Help! Serious problems with wireless connectivity

[apaxfrenzy]

Greetings!

Ok, here's the deal...

This is the second time I have encountered this and I haven't a clue as to what's going on.

This house has Cox cable and Linksys Wireless-B router and range extender. On this network are two PCs and an iMac. The iMac is plugged in via Ethernet and it's working just fine (of course) however, the other 2 PCs are messed up. One of the PCs is plugged in via Ethernet and running Win98 and is not consistent with the internet connection at all. The other PC, a laptop running XP is suffering greatly. It has both wireless and ethernet. Regardless of whether you try to fix the ethernet or wireless connection, it just simply will not renew the IP address and for some reason it's picking ip an "Automatic Private Address" or something that is foreign like 169.254.x.x and Linksys address are ALWAYS 192.168.1.x. I can't figure out what's going on and this is the second time I have seen this. Does anyone know why this is happening? I don't think it could be a neighbor house with wireless, something is seriously jacked up.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks folks!

-Dave


Also, I have done just about everything from trying to release/renew, updating drivers, re-installing the network cards, etc. It just won't budge.

 

[whalen]

The 169.254 address is the address that Windows automatically generates when it cannot contact a DHCP server. Have you tried to set a static IP on either of those machines?

 

[apaxfrenzy]

No, I have not yet. With Cox cable, I always understood that ever computer needed to be automatic and not static. However, if the router will tell me the IP addresses of the machines I guess that could work? I will try that. Thanks!

-Dave

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: apaxfrenzyWith Cox cable, I always understood that ever computer needed to be automatic and not static. -Dave

You are confusing External ISP IP with Internal private LAN IP.

You should do some reading.

Link to: AnandTech - FAQ. Basic Options for Internet Connection Sharing

Link to: AnandTech - FAQ. Hubs, routers, switches, DSL, LANs, WANs...?

Link to: AnandTech - FAQ. What do I need for wireless Networking?

Ignore the prices in the links above. The same or similar hardware can be found for 60%-90% less.

The whole thing looks like this.

Link to: Diagram of Broadband Connection with Cable/DSL Router.

:sun: