has a netgear pci wireless adapter, and it continues to work like a charm. As in the other instances, it all took about 15 minutes to set up and worked from the get go.
No 2.4 phone in the room, there are some in the house. The lights were blinking when it was working too. I am just trying to avoid another 3hr phone call with these guys. Thanks for the tips so far....
Cartm, I wouldn't be so sure about the blinking lights meaning no connection. I have an Asante wireless card and blinking lights means it's connected, otherwise it's dark. What does your wireless connection properties dialog say? Does it pop up saying it's identified a network? Don't go by blinking lights alone 'cuz who knows what your brand of card is configured like. --opm8