I have a working desktop machine with an ethernet connection. I want to
add wireless to it, so I added the Netgear WG311 card. I am having
problems connecting wirelessly. Do I need to do anything to "tell" the
OS which adapter (ethernet or wifi) to use?
I can still connect to the network if I plug in the ethernet cable. The
wireless wizard shows the available wireless network with strong signal,
and I have been given a valid IP address, but I cannot connect to it. I
do not want to remove the ethernet card, because I want to maintain the
option of connecting with ethernet. My laptop can do, so why not my desktop?
Howard Delman <delman@blueneptune.com> wrote in
news:11kapsb209maaa4@corp.supernews.com:
> Win98se; WG311v3; 3Com 3C905B
>
> I have a working desktop machine with an ethernet connection. I want
> to add wireless to it, so I added the Netgear WG311 card. I am having
> problems connecting wirelessly. Do I need to do anything to "tell" the
> OS which adapter (ethernet or wifi) to use?
>
> I can still connect to the network if I plug in the ethernet cable.
> The wireless wizard shows the available wireless network with strong
> signal, and I have been given a valid IP address, but I cannot connect
> to it. I do not want to remove the ethernet card, because I want to
> maintain the option of connecting with ethernet. My laptop can do, so
> why not my desktop?
>
All I ever did was enable or disable the wire or wireless NIC on my
laptop through the Winddow XP O/S. If I was using the wire NIC, I would
enable it and disable the wireless NIC. You should be able to do the same
on the Win 9'x O/S I would think.
What do you mean you have been given and valid IP but you cannot connect
to it? What IP is it? If the IP starts with 169, then the machine doesn't
have an IP that is going to allow it to connect to the Internet.
Just what do you mean by this IP that you're getting?
Duane Arnold wrote:
> Howard Delman <delman@blueneptune.com> wrote in
> news:11kapsb209maaa4@corp.supernews.com:
>
>
>>Win98se; WG311v3; 3Com 3C905B
>>
>>I have a working desktop machine with an ethernet connection. I want
>>to add wireless to it, so I added the Netgear WG311 card. I am having
>>problems connecting wirelessly. Do I need to do anything to "tell" the
>>OS which adapter (ethernet or wifi) to use?
>>
>>I can still connect to the network if I plug in the ethernet cable.
>>The wireless wizard shows the available wireless network with strong
>>signal, and I have been given a valid IP address, but I cannot connect
>>to it. I do not want to remove the ethernet card, because I want to
>>maintain the option of connecting with ethernet. My laptop can do, so
>>why not my desktop?
>>
>
>
> All I ever did was enable or disable the wire or wireless NIC on my
> laptop through the Winddow XP O/S. If I was using the wire NIC, I would
> enable it and disable the wireless NIC. You should be able to do the same
> on the Win 9'x O/S I would think.
>
> What do you mean you have been given and valid IP but you cannot connect
> to it? What IP is it? If the IP starts with 169, then the machine doesn't
> have an IP that is going to allow it to connect to the Internet.
>
> Just what do you mean by this IP that you're getting?
>
> Duane :)
It is not clear to me how I would enable or disable the ethernet or
wireless card in Win98se. Anyone know?
My wireless card has an IP address of 192.168.0.4, which is a reasonable
address considering the rest of my LAN. I can use winipcfg to release
it and renew it, so I know I am capable of talking to the router. I
know it is coming in wirelessly, because I have the ethernet cable
disconnected.
"Howard Delman" <delman@blueneptune.com> wrote in message
news:11kapsb209maaa4@corp.supernews.com...
> Win98se; WG311v3; 3Com 3C905B
>
> I have a working desktop machine with an ethernet connection. I want to
> add wireless to it, so I added the Netgear WG311 card. I am having
> problems connecting wirelessly. Do I need to do anything to "tell" the
> OS which adapter (ethernet or wifi) to use?
>
> I can still connect to the network if I plug in the ethernet cable. The
> wireless wizard shows the available wireless network with strong signal,
> and I have been given a valid IP address, but I cannot connect to it. I
> do not want to remove the ethernet card, because I want to maintain the
> option of connecting with ethernet. My laptop can do, so why not my
> desktop?
>
> Howard Delman
> --
> Delman Design
> Digital design from conception to production
> http://www.blueneptune.com/~delman
Howard Delman <delman@blueneptune.com> wrote in
news:11kbdkr83tmg907@corp.supernews.com:
> Duane Arnold wrote:
>> Howard Delman <delman@blueneptune.com> wrote in
>> news:11kapsb209maaa4@corp.supernews.com:
>>
>>
>>>Win98se; WG311v3; 3Com 3C905B
>>>
>>>I have a working desktop machine with an ethernet connection. I want
>>>to add wireless to it, so I added the Netgear WG311 card. I am having
>>>problems connecting wirelessly. Do I need to do anything to "tell"
>>>the OS which adapter (ethernet or wifi) to use?
>>>
>>>I can still connect to the network if I plug in the ethernet cable.
>>>The wireless wizard shows the available wireless network with strong
>>>signal, and I have been given a valid IP address, but I cannot
>>>connect to it. I do not want to remove the ethernet card, because I
>>>want to maintain the option of connecting with ethernet. My laptop
>>>can do, so why not my desktop?
>>>
>>
>>
>> All I ever did was enable or disable the wire or wireless NIC on my
>> laptop through the Winddow XP O/S. If I was using the wire NIC, I
>> would enable it and disable the wireless NIC. You should be able to
>> do the same on the Win 9'x O/S I would think.
