I'm probably missing something obvious here, since I'm not a complete moron with computers, but I can't figure this out. Here's the story, in bullet form, with appropriate smileys.

-Owned computer for 2 years, had wireless connection through Linksys external wireless card, and RoadRunner cable internet from TWC. Run it through a wireless router so all 3 housemates can use internet. Worked great. Good times.

-Got sweet new hard drive for computer.

-Installed new hard drive, works great.

-Internet connection works wonderfully when plugged in with ethernet cable directly to router.

-Installed Linksys software and external wireless card with new hard drive, input security code, connection is made, ~90% signal strength, and the network connections in control panel shows the wireless connection is enabled and working. I can even see how many packets I've sent and received through the wireless connection.

-Open Firefox, website not found.

-Rinse, lather, repeat.

I can't figure out what's going on here. When I did this with my old drive, it worked fine. There's nothing wrong with the router or modem, the fact that I'm typing this right now on the same computer is a testament to that (I'm back connected with the hard cable now). My feeling is that somehow my IP address is bad or not recognized by Firefox or something like that. I tried to repair the IP address, and the repairing failed. Is there a difference in my IP address between a hard connection and a wireless connection?

I've even stooped so low as to call tech support for Time Warner and Linksys. Obviously these were wastes of time.

Like I said, I hope I'm just missing something obvious here. Plz 2 help.

[Edited on December 3, 2006 at 11:06 PM. Reason : cuz]

12/3/2006 11:05:16 PM

ok, so just a couple of dumb questions...

what IP address does your computer currently have?

does your wireless router have the correct IP/DNS information?

what happens if you plug this computer directly into the router and/or the cable modem?

12/4/2006 6:26:43 AM

when my xbox doesnt work on wireless i just let it auto-retrieve the ip and specific the dns myself. dont know how it manages to not send out the dns properly, but it manages.

12/4/2006 7:39:25 AM

^See I figured something like that was going on. That somehow either the IP or DNS is screwed up. How do I do that (auto-retrieve and specify the DNS) in Windows XP?

Quote :

"ok, so just a couple of dumb questions... what IP address does your computer currently have? does your wireless router have the correct IP/DNS information? what happens if you plug this computer directly into the router and/or the cable modem?"

1. I'm at work now, so I don't remember exactly, but 169.25...yadayada yad
2. Not sure. That's kind of what I'm trying to find out.
3. It works fine if you plug it in to either the router or cable modem.

Also, I'm quite sure there's nothing wrong with the wireless network, since my roommate is using it in the room next door.

12/4/2006 10:18:11 AM

start-run-cmd

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

also try bridging the networks.

12/4/2006 10:28:48 AM

Thanks. I'll give that a shot when I get home. I have a few other ideas to try also.

12/4/2006 10:52:46 AM

^^So I tried the ipconfig release and renew. Here's what happened. This could be the problem, that the wireless connection doesn't have a DNS suffix or a default gateway. This is what it said:

An error occurred while renewing interface Wireless Network Connection 2 : unabl
e to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.5.244
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : nc.rr.com
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1


Any ideas? And thanks for the suggestions received already. Also, if I do ipconfig /all, it lists the same thing, that the wireless connection doesn't have a DNS suffix or a default gateway, while the Local area connection (which still works) has both.

12/4/2006 8:01:29 PM

Triple-post. Nevermind. I figured it out. I'll spare you the details, suffice it to say it was "user error." Thanks again for the suggestions, though.

12/4/2006 9:25:27 PM