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HouseSold · Dec 19, 2002, 02:26 PM

I need someone's technical assistance for my son to connect his Toshiba laptop with Windoze XP Pro to our Airport bases station (snow white) We configured all in the Airport setup and he connects with the base fine but cannot access the internet through his Explorer browser. His trendware card communicates fine, but can't turn on Airport and dial out.

Any ideas or help appreciated.

Trendwares tech support was excellent, but stated their success was on laptops with DSL or cable modems, not with Airport.

ghporter · Dec 19, 2002, 05:12 PM

How about some details? What are the Trendware card's settings, and how is your ABS set up? Just seeing the network from an XP machine doesn't mean it's connecting. Does he get an IP address? (On the XP machine go to a command line prompt and type "ipconfig" (no quotes) to see what the card's address is.)

HouseSold · Dec 19, 2002, 05:45 PM

Thanks for responding.

ipconfig returns:

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Autoconfiguration IP address:169.254.244.253

ABS setup is WEP deselected

Channel 5 selected

Open network

Trendware Tech made a comment that they designed these for DSL and broadband and their card works successfully, but never tried it with a WAP modem setup.

I also downloaded Apple's Airport Admin software for windows, but it isn't the same format and doesn't connect either.

HouseSold · Dec 19, 2002, 08:46 PM

Apparently the Trendware PCMCIA 802.11b card is linking and id'ing correctly.

It seems that the Windows XP on the Toshiba laptop won't connect to the base station. We have other Apples connecting fine.

Any thoughts about the XP connections at the base station is greatly appreciated.

ghporter · Dec 19, 2002, 11:31 PM

the 163.254.254.253 address doesn't look right-AirPort Base Stations use a 192.168.X.X address range, and Apple products that don't receive an automatic address default to a 163.... self-assigned address. My guess is that you're not connecting.

One big issue could be that you don't have the right network name-the SSID-selected.

In XP right click on "My Network Places" and select "Properties." You should see your wireless card in the new window that pops up. Right click it and select "Properties" to see whether or not you're getting anything. There should be a tab for "Wireless Networks" or something like that. What do you see there?

unix2mac · Dec 30, 2002, 06:49 PM

Originally posted by HouseSold:
Thanks for responding.

ipconfig returns:

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Autoconfiguration IP address:169.254.244.253

ABS setup is WEP deselected

Channel 5 selected

Open network

Trendware Tech made a comment that they designed these for DSL and broadband and their card works successfully, but never tried it with a WAP modem setup.

I also downloaded Apple's Airport Admin software for windows, but it isn't the same format and doesn't connect either.

I don't think your wireless adapter is receiving an IP address from the ABS. I've had a similar situation where the NIC in my IBM laptop assigns a very similar IP address to what you describe when it cannot contact its DHCP server (in my case a Linksys router).

I would check to see if the adapter can see any networks by using the utilities in XP (I use W2K) or the client program for the adapter. It could be that the SSID is not set properly.

You could also try typing "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" to see if you can get an IP address from the ABS.

mac-at-kearsarge · Jan 2, 2003, 12:13 AM

I didn't read the whole thread carefully, but it could be something simple such as DNS. At school where I'm the Wireless NEt Admin, I fund that Windows machines that get IP via DHCP, sometime benfit from having the DNS address(es) put in manually.

tooki · Jan 2, 2003, 03:18 AM

No, it's not DNS. Not with an ad-hoc IP address.

The wireless card is not linking up because you don't have the network selected properly (the SSID, as ghporter and unix2mac mentioned). A 169.254.x.x IP address is the universal "ad-hoc" IP range that an operating system will assign a network interface when a DHCP lease cannot be obtained.

Select your airport network again. You may have to use the Airport Admin utility on your mac to generate a hex WEP key, if your wireless card software doesn't use the same password generating algorithm.

tooki

HouseSold · Jan 3, 2003, 02:08 AM

Everything is on hold till my order from TechDepot arrives next week. Also got fed up sharing 56K at home. So SBC (formerly Pacific Bell) has a work order for DSL to our home.

On order are a couple of SMC 22 mbps PCMCIA cards (for the PeeCees) and an SMC 2404 wireless 22mbps matching access point/router to use with or without ABS.

The Trendware cards and D-Link+ WAP went back.

I was able to connect with the SMC 11/22 card I had used, so decided to order my own because of great signal strength. Speaking of which...we live on a hill and I am able to see and connect to a couple of unknown, non-protected DSL points in our neighborhood with only the G4 PowerBook and ABS. It was this fluke that led me to turning WEP on in my ABS and after experiencing High Speed (someone else's) led me to order our own DSL; we have a T1 line network at the office, so once tasting high speed, it's difficult to do without. I will post after setting up to share observations.

Thanks for all the input so far.

ChadC · Jan 3, 2003, 02:19 AM

Just to add in...

I recentlt implemented a wireless network in my house. I went with a linksys 2.4 ghz 11mbps router as well as airport cards in macs and D-Link cards in PeeCee's... no problems at all... very easy setup... just a lil config on the router and thats it. We are sharing cable internet.

-ChadC

ghporter · Jan 3, 2003, 03:39 PM

House,

You won't regret going with SBC's DSL. The only problems usually encountered by SBC customers (I'm one!) is in getting the connection connected in the first place. Once that's done, you should be cruising!