>>
>> What do you mean you have been given and valid IP but you cannot
>> connect to it? What IP is it? If the IP starts with 169, then the
>> machine doesn't have an IP that is going to allow it to connect to
>> the Internet.
>>
>> Just what do you mean by this IP that you're getting?
>>
>> Duane :)
>
> It is not clear to me how I would enable or disable the ethernet or
> wireless card in Win98se. Anyone know?
I would assume you would go to Control Panel/Network Connections and right-
click the LAN icon for the NIC -- Enable or Disable. I am not sure it was
the late 1990's that I last saw a Win 9'x O/S.
"Howard Delman" <delman@blueneptune.com> wrote in message
news:11kbdkr83tmg907@corp.supernews.com...
> It is not clear to me how I would enable or disable the ethernet or
> wireless card in Win98se. Anyone know?
>
Go to the Device Manager to enable/disable the NIC card.
The only easy way to get a 98 machine with both NIC and wireless, to work on
the wireless is to disable the NIC card. In XP I use a nic and wireless on
one machine (laptop) and simply unplug the nic when I plug in the wireless
card. For some reason, that does not work as well in 98 and the only way is
to use the wireless is to disable the nic in the device manager.
> if the nic/wireless cards are one the same network, the computer gets
> confused as to which nic to use.
If they're both on the same network, the PC just consults the routing
table same as always. The NIC with the lowest metric is chosen and
that's normally the wire connected NIC.
Do an ROUTE PRINT to display your routing table and if the wrong NIC has
the lower metric then you can adjust that in the advanced properties for
that NIC.
> there is still a 98 machine out there???
>
Heavens, yes. There will be until my wife's machine kicks the bucket, or
hell freezes over (ie, when she finally lets me install linux on it).
--
derek
> if the o.p. _hasn't_ done what you described (i.e. adjust the metric in
> advanced properties), both nics would have the same metric. would the
> computer get "confused" as to which nic to use?
Nope, try it and see. Just fire them both up and do a route print.
Windows allocates a metric automatically.
bryan wrote:
> On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 22:12:58 +0000, David Taylor wrote:
>
>
>>>if the o.p. _hasn't_ done what you described (i.e. adjust the metric in
>>>advanced properties), both nics would have the same metric. would the
>>>computer get "confused" as to which nic to use?
>>
>>Nope, try it and see. Just fire them both up and do a route print.
>>Windows allocates a metric automatically.
>
>
> oh. right. never knew that. i usually use linux and if both wireless and
> cabled nics are up, i get no internet connectivity. i have to 'ifdown' one
> of the nics.
>
> here's what the command "route" produces:
>
> rimmer:~# route
> Kernel IP routing table
> Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
> 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
> 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
> default 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
> default 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0
>
> i get two default routes... "confuses" the computer!
>
>
>>No confusion. :)
>
>
> unlike me, you mean :-)
Thanks to all who took the time to reply, and discuss, my situation.
I solve the problem by going into device manager, and disabling one of
the two network cards. I am now running wireless, and the NIC is
disabled. When I wanted to try going back to ethernet, I disabled the
wireless card, and reenabled the NIC. Since I won't be changing very
often, or if ever, this is a reasonable solution for me.
> oh. right. never knew that. i usually use linux and if both wireless and
> cabled nics are up, i get no internet connectivity. i have to 'ifdown' one
> of the nics.
Ah well when whoever is coding that bit of Linux this week finally
catches up with Microsoft, maybe they'll copy the logic and get it
right! <g,d & r>
> Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
> 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
> 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
> default 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
> default 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0
>
> i get two default routes... "confuses" the computer!
Well you see, that's the thing with Linux, it's supposed to play dumb so
that it gives the opportunity for the user to show how expert they are
at dominating it.
On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 11:06:07 -0700, Howard Delman
<delman@blueneptune.com> wrote:
>Win98se; WG311v3; 3Com 3C905B
>
>I have a working desktop machine with an ethernet connection. I want to
>add wireless to it, so I added the Netgear WG311 card. I am having
>problems connecting wirelessly. Do I need to do anything to "tell" the
>OS which adapter (ethernet or wifi) to use?
Windoze 98SE isn't terribly smart about automatically switching
network connections. It usually grabs the first one that can deliver
a DHCP address and sticks with it. It's not really Microsoft's fault
because nobody ever really anticipated having two possible paths to
the same IP address (via ethernet and wireless). For Windoze XP, MS
introduces automagic metric juggling. Toshiba laptops come with a
system tray utility that handles the switching automatically. There
are also manual utilities such as Netswitcher: http://www.netswitcher.com
that can handle multiple configurations. You can also use the Windoze
"system profile" on bootup to handle different configurations.
>I can still connect to the network if I plug in the ethernet cable. The
>wireless wizard shows the available wireless network with strong signal,
>and I have been given a valid IP address, but I cannot connect to it. I
>do not want to remove the ethernet card, because I want to maintain the
>option of connecting with ethernet. My laptop can do, so why not my desktop?
Let me guess. Your laptop runs Windoze XP, which might explain why it
switches correctly and your Win98SE desktop does not.
>> oh. right. never knew that. i usually use linux and if both wireless and
>> cabled nics are up, i get no internet connectivity. i have to 'ifdown'
>> one of the nics.
>
> Ah well when whoever is coding that bit of Linux this week finally
> catches up with Microsoft, maybe they'll copy the logic and get it
> right! <g,d & r>
Linux has never, ime, permitted a second default route, so there's a bug
there. However, it's true that it doesn't attempt to set preferential
metrics. That's up to the user to determine.
--
derek
ethernet & wireless on the same PC 
Linear Mode
