On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 12:51:13 -0700, Funex <funex@funex.arg>
wrote:

>OK. The computer running is win98SE, all patched up to date.
>
>Socket 478 Celeron 1.7GHz.
>MSI 651M mainboard

>diamond monster sound mx400 in PCI slot

Try the card in the slot the sound card is in, and leave the
sound card out temporarily.


>Linksys Wireless PCI card connects to Linksys home wireless router.

What evidence do you have that it connects?
I'm not doubting it (yet), but it might be useful for you to
expand a lot on these related parts. Likewise, I've snipped
things out of your post that shouldn't be related at all,
can be ignored.


>300watt power supply. came with the case, which is MicroATX.

Voltage levels good on the 5V and 12V rails?


>Everything's working great, until all of a sudden, no internet access.
>No network connection. Everything else works, solitaire, the
>calculator, everything. But no network. I reinstall windows, thinking
>it's bad DUN or something. No work.

At this point, it was most important to not do any of the
things you did below, to leave the system static and do the
basic networking troubleshooting steps before changing
hardware. In that way we might have a better chance of
isolating it (by reducing variables, instead of increasing
them by adding even more hardware).

When you have no internet access, first thing to do is check
the signal strength. For all we know your neighbor might
have gotten a new 2.4GHz telephone and is on it all the
time. If signal strength is good, ping the router or other
computer, or try a LAN connection. Figure out at what point
you see the first indication of the network failing, NOT
what the result is- that you dont' have internet access.
Lack of internet access is only a result of the actual
problem.


>
>OK. So, I troubleshoot, and put in a wired network card into the same
>PCI slot as the wireless card. No access. Fine. I'll do it the hard
>way. Reformat. reinstall win98, same problem!

Did the link lights on the NIC and the
switch/whatever-on-other-end, light? Did it have the right
IP range address assigned? What did (command prompt...)
IPCONFIG /ALL show?

Could it ping itself (it's IP address) ? How about anything
else on the lan? Could you pull up the router configuration
screen over HTTP (web browser)? Does your router/whatever
have a HTTP configuration screen? If you're using Windows
ICS instead of a router, can some other PC ping that one?
These are all standard troubleshooting steps to take before
reinstalling the OS or switching any hardware. Pick a
hardware and operating system configuration and leave it
alone, plug away at getting it working then proceed on to
trying the other one. Generally, the wired ethernet card
should be easier to get working... hopefully that card is
in a good/working state, as-in, it would work on some other
system or network if all things were right with it.


>
>I took out the sound card, and moved the wired network card into that
>PCI slot...success!

Hmm, I should read ahead more often. The
troubleshooting-networking stuff above still applies though.


>Well, sort of. Now I have wired access. But I need
>wireless. So, move the wireless card to the new slot and failure. No
>network access. Swap back the wired card, access.
>Put both cards in at the same time...access through the wired
>connection only.

Well of course THEN, you will only have it bound to one
adapter at a time.


>Fine. Its a bad wireless card I think. I happen to have a wireless PCI
>card (new belkin in a box) lying around, so I pop it in, and....no go.

You might check on a bios update for your motherboard, but
it's way too early to conclude (blame) it's the problem, so
read any available bios notes on motherboard manufacturer's
site to see if anything stands out.


>
>I should mention by the way that both cards did find the wireless
>network SSID, allow the entry of the WEP key, connect to it, and show
>'green' connections. But no network access!!!

What are you calling "network access"?
Did you try pinging anything/everything?
Does your router (or is it through an access point or ??)
show this system in it's connected-client list (if it has
one), or at least that card's MAC address?

>
>So. Is it the motherboard?

I doubt it, would think odds are low but not impossible.


>two bad wireless cards? One new in a box?

Also low odds, not impossible, but insufficient info about
the state of the wireless connections. Swapping these cards
around might've just confused windows, when you did the
reinstall was it overtop of an existing installation or a
clean install? Do you have the wireless card manufacturer's
utility installed? Often it doesn't install by default but
is on the same CD, or available on their website. Sometimes
it is installed but doesnt' run by default, you have to hunt
for it.

>Also, I have a laptop, running a wireless PCMCIA card, and it's
>working fine...so I know the "network" is there and working.

Working, but at good signal strength where this desktop is?
Desktops with PCI cards having antennas sticking out the
back, or especially the really cheap (tiny, thin) wifi cards
can have rather horrific range, dropping out even at medium
range. If your card isn't dropping down to a slower speed
already, see if the utility adjusts that and try for lower.
It could be that you have multiple problems, not just one
causing ALL of the issues you're seeing.

>
>It confounds me. What am I missing here? Wired works. Wireless
>doesn't? Could a motherboard fail like this?

If you had a really bad computer case, or the board was
canted funny on the standoffs so the cards weren't sitting
in the slots right, that might cause a problem, or if the
slots had a contact defect or a lot of gunk (like in a smoky
or other airborn polluted environment) then perhaps bad
contact with the cards. You'd probably be able to see this
though, if you had a good view of the board slot and a
strong flashlight.

Since there are a lot of variables we can't resolve, I won't
speculate further until we have more info about the state of
one of the cards, I suggest you pick the card you consider
the better of the two, put it back in and run the windows
"Internet Connection Wizard" or "Connect to Internet" (or
whatever it's called on Win98 I don't recall, but IIRC it's
off the start menu, maybe in Communications folder). Then
reboot windows- win98 loves to be rebooted.

Come to think of it, on win98 you have another tool besides
Ipconfig, it's on the start menu (start-> run -> (type)
"winipcfg" ).