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witulski · Oct 12, 2004, 11:29 PM

Hey folks, I'm beyond frustrated, as is always the case when I'm working in Windows...

I got a 802.11b wireless PCI card to get my roommate's PC on our LAN. He'd been connected with Ethernet before, but the cable was intrusive, so we decided to go wireless.

Well, we installed the card (an Encore ENLWI-PCI1-NT) and its installation software. The included configuration program seems to be able to see and connect to the network, but Mozilla Firebird and Outlook Express can't connect to the Web or mail servers. I guess it's some Windows settings that are out of place, but I can't figure it out.

I've already spent an hour cursing. I tried to search for existing posts/threads, but couldn't seem to find any, and I'm just too frustrated and annoyed right now. Can anyone help? Please? I HATE working on Windows!!!!!!! Argh!!!!

Thanks,
Greg

witulski · Oct 13, 2004, 12:30 AM

Still searching past threads... still frustrated...

The PC is running Windows98 if that helps. The Ethernet card is still installed from before. I noticed one website suggesting to take out "other networking cards" because the computer might still look to them instead of the wireless card to connect... which I think is ridiculous because either it should know better or you should be able to tell it which card to use.

Still FRUSTRATED! God I loathe windows.

Seattle · Oct 13, 2004, 01:10 AM

Does the wired network card have a static IP address? If it does change it to DHCP. If you click on start then run and type in winipcfg does the wireless card get a vaild IP address? make sure the DNS servers are correct. can you ping the wireless router?

witulski · Oct 13, 2004, 01:42 AM

Well, my roommate took out the wired card already, so I didn't bother with changing its settings for now. Still no connect in Firebird.

Pinging the router at 192.168.0.1 works, and so does pinging my Powerbook that's on the wireless network. The winipcfg shows an IP of 192.168.0.4, and the Netgear wireless router's admin page indeed shows "192.168.0.4" as a connected device.

It looks like the card is connected, but Firebird and Outlook don't know how to talk to it. I tried bypassing the DNS by entering Google's IP address in Firebird, but it still doesn't connect. It seems the apps just aren't seeing the connection - something I've run into in OS X before but have been able to fix pretty easily with a few adjustments to the Network panel. I can't figure out the equivalent in the Windows settings though.

Unless I'm still missing something.

Seattle · Oct 13, 2004, 10:11 AM

Are you sure the Default gateway is correct? Make sure there is no proxy settings setup on the windows PC. have you tried to ping IP addresses on the internet? I have seen spyware and viruses cause this type of problem sometime.

witulski · Oct 13, 2004, 03:13 PM

There's no proxy settings... I'm not sure what a 'default gateway' is. I'm researching it.

Right now the whole thing keeps BSOD'ing, so I can't ping anything.

Seattle · Oct 13, 2004, 09:19 PM

Originally posted by witulski:
There's no proxy settings... I'm not sure what a 'default gateway' is. I'm researching it.

Right now the whole thing keeps BSOD'ing, so I can't ping anything.

The default gateway is the same as the router IP (192.168.0.1). The default gateway lets the computer know where to route traffic when the destination is not on the same network (Same subnet).

When you look at network properties what services, clients and protocols do you have?

witulski · Oct 19, 2004, 02:18 PM

UPDATE:
Looks like the card itself may have been in a bad slot, or seated badly. We took it out and reseated it in a different slot, and now everything's working. Of course, this wasn't before we took the time to do a clean reinstall of Windows... argh.

Lesson learned: make sure the card is seated properly.

Thanks for all the help.
Greg