wireless being a pain in the network

[liljim]

I have a wireless card thats driving me nuts.

Here's my setup

Main desktop running as DHCP server, wired to router -XP Pro sp2
2 notebooks on wireless cards -XP Home sp1
another desktop on wireless pci card -XP Pro sp2

Router is running as access point with dhcp disabled because im using dial up.

The problem is the desktop on wireless seems to get kicked from the network alot. When this happens, it refuses to refresh the IP, which then causes a limited or no connectivity message. I disabled all firewalls which didnt help. I tried disconnecting/reconnecting the wireless network, no IP. I can reboot the machine and sometimes get an IP, most often not. I can reboot the server and get an ip but the cycle will eventually start all over again. I ran a patch that i found but as usual, didnt help either.

The notebooks work great, i've never had connectivity problems with them. I kinda feel like its a problem with the card im using in the desktop but i dont have another one to test with, i also figured it couldnt hurt to ask some of the most brilliant minds on the net Maybe yall can think of something that im missing.

Thanks, liljim

[The_Duck]

When you get the problem, did you check the device manager to make sure there was no yellow exclamation marks near the card? I'm sure you probably thought of that judging by your level of experience but I thought I would ask anyway .

My best guess is a hardware problem with the actual card or a driver problem...

[liljim]

Actually Duck, i havent. This is the strangest thing i've ever seen. The reason i got aggervated enough to ask about this is i was playing mp3's on that desktop today, the mp3's are located on the server. In the middle of a song it decides to try and refresh its IP, which it couldnt do. There's nothing worse than being kicked back, jamming to your favorite tunes, enjoying the new 5.1 speaker system, then nothing! I'll check the device manager on it Duck, thanks for bringing that up.

liljim

[The_Duck]

lol, beleive me, I understand the frustration

[icecube]

I would give everyone on your system a fix ip address.

I get a funny feeling that you have someone down the block that is freeriding on your wireless. Normally you log on with your wireless computer and it will try to get the same ip it had last time. If joe-steal-bandwith is on your wireless link, that computer cannnot access that IP your neighbor is using it--it couold be time for web encription.

Plus make sure that you have
Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP

things work better when thats enabled

Go to this web site and download the program. This will give you and idea of how many other wireless networks are within range of your system. 300 feet is a long way and I get the feeling that it might be more like 1,000 feet if not in an enclosed METAL building.

[liljim]

[icecube]

DHCP issues leases for those that are accessing the system. Here is a link to it.



I know that a system will have a certian number of leases avalible. And if the lease time is long, you can't get on unless a lease is avalible or until a lease expires. This is an especially agravating problem if you are repairing several systems and log on with each one. After a while your locked out waiting for a lease to expire.

I know our network guy would go back to the server and clean out the lease file or whatever, I never paid attention as to how he solved the issue.

Using fixed IP's should eliminate the issue.

[liljim]

Very interesting information, thanks alot. That kinda explains why the notebooks dont show any problems, there not running long enough to attempt a renewal.

[icecube]

There is a little more too it, If you log on with your laptop and say your system has 5 leases and each one is set for one hour, and you log on to the server 6 different times in one hour with that one laptop.

There are no more leases avalible on the 6th log in attempt. Even though its the same machine logging in. All of the other leases, even though they are not being used anymore, have to expire before the server will accept any more connections.