[scadboy]

Okay, I searched and didn't find anything that quite fits into what I'm dealing with, so any help would be appreciated

here's the setup,

One cable modem, connected to the upstream port of a seven port ethernet hub
A Belkin F5D6130 Wireless Adapter, connected to the seventh port of the ethernet hub
A dell tower of somesort, connected to the second port of the hub through a USB-Ethernet adapter
An IBM Thinkpad connected to the network over wifi
my PowerBook G3 connected to the network over wifi

Here's the problem,

Any of the three computers in this scenario can connect to the internet simultaneously directly using the ethernet hub,
once the two laptops attempt to connect over wifi, only one of the laptops succeeds in connecting to the network at a time, while the Dell desktop seems unaffected.

Both laptops see the network signal, but only one gets assigned an i.p. address and router address, the other laptop self-assigns a (faulty) i.p. address, doesn't get a router address, and fails to connect to the internet.

Now, this is the real pain, none of the three machines is capable of opening a direct connection to the wireless router (Belkin F5D6130) to configure it. The dell desktop, using the belkin wireless network management app it came with, can see the wireless router, but fails when attempting to connect to it, using the default username and password of WLAN and MiniAP. A hard reset of the router, as recommended by Belkin's troubleshooting page, yields the same result, "connection failed." No combination of default username / password, or cap sensitive or no cap sensitive, works. The router does not return an "incorrect password" or username error, just the cryptic "connection failed."

Despite connecting successfully to the internet over wifi, the Thinkpad cannot "see" the Belkin router using Belkin's management app, connecting over wifi. The thinkpad does not have ethernet built in.

There wouldn't seem to be any application that would allow me to configure the router from my Mac laptop. iStumbler sees the router, but can't do anything to it, though I don't think it's for that sort of thing anyway.

Any suggestions for what might be interfering and causing these strange symptoms?

please!

thanks, michael

[Uday's Carcass]

instead of a ethernet hub, why not just get a wireless router with ethernet ports for wired machines? this should eliminate your problems and give you a more cohesive LAN.

[scadboy]

Originally posted by Uday's Carcass:
instead of a ethernet hub, why not just get a wireless router with ethernet ports for wired machines? this should eliminate your problems and give you a more cohesive LAN.

That's what I said, but 'twas not my choice, this is at the office I work at, and no, we don't have an "it" staff.

so, how about some suggestions for dealing with what I've got?

thanks

[aaanorton]

Sorry, but you're expecting a hub to do the work of a router. It doesn't work like that. There are oodles of threads here on this very subject. Do a search. And get a router.
I REALLY like my Netgear MR814 and for 35 bucks (!) today, it's really a no-brainer. This would replace both your hub and Belkin AP.