mark1.thompson45@btinternet.com hath wroth:

>the 2 routers have different SSID's
>they are on different channels [in original post]

Good. That should work.

>the 2 pc's/routers are completely seperate, no bridging.

Ok, that eliminates that possibility.

>pc 2 does work when connected over cat 5 to router 2 [in original
>post]

I missed that. Sorry. That means that broadcasts are not going
through the wireless part of the Linksys router.

>both are winxp platforms
>both had dhcp servers running [range 192.168.1.100-149]

I would not run both DHCP servers with overlapping ranges. If you
happen to accidentally create a bridge between the two networks
(easily done), then the DHCP servers would get confused as both are
issuing IP's from each others address pool. I suggest changing it to:
Router-1 .100 -> .129
Router-2 .130 -> .159
That also has the benifit of letting you know which router issued the
IP address.

>In my earlier post

I'm not going to go searching for your earlier post.

>I mentioned that I had tried dynamically
>configuring the wireless connection IP and this had not entirely
>worked, i.e. the wireless icon stated that it was connected but from
>the PC i could not ping the router IP, well I have got it working now,
>I switched of DHCP on router 2 [which I did not do initially], I can
>now ping the router [192.168.1.1] over the wireless connection.

Do the two routers perhaps have the same IP address (192.168.1.1)????
Are they in the same class C IP block (192.168.1.xxx)? The
aformentioned description sounds like either accidental bridging or
duplicate IP's.

>A
>further complication was that once the wirelss connection was up and I
>can talk to the router I then have to setup a VPN connection into my
>ISP as this is my corporate broadband, this did not work until I
>enabled RIP on the router.

Bingo. You definately have the two routers bridged somewhere. RIP
broadcasts from each router is advertising that they both have the
best route to the internet. Your computer can't seem to decide which
is the best route and getting lost. You can see the effect with
traceroute to something on the internet. Methinks you'll find that
your path is going through BOTH routers or the wrong router. Turning
on RIP means that the two routers are now talking to each other and
negotiating the best route to the internet. This is the way it's
suppose to work when you have multiple routes to the internet and can
only happen when you have an accidental bridge (or ethernet LAN) that
will connect you simultaneously to BOTH routers.

>I am happy that I can at least get connected now even though it is a
>static address I have configured, I have read loads of posts however
>which elude to the same issues with Linksys routers and Dell laptops
>not acquiring DHCP addressing.

90% of those are problems with ASCII versus Hex WEP keys. MS does not
supply sufficient diagnostics for mere mortals to figure out what
point during the connection process has failed. All the user sees is
a permanent "Aquiring IP address", so they think DHCP has failed.

Please re-read my rhetorical questions from my previous posting. You
managed to answer perhaps 1/3 of my questions. I didn't spend 30
minutes writing this so that you can convince me that you've done
everything correctly and that it should work. At the very least,
kindly try just the WAG54S and PC with all the other stuff turned off
and see if it works.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558