Intermittent Wireless

