Help getting Netgear wifi set up

[JamieinNH]

Someone gave me a Netgear Dual Band Acess point WAB102, so I went out the bought two PCMCIA cards for my laptops they are Netgear 54 Mbps wireless cards WG511

I have a home net running now with a NetGear RP614, so I thought it would be easy to connect the Netgear AP to the Router and poof things would work...

Hum not so.. :) I can connect the two laptops together with each othe using Ad-hoc, and I have connected to a poor signal in town that offers a free wifi access point, very weak connection though, but I did connect.

So, my problem.. I can't connect to the AP. On the web interface, I can't see it connecting to either laptops, I do see it on the home network under the Router's web interface, so now I am stuck, I have not clue what could be the problem, and since this is my first time messing around with WiFi I am lost.

I do have all them with the same SSID
The PCMICA cards are installed correctly as I have connected to another network
The AP connects to my Homenet
The laptops are sitting five feet away from the AP
All machines are running WinXP


Anyone able to point me in the right direction to get this working?
Do I need to buy a wireless router? Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help!
Jamie

[Phoenix]

There are a lot of known problems with the WAB102, so the first thing to do is check with Netgear. Also make sure that you have the latest firmware and drivers for all of your wireless cards. You can get these easily from www.netgear.com

[M/Q]

I agree with Phoenix's assessment from personal experience. But I am curious how you configured the AP? It sounded like you were able to get to the configuration web page, is that right? Is the problem a wireless connection problem or network problem.

Did you setup the AP to work with the router? Sometimes if it was used elsewhere, the AP might be configured for a static IP and be in the wrong numbering system.

Those issues are meaningless if it is a wireless connection issue. To that point, I have to ask if you switched the clients to infrastructure mode, that is pretty obvious though. Do you have WEP on? Also have you tried different speeds on the AP and clients?

[JamieinNH]

I was able to get to the configure page. I set the SSID name to something simple like homenet to just get it running before I started tweaking it for security.

WEP is off

The AP connected to the RP614 Router, and the router gave it a vaild Ip address within my wired homenet

It was running on infrastructure and I changed it to Ad Hoc and got the two laptops connected, but couldn't do anything between them. The Windows wireless box showed them both there, and I could connect to the other laptop, but beyond that.

I have not tried different speeds on any of them, didn't understand that part so I left it alone.

I was able to connect with a outside source in the town that was a very low signal, they are trying to offer free access to the whole town, I did connect with them, so I know the Laptops are installed correctly.

Someone told me I needed a wireless router, that my wired router wouldn't work with the AP I thought that was what an AP was for connecting Wired with Wireless.

Thanks for any help!
Jamie

[M/Q]

As for needing a wireless router, that is completely wrong. I prefer and tell my client to do it the way you have it as it has many benefits. In order for this to work correctly all three nodes need to be in infrastructure mode. You mentioned that they were connected at one time, was that wireless only or did they have Internet access? If they are connecting and you are not able to see each other of the XP computers that is a different problem. Please let me know, also mention whether it is XP pro or home. I thought that this link might help:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/Sections-article16-page1.php

Also, you need to keep in mind what phoenix said, is there any way you can test your cards on a different AP? Have you updated all the firmware and drivers? Also when you where in the config webpage was that using a wired connection? If so where you able to get on the Internet through the router? One other remote possibility is that the cable between the router and the AP could be bad, or not the right type for the connection. Depending on whether your router is auto-detecting or not, it might be and issue. Perchance if you have another cable, please check that one and the one you are using out. If possible look at the connectors and see if the colored wires in each connector are in the same order or not. Also you keep mentioning Homenet, is that your ISP provider or the term you are using to call your system. I was just wondering if it is a true Ethernet system or the one that uses the building powerlines to run the network?

[JamieinNH]

Thanks for the information about not needing an wiresless router!

The AP and the two laptops cards are in infrastructure mode. That is the three nodes you are talking about correct?

I did connect to an outside source. In this town there is a guy that is putting out hotspots everywhere trying to let everyone have free access, and the only thing you need to do to get on his system is share your bandwidth or be a repeater location. In other words if you help him out, you will get some of the benfits. Well his main location is abotu a block from me, and I found his signal while my Laptop was searching for a network. I did connect to his hotspot for a short time. So I know the cards in the laptops work, but I have not been able to connect to mine system at all.

When I put the laptop cards in Ad-hoc, they both will find each other, but they have never found the AP

I don't think it's an XP problem now, because I can't connect at all. I am sure XP will present it's own problems after i work through this one. :)

I don't have another AP to test it on, and other then connecting to the other guy's system for a short while

I have updated all the firmware

Getting to to the configure page was through a wired connection. I went to the AP configure page and didn't see any clients. I went to the Wired router configure page and did see the AP attached to the network.

Homenet to me is my wired network at home. I have four system and two networked printers in my home, and now I want some wirelss devices attached to that network.

I hadn't tried another cable between the router and the AP, I will do that now.

Thanks for your help!
Jamie