My 7 yr old laptop's not connecting at work with WIFI?

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:18 pm

It's running Win2K so maybe that's partly the problem but I bought a new WIFI USB device for it. It connects perfectly to my home wireless access point, goes online.
Today I brought it to work where there are two access points found. I know the password, put it in and it'll connect to either access point (good signal) but fails to go onto the internet "address not found".
A couple other people there have newer laptops running Vista and those go online, wirelessly w/o any problems.
One guy says that at his house with his laptop running XP, when another person comes over with his laptop running Vista, his older laptop loses it's wireless connection.
Any ideas?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:09 pm

Hard to say. If you bought a new recent model USB Wifi NIC then you shoudln't have any problem. Win2K has no native WiFi handler like WinXP so the Wifi manager that is installed with the NIC should be your default Wifi manager and it should support the latest encryption if you bought a new NIC.

It's possible you bought an older model NIC and your office is using a newer encryption like WPA2 it doesn't support. All it may take is just downloading the latest drivers for the NIC.

If it still doesn't work take the NIC back and try another manufacturer. I personally prefer Linksys. I rarely have any trouble with them. Belkin are the worst. Netgear is so-so and D-Link is okay.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:34 pm

It's a Linksys nic. I ran the SW disc and had no probs here at home with it but at work, although its program shows that it's connected, no internet.
I have to think that at work, I'm lacking some small detail to make that work but I don't know what that might be.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:44 pm

Doesn't Win2k not support WPA2 either? Though it wouldn't be connecting at all if that was the case. Are you sure you didn't forget about a proxy or something? Check to make sure you are actually getting an ip address.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:20 pm

Actually even if you have the wrong encryption it will still connect, but do exactly what he describes. I've seen this many times when using an older laptop that doesn't support the newer encryptions. It accepts the encryption key and connects but there's no Internet because it doesn't actualy establish communication.

And yes, I think there is a WPA2 issue with Win2K but I'm not sure. The Linksys Wifi manager should still handle it.

Evil, what you need to do is find out exactly what encryption you're using at the office and then find out if your NIC supports it under Win2K. As I said before, it may just require downloading the latest drivers.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:21 am

Can you explain exactly what I need to look for in either my laptop (specifics?) or with one there that is working?

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:50 am

Just for kicks, I brought my newer 2.5 yr old laptop in running XP SP3, built in WiFi and it instantly detects the network, type in PW and it then works flawlessly here.
I'd rather use my older POS laptop here however if I can figure out why it's not going online.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:56 am

I'd have to agree with FP, it's definatly an encryption issue. You'll need to see what your new laptop says the secuirty type is. You can find that info in the wireless adapter properties. Then we can give you more info. Without knowing what encryption the WiFi is using it's hard for us to determine what kinds of problems you could be having.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:38 am

Well the laptop that's not working won't tell you anything because it's not seeing the correct encryption. On your other laptop you might be able to see the encryption type if you're using the NIC manufacturer's Wifi manager - there should be a network status window. The Windows Wifi manager doesn't tell you anything. Or you could just ask your IT guy at the office what encryption they're using.

I think Net Stumbler will also tell you what encryption each detected wifi network is using: http://www.majorgeeks.com/NetStumbler_d4447.html

You want to run it on the newer laptop that works with the office network.

Have you tried upgrading the driver for the Wifi NIC on the old laptop yet? Good chance that will fix it.

-------
EDIT:

Okay, I did a little Googling and Win2K does NOT support WPA or WPA2, which is almost certainly what you're using at the office (WEP is can be easily cracked now so your office SHOULD be using WPA).

Apparently, from what I've read, whether or not you can use the WPA/WPA2 on Win2K is completely dependent on the software that comes with the NIC. Apparently in most cases you need to download a "Wireless Supplicant" utility.

Apparently this one from T-Mobile works. Give it a try: http://client.hotspot.t-mobile.com/

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:54 pm

OK thanks for all the good advice. I'll DL that one from T Mobile tonight and see if the older lappy works here tomorrow.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:46 am

Oooh-yeah! Works like a charm.

Thanks again