Wireless Access Point issues

[rsobers]

Hey. I'm having problems with my laptop's wireless connection at home. My network is setup as follows:

Cable modem is connected to a wired router. The router is configured for DHCP.
3 computers are connected to the wired router and successfully get IP addresses from the router.
1 wireless access point is connected to the wired router. The access point has DHCP turned off.
1 laptop is connected to the wireless access point.

The laptop was working fine to begin with. I connected to my wireless network and was assigned an internal IP address 192...

Then, I brought my laptop to my friend's house and connected to her wireless network (her wirless router does DHCP). Everything is fine.

I came back home and tried to re-connect to my wireless network and I can connect to the WAP but I can't get an internal IP address (from my router). My IP shows some external 169.something.something IP address. I can connect to a neighbor's wireless network and get an IP address just fine.

I found that when I reboot my wired router I can then gain an IP address.

Any idea why this happens?

Thanks so much!!

[TonyT]

Make sure your AP is set to a static ip address. For example, if your router address is 192.168.1.1 then set the AP ip to 192.168.1.2. This ensures the AP always has an ip address from the router and serves to retain its separateness on the lan. Then, on your laptop, set it up so windows manages the wifi connection, e.g. don't use the adapter manufacturer's wifi utility. If windows manages the wifi things are much smoother.

Rt click the windows wifi icon in the tray and select "View available wifi networks". Then click on "Change the order of preferred networks". Your friend's wlan is likely set as the first in the list now. Move your wlan to the top of the list. If other wlans are above your wlan in the list, then windows will try to connect to the first one at boot and fail, and then will assign a local ip address such as 169.xx.xx.xx. You must manage the preferrred wifi networks as well as their advanced options.

[rsobers]

Thanks. I'll give that a try when I get home. I currently let the Intel Pro tool manage WiFi. I'll switch and let Windows manage it. I'll also give the WAP a static IP.

Also, I dual boot with Ubuntu Linux and I have the same problem there as well.

The thing that's weird is that if I reboot the wired router all is good. It's like when I reconnect to the WAP after being off on another network for a while it doesn't know to tell the router I need an IP again. If I try to manaully renew the IP it fails.

Thanks again.

[YeOldeStonecat]

The 192.168 address is normal, when you get a 169.254 address it means Windows could not detect a DHCP service to obtain an IP from..so it self assigns.

WinXP can deal with many different wireless networks..my laptop here has around 50 of them it connects to on and off. Some open, most secured.

If you had to bounce your AP...it probably jammed up..just by coincidence from your timing of coming home from another wireless network.

Keeping your home WLAN with a unique SSID helps...as IMO, I think the wireless utility can get wonky connecting to different LANs of the same SSID.

The laptop was working fine to begin with. I connected to my wireless network and was assigned an internal IP address 192...

Then, I brought my laptop to my friend's house and connected to her wireless network (her wirless router does DHCP). Everything is fine.

I came back home and tried to re-connect to my wireless network and I can connect to the WAP but I can't get an internal IP address (from my router). My IP shows some external 169.something.something IP address. I can connect to a neighbor's wireless network and get an IP address just fine.

I found that when I reboot my wired router I can then gain an IP address.

Latest firmware on the router and AP generally helps too.