Hey all, I just recently moved and as a result, now have a bright and shiny fiber optic Internet connection. (Yeah, I'm living large now!) :)

So now I want to connect my Gateway laptop wirelessly to the new secured network on the router/modem that Verizon supplied as part of the install. The O/S on the laptop is Windows XP.

I've pressed the Fn/F2 keys to enable the wireless switch on the laptop. In Network Connections, I created a new profile to my network, using the SSID provided to me. I accepted all defaults during the process.

The laptop sees my network perfectly, but says it can't connect. I'm using the automatically generated network key. I don't recall ever being asked for the password on this account, and now I'm stumped.

Any ideas of what or where I should check? I don't want to change any defaults as this is an area where my mad skillz are somewhat on the deficient side.... ;)

Thanks for any ideas or tips! :)

Hey all, I just recently moved and as a result, now have a bright and shiny fiber optic Internet connection. (Yeah, I'm living large now!) :) Well, I'm jealous (but on the other hand, you have to deal with Verizon).

The laptop sees my network perfectly, but says it can't connect. I'm using the automatically generated network key. I don't recall ever being asked for the password on this account, and now I'm stumped.

My guess in this situation is that the router has MAC address filtering (http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wirelessproducts/qt/macaddress.htm) enabled, and you'll need to either turn it off (not recommended) or add your laptop's wireless adapter's MAC address (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_address) to the router's filter. You can probably do this by connecting to the router via Ethernet cable (not wireless) and looking through the router's management interface for a MAC address filter list. You should be able to find your laptop's wireless adapter's MAC address here:

Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections.
Right-click your wireless connection and select "Properties"; a Properties window will open.
In the new Properties window, click the "Configure" button next to the "Connect Using" field; a second Properties window will open.
Select the "Advanced" tab. At the bottom of the "Advanced" tab there should be a text field, and in that text field should be a listing for "Hardware address" or "MAC address", in this format: 00-0E-35-13-E9-98

Your laptop may also have its wireless adapter's MAC address printed on a label on the bottom, so check that first before going through all those Properties windows.

Enter that address into the MAC address filter in your router. That should tell the router to let your laptop connect. Good luck!

If you have trouble, let me know the make and model of your router and I may be able to research it from that direction.

Ps: "MAC" stands for "Media Access Control" and has nothing to do with Apple computers.

Well, I'm jealous (but on the other hand, you have to deal with Verizon).

No kidding! I have never encountered a worse automated phonemail system than Verizon's. To try and call anybody there takes at least 15 minutes as you must do battle with this goofy question-and-answer bot in order to drill down to the correct extension. (And this is with hitting the 0 for Operator button repeatedly.) Ick!


Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections.
Right-click your wireless connection and select "Properties"; a Properties window will open.
In the new Properties window, click the "Configure" button next to the "Connect Using" field; a second Properties window will open.
Select the "Advanced" tab. At the bottom of the "Advanced" tab there should be a text field, and in that text field should be a listing for "Hardware address" or "MAC address", in this format: 00-0E-35-13-E9-98


Okay, I got a few minutes before work this morning to try your steps. When I go to the Properties window for the Wireless Connection, in the Advanced tab, there is no listing for Hardware Address or MAC Address.

However, I noticed that the Connect Using field is populated with my Broadcom Network Adapter listing. Should the Verizon router be listed there instead? Is that why the Advanced tab does not contain the Hardware/MAC items?

I'm wondering if I should delete this profile and make a new one....

Thankee kindly, Andrew, for the help so far. Tis a puzzlement indeed.

However, I noticed that the Connect Using field is populated with my Broadcom Network Adapter listing. Should the Verizon router be listed there instead? Is that why the Advanced tab does not contain the Hardware/MAC items?

No, the "Connect Using" field means which network adapter in your computer (the wireless or the wired/Ethernet) is being used for this connection. That tab can be customized by hardware manufacturers, so yours might look different than mine. No problem.

The other way to get your MAC address is:

Start -> Run. Type "cmd" and click OK. The Command Prompt window opens.
Type "ipconfig /all" and press Enter. The Windows IP Configuration displays.
Look for a section labeled "Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection x". There should be only one section for a Wireless Network Connection, so the number (x) doesn't matter.
In that section, look for a line labeled "Physical Address". Again, the address will be in the form "00-0E-35-13-E9-98".

I spent some more time on this last night, and was unable to find a way to input the laptop's physical address into the router's address filter. The router is successfully installed on my desktop PC (Windows Vista Home Premium) but all the directions given in the Windows Help manual to "manually" add the laptop didn't match what was on the desktop's navigation menus.

I did a bit of research and found that my laptop's "workgroup" did not match the workgroup name for the desktop, so I modified the laptop's workgroup to "workgroup" (to match). No change. Also, I'm getting an invalid IP address message on the laptop when running ipconfig release/renew.

I think I'm getting close to calling in the guys from Geek Squad to get this sorted out. I'm sure it's something simple that I am not seeing correctly!

Thanks again, Andrew, for the advice -- it's helping. :)

I think I'm getting close to calling in the guys from Geek Squad to get this sorted out. I'm sure it's something simple that I am not seeing correctly!
:eek: (http://consumerist.com/tag/geek-squad/)

Well, keep a close eye on them. Sorry I couldn't get it worked out.

Oh yeah, I am now posting from my wirelessly-connected laptop. :cool:

I kept trying different combinations of data for the Wireless Network Key section for the router. (A combo of Shared, WEP and typing in a network key instead of letting it be automatically generated.)

I am now doing the Snoopy happy dance. :D

So, to anyone still following this, all the data I needed was listed on the bottom of the router (WEP vs. WAP, etc.)

Whew!

Congratulations! Soon you too will be compulsively checking your email one last time before turning out the light and then again as soon as you open your eyes in the morning.

Congratulations! Soon you too will be compulsively checking your email one last time before turning out the light and then again as soon as you open your eyes in the morning.


Thank you! However, the gods are not smiling on me. Once I set up the wireless connection on the laptop, I can no longer access the Internet from the desktop. Ay caramba! Why can't we all get long.... :rolleyes:

It might have to do with the type of IP address. That's all I remember, but hopefully that will trigger the brain of one of the smart people. I have a wired router (oh, I'll never want to use wireless, I said to my technical advisor (aka brother) when he was helping me figure out what to buy! famous last words :rolleyes:) that I will hook up a laptop to and if I have the wrong settings on that or the desktop, it won't let the second computer on.

Thanks for the tip! I think I *may* have found a solution. Per a google search, disabling the TCP/IPv6 connection in Windows Vista helps allow connection to the Internet. Evidently, Windows Vista is not totally ready for primetime....

So, I disabled the connection, and voila, I can access the Internet.

So, if there are any networking gurus out there, is there a downside to my disabling TCP/IPv6? Thanks!

Sheila

So, if there are any networking gurus out there, is there a downside to my disabling TCP/IPv6? Thanks!

Not for at least three years, and possibly as many as fifteen, when backbones and ISPs make the big switch over to IPv6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipv6#Deployment_status). Until then, no downside at all unless you want to access one of the very small number of sites (single digits) which are only addressable via IPv6.

Really great thread, and so much useful information shared by all of you, Thanks for sharing, it would be helpful for everyone.

Hi Rose, welcome to MP! Hopefully, my travails will help someone else avoid problems. :)

And thank you, Andrew, for the advice about TCP/IPv6. Glad to know I was not accidentally starting a Game of Global Thermonuclear War by doing so. ;)

Anyhoo, the last little bit of info for this thread.....

My laptop's connectivity kept going in and out -- I'd have to reconnect everytime I opened Internet Explorer, and when I'd look at the network mapping on my desktop computer, I could not see the laptop.

So after a bit of googling, I downloaded and installed Microsoft's Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder, which helps a Windows Vista machine see a Windows XP machine. Once I did that, the laptop's connection now remains stable. Coincidence or not, this little bit seems to have resolved the last puzzle.

*crosses fingers that I'm now done with this adventure* :D

And thank you, Andrew, for the advice about TCP/IPv6. Glad to know I was not accidentally starting a Game of Global Thermonuclear War by doing so. ;)

Tee hee.