Can see connection, no internet

Hello all,

I'm having an interesting problem that I am 99% sure is a configuration issue on the laptop.

My mom gave me her Averatec 3700, AV3715-EH1 because she had problems getting on her wireless network at home (I didn't setup the wireless network). She thought it was the network because she couldn't get on with her other laptop either.

Now, I'm not sure if there is a problem with her home network (I doubt it, both laptops probably have the same problem), but I do know the wireless network at my job is fully functional and was just installed. Clients never have a problem getting on and I've tested it myself on other laptops. It's tight.

All testing I've done at my job to insure that I've isolated any problems to just the laptop. In order to connect to our guest network, you have to enter the SSID and an encryption key, we're using WEP. The Averatec uses an application called Config2500 to manage it's nework connections. I entered everything in correctly (it actually shows you the HEX key so you know it's in correctly). When I double-click on the wireless icon, it indicates a very good signal strength, connected to our guest network, speed of 54 Mbps, 4 out of 5 signal strength bars. But according to the Connection Status window, it is sending, but not receiving packets. Which is probably why although it says Very Good connection, I can not get on to the internet (IE or Firefox).

Command Prompt:
If I ping CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News I get the following: "Ping request could not find host CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Please check the name and try again." - Same thing if I ping Yahoo!

If I ping 87.248.113.14 (Yahoo) or 64.236.24.12 (cnn) I get the following: "Pinging xxx.xxx.xxx.xx with 32 bytes of data:

Destination host unreachable.

From my desktop, I can ping the yahoo site with no problem, destination host unreachable for the others, but I imagine that is more of a security feature on their end. I don't get the "Ping request could not find host www.xxx.com" error. And it's that error got me thinking DNS. But all of those settings are correct for this environment, DHCP.

Wireless Network is enabled, and the laptop doesn't appear to have a malware issue. I'm able to get right on with a wired broadband connection, no homepage hijacking, etc. Performance on the laptop overall is as expected.

It's probably something real simple you guys and gals have seen a few times.

Thanks in advance for your help.

If it helps tracking down the root problem, when I do an ipconfig I get:

IP Address: 169.254.84.55
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway: Blank

I did a release and renew and for the renew it told me:

An error occured while renewing interface Wireless Network Connection: unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.

The hardwire Local Area Connection picks up an IP, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway, but the Wireless only gets the IP and Subnet. Moreover, the IP and Subnet Mask don't change, almost like the wireless is hard coded although everything for it is set to DHCP.

Any ideas on what would block a Default Gateway from coming in?

Thanks.

I uninstalled a D-Link application that at one time appeared to manage the software, that made my Wireless Zero Configuration disappear, but I was able to get that back.

I took some advice from another forum and after seeing that in my registry:
IPAutoconfigurationMask is set to 255.255.0.0 and
IPAutoconfigurationAddress is set to 169.254.84.55 (The same info I get for the wireless's ipconfig) I deleted these entries in the registry key. But after rebooting, they came back. In the case of the forum, after deleting, he was able to resolve his issue which were the same as mine. No gateway, the "Limited or No Connectivity" error, no internet, etc.

What wasn't mentioned in the other forum was the DhcpIPAddress entries, but I saw on Microsoft tech that it said not to delete these entries.

Is any of this making sense to anybody or leading a better clue to the problem?

Thanks.

Of course, I bring it to my job because of our new wireless, yada, yada. Well, they upgraded the hardware, but what they didn't tell us (home office) was they changed the Encryption key! And of course. Windows doesn't tell me anything about an incorrect key.

Talked to the home office and got the new key!!

Thanks.