need wireless networking help ? newBEEEE (solved)

[fun4now]

OK so i hook up a cat cable between my desktop and my laptop and bam, its all good. it finds, connects and sets everything up for me.

so why is a wireless version so much trouble ?? or am i just screwing something up and don't know it ??

it would seem a bridge between the wire and wireless network connections should tell the computer's all that's needed to know so it will work.

i tried to setup with a usb storage device but when i take it from the originating computer ( desktop with XP) to the laptop, all seems OK. then when it goes back to the desktop it cant be read and i think the laptop said insufficient data or some ting like that also.

win.XP wants to create a floppy disk to transfer info with , but no floppy reader on my laptop. so that's no help.

i tried to use the program that came with the usb wireless network device and it wont function right. it keeps telling me windows it trying to control the network, change setting to allow windows to have control or turn it off. OK so i tried to set it to let windows control and it wont let me save those settings ???? keeps reverting back to trying to control so windows tells me some thing else is trying to control ???? as a result neither will take control and I'm stuck in yaya land.

i have dial up so going threw a wireless router is out of the question as it wont let you even finish the install without attaching a cable or DSL line to it ???

any ideas would be greatly appreciated

every one keeps telling me it cant be done. i have made it work once with a router and again once with just the USB but Vista keeps asking me to give a location for the network (home , work , public) and then it sets security settings ( i guess) and bang, i lose the internet ???? or its just not there the next time i go to sign in ??

i would love to go to DSL or cable but none available out here in the country with the cows and wheat fields. satellite is out of the question due to $$$ ( come to think of it DSL or Cable might be also if i could get it)

i have $80 invested in a wire network ( 2 cat cables @ 50ft each and a switch box)

also have $80 in wireless with the USB wire-N network adapter.

i would love to get the 100 ft. of cat cable running around my ceiling off there, not to mention my internet speeds are 3 times as fast when i has the wireless working as they are now on the cat cable. with long downloads i end up with speeds in the bts not Kbits, its horrid. please save me.

thanks

James

Edited March 24, 2009 by fun4now

[submix8c]

Just to clarify/recap (you ramble a bit; apologies if that offends, but...) -

1 - hook up a cat cable between my desktop and my laptop - Works (may we assume that this is via the "switch box" and not a crossover-type deal?)

2 - "tried to setup with a usb storage device" - now that part confuses me...

3 - "win.XP wants to create a floppy disk to transfer info with" - you must be referring to the Home Network Wizard; unnecessary and can be bypassed via a tick-mark ("No I'm fine thanks, XP")

4 - "program that came with the usb wireless network device" - assume this is the "USB wire-N network adapter"?

5 - (out of order...) - "would seem a bridge between the wire and wireless"

Ok, here's a little -

1 - Yep, fine because you're going directly to the switchbox

2 - clueless (unclear statement)

3 - may/may not even be necessary

4 - which one are you trying to install this to? it's the driver for the USB Adapter...

5 - which one are you bridging on?

x - only ONE PC may be connected to the Internet; the other "passes through" it via the "bridge" defined on the first and must therefore have both the Internet (your dial-up) and the USB Device.

(saga continues...)

[fun4now]

1 - hook up a cat cable between my desktop and my laptop - Works (may we assume that this is via the "switch box" and not a crossover-type deal?)

yes using switch, but only so i can have one cable in bed room and one in living room. so i don't have to aether drag the cable back and forth, or unplug one and plug in other behind the desktop. so i have

only 2 computers involved

desktop ( with dial up internet ) Windows XP, USB network adapter N

laptop ( needs to get internet threw desktop) Windows Vista built in wireless network adapter N+

only need switch to simplify 2 locations ( same computer)

switch connected to desktop with 5 ft cable, 2 Ea 50 ft. cables connected to switch that i plug laptop into one or other cable depending on where i am.

2 - "tried to setup with a usb storage device" - now that part confuses me

3 - "win.XP wants to create a floppy disk to transfer info with" - you must be referring to the Home Network Wizard;

when using windows home network wizard it has you put network setting onto a floppy disk or USB storage device to transfer settings to other computers you want to network.

USB dongle, USB Storage device ???(lexmark 512MB USB storage device)

3. continued, unnecessary and can be bypassed via a tick-mark ("No I'm fine thanks, XP")

Please explain ??

4 - "program that came with the usb wireless network device" - assume this is the "USB wire-N network adapter"?

yes came with BELKIN N wireless adapter ver.4001 , P58560-B , Pt# F5D8053. has drivers and software to support/set up network

i un-installed then reinstalled just the drivers for the USB wireless adapter. It's installed, recognized by computer and working correctly.

network software, not so good. refused to work, conflicted with setup wizard !??? would not turn off to let wizard control and would not control as it said XP wizard was controlling ??

5 - (out of order...) - "would seem a bridge between the wire and wireless"

i tried to bridge the wired LAN and wireless LAN on desktop ( computer sharing internet connection) so the wireless connection would also have access to internet ?????

one of many attempts to get internet ( gateway device ) to show up in wireless network map of devices.

i named the wireless network adhoc. with each attempt to connect it showed up as a new network name of adhock + # ( adhoc1, adhock2, adhoc3, and so on ??)

i can at times get desktop computer to show up in wireless network places on laptop, but never with gateway device ( internet access ).

correction i did it a few times but never consistently. once with a wireless router instead of the wireless USB device, then a few times with USB wireless device. but never 2 times in a row ???

3 - may/may not even be necessary

explain please ??? or direct me how to ( can be bypassed via a tick-mark )

4 - which one are you trying to install this to? it's the driver for the USB Adapter...

installing on desktop ( windows XP with dial up connection), yes it has drivers and a control program. program uninstalled, drivers reinstalled, device is working properly.

5 - which one are you bridging on?

bridging the wired and wireless networks in network places on desktop computer ( the one sharing, originating dial up connection, widows XP )

x - only ONE PC may be connected to the Internet; the other "passes through" it via the "bridge" defined on the first and must therefore have both the Internet (your dial-up) and the USB Device.

i suspect i used the bgige wrong ??? as i bridged both network connections on the computer with the dial up connection. it seemed from the network wizard that it was to connect the shared internet to the 2 networks needing to share ( or let other computer pass threw to internet) so i bridged the wired network connection on my desktop ( one with dial up) to the wireless network on my desktop.

i did not bridge the 2 computers as in bridge the desktop to the laptop, is that what i was supposed to do ???

sorry to be so confusing, as you can probably tell i am way confused. so its kinda hard to be clear when you are lost to start with.

i hope this will help clear it up.

thanks for the help

James

[submix8c]

Duhh! (at me) And bear in mind I do not have Vista (it's a different beastie, so you may need help in the Vista section on this as to location of some items).

If you need to use the laptop in multiple locations (via the wireless), bear in mind the the desktop will have to be turned on and connected to the internet (dial/logon to the ISP) before the laptop can "connect". Otherwise, you must use the "wired" way, in which case the laptop connects directly via dial/logon.

I don't have a wireless device (at the time) and have never had, but based upon above you have two basic scenarios available. Scenario two is obvious to you ("wired" it works).

Here's scenario one (wireless) - No Bridge Necessary! And when you "bridge" to a "shared network connection" you are required to "un-share" before the "un-bridging". Basic order of this is ( 1 ) bridge several connections not the connected-to-internet ( 2 ) share the connected-to-internet with the bridge. So... to undo the previous, reverse the process. The bridge is called a Network Bridge and the device is a Mac Bridge Miniport, usually "bridging" several devices to a common connection point. Maybe the F1-Help didn't make all of this clear. If you have this set up un-do it as I indicated, because it's all just getting "confused".

To continue (after rough explanation) -

On Desktop since the USB Wireless drivers are installed, the only thing left is to share the Dial-Up connection with the USB Wireless by right-clicking on the Dial-up, clicking Status, Properties, clicking the Advanced tab, and checking Internet Connection Sharing. If you have a Network Card in the desktop (probably), you will have the option of selecting which device to Share with - select the Wireless. Now keep clicking Apply, Yes, Ok, or whatever you see until you're out of Network Connections. We're going to assume that the Dail-Up is working correctly and your ISP is assigning an IP addrees to your TCP/IP connection (since it works). The USB Wireless will now bea assigned an Internal Private IP address of 192.160.0.1 and your desktop will serve as a DHCP server, assigning 192.168.0.n (where "n" is anything other than "1") to your laptop. Ensure on both PC's that (in Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name) the same workgroup name is there (I just use ye-olde WORKGROUP as a value); if not, change it (there's a box to allow that) to be the same. This allows sharing of folders between PC's (not necessarily with "out there").

Now (theoretically) you have either option available. When the Desktop is not on, you would connect via wires (the switchbox? Dial-up? not familiar with this either). When the desktop is on and dialed-up, the laptop will have access as well via the Shared Connection.

"I am not that smart" so hopefully this will work. If not, keep searching in the forum (there's a search box above) until you find more info. A quick search on "subnet" (no quotes) in the whole forum yields a wealth of information. Read a little, get familiar, then perhaps you'll get where you want to go. The only other option if you want wireless laptop without the desktop "on" is to get a wireless router; no other way around it.

Maybe someone else will swing by and give better/more/accurate info than me. My setup is pretty basic - Cable, 2 NIC's, One is to Cable and shared with other, other is to basic Lan Workgroup (others connect through) and main PC must be "on" (kind of your scenario one).

Remember - "I am not that smart", so I can only help so much. Whew!

[fun4now]

thanks for the help.

Duhh! (at me) And bear in mind I do not have Vista (it's a different beastie, so you may need help in the Vista section on this as to location of some items).

wish i could say the same, Vista seems to be the root off all my new problems..

unfortunately this all sounds like things i have tried already, but i will go back and walk threw it all again to make shore i did not miss some thing.

i started out with a router.

problem with that was the router wants a cable or DSL connected to it and wants to run the show.

any chance you know how to get into the router and tell it to just pass the signal without a DSL or cable but as INTERNET sharing ??

with only 2 computers i should not need a router . i don't have a problem using it if its the best way to go. that is if i can figure out how to get it to let me do it with dial up ??? i need to find out how ?

this was the reason i went to just using a USB on the desktop.

the only reason I'm using a router on my wired setup is so i don't have to drag the wire back and forth from living room to bed room. if i was willing to drag the wire i would not need it, so in turn i should not need it with wireless as the same signal would be all over the house and i don't need to divide it to keep multiple computers separate.

thats where it starts to drive me nutzzzz, it should be so simple as a simple 2 computer home network.

i don't have a problem with turning on the desktop and starting up the dial up connection before being able to use it on the laptop. the wife is most of the time on the net on the desktop anyway, so its already on. LOL

i set both computers to work group home network ( just for simplicity ) but you were correct that it needed fixing as XP and Vista by default name them differently.

quick search on "subnet"

thanks, I'll give that a shot. for some reason i alway have terrible luck with searches. must always use the wrong search word ??

thanks oodles!!!

I'll take another look at the search and my settings.

with a lil luck I'll report back with an all good up and working ???

thanks

James

[fun4now]

I'm all hooked up and surfing wireless, yaaaa

the struggle is over and i can Finlay get on to enjoying my new laptop.

now off to the gaming.

thanks for the help.

i ended up having to use a wireless router to get the job done, but its up and working great now.

i hate to say it but it turned out to be VISTA that took over and gave me the access needed to get the router tweaked to work for me. XP refused to help but is willing to share its INTERNET connection with the router so i can grab it with my laptop. its all good.

[submix8c]

Kinda thought so. Wasn't hard as you thought...

[fun4now]

nope, i just had to give up on XP and use vista to reconfigure the router. and gave up on the USB, but hay its all good now so i can chill out and play some games.

[submix8c]

uhhhh, didn't I say "forget the USB, go with the Router"????? As I had stated, the USB is only good for getting to a Wireless Interface Device (like a Wireless Router); in other words, the USB can be put into a Desktop not having a Network Card and also used for connecting (same as the Laptop).

Yes, I did.... (ref. your other thread...)

Edited March 23, 2009 by submix8c

[fun4now]

the usb is a network adapter, i just couldn't get into it to fix the IP address conflict. well i couldn't get into the router aether for that matter. i had the best results with the usb as far as making a regular connection to the laptop, just couldn't get the INTERNET to pass threw it to the laptop ?? but i could get into the desktop folders from my laptop with the usb no problem. just a question of consistency and INTERNET that was the problem. I'm shore its also some thing simple to get it working and I'm just not getting it. no biggie, all is good now. I'll just throw the USB on e-bay or some thing to get rid of it as i don't have a receipt for it.

short story, its all good and I'm happy.

now off to play some games.