Re: Laptop cannot connect

On 6/13/2012 12:24 AM, fred wrote:
> neighbor has offered me a guest account on his wifi
> connection. He bought a linksys router, I think it's a t1200.
> Problem is when he powers down his main computer I am unable
> to connect to the net. Ping to the DHCP server is ok.
> Packetsto DNS servers go out but do not return on dns lookup.
> The account is set up for 5 guest accounts with password
> (which he has given me) and is unencrypted. ipconfig /all
> reports an assigned 192.168.xxx.xxx and to me and lease is ok
> and an assigned gateway IP, but no replies to dns lookups.
> The router is on a separate power connection, but when he
> leaves and powers off his computer, I can no longer
> connect-or so it seems. Neither of us has a clue as to what
> is causing the problem. Ping to dns servers, regardless if
> from ISP or public fail. Tried two different laptops both
> connecting fine until he left and turned off his box. When I
> told him about the problem on his return he
> powered back on and suddenly I can connect again. My signal
> strength on both laptops I tried is good. He is running win7
> and I am running either 98se or XP. He knows less than I do
> about this. I have not tried to access the router page as I
> do not have admin privileges and have wanted to check here
> first before asking neighbor to do anything with router
> settings. Any help appreciated.
>
It appears that your friend is set up as an ad-hock network rather than
access point and that your wireless is logging into the wireless card in
the PC rather than the router.

> It appears that your friend is set up as an ad-hock network rather than
> access point and that your wireless is logging into the wireless card in
> the PC rather than the router.
>

What makes you think that? To set up an ad-hoc takes some pretty
explicit commands. I just don't see that happening accidentally. I
forget if windows complains/warns the user that they are connecting to
an ad-hoc network. I know Blackberry won't all you to connect to one at
all due to security risks.

On 6/14/2012 10:27 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:57:31 +0000 (UTC), fred <frednot@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> miso <miso@sushi.com> wrote in
>> news:jrc2df$3k8$1@speranza.aioe.org:
>>
>>>> It appears that your friend is set up as an ad-hock
>>>> network rather than access point and that your wireless
>> is
>>>> logging into the wireless card in the PC rather than the
>>>> router.
>>>>
>>>
>>> What makes you think that? To set up an ad-hoc takes some
>>> pretty explicit commands. I just don't see that happening
>>> accidentally. I forget if windows complains/warns the user
>>> that they are connecting to an ad-hoc network. I know
>>> Blackberry won't all you to connect to one at all due to
>>> security risks.
>>
>> It now appears that his router is not smart enough to
>> determine when I have logged off
>
> I think that describes every router. The way they know you have
> "logged off" (whatever that means) is that you've let your DHCP lease
> expire. If you're not using DHCP, then you never log off because you
> never log on.
>
>> and I must explicitly
>> manually disconnect for the router to recognize that I am
>> gone and free up one of the guest accounts. This is my
>> latest theory now, because when I disconnect manually
>> instead of just shutting down or disabling the adapter I am
>> then able to re login again and get a working connection.
>> Very funny sometimes the router asks me for the password
>> again and sometimes it does not.
>
>> I have read too many
>> complaints about linksys routers to not think this is just
>> bad software of the router.
>
> As one of the more popular brands of consumer networking gear, it's
> normal for there to be more complaints. Look at all the Windows
> complaints, as another example.
>
>
>> No it's not an adhoc connection,
>> he bought a router for this and used the cd with (e1200 if
>> memory serves) linksys to establish the guest accounts of
>> which there are 5.
>
> I didn't follow the beginning of this thread closely, but a knee jerk
> reaction to the statement above is an obvious one: increase the number
> of 'guest accounts' to 50 or even 100.
>
Once again Char it sounds like you have nailed it. With out the manual
disconnection the lease is still assigned to the device until it times
out A new connection goes to the next guest account until they run out
or one of the prior guest accounts times out and is once again open for
use. I agree the increase in guest accounts will most likely take care
of the problem. Sorry about the misdirection with the adhock.

On Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:33:22 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
<GlowingBlueMist@truly.invalid> wrote:

>On 6/14/2012 10:27 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
>>
>> I didn't follow the beginning of this thread closely, but a knee jerk
>> reaction to the statement above is an obvious one: increase the number
>> of 'guest accounts' to 50 or even 100.
>>
>Once again Char it sounds like you have nailed it. With out the manual
>disconnection the lease is still assigned to the device until it times
>out A new connection goes to the next guest account until they run out
>or one of the prior guest accounts times out and is once again open for
>use. I agree the increase in guest accounts will most likely take care
>of the problem. Sorry about the misdirection with the adhock.

Thanks. We'll see what the OP says. I could still be out to lunch. :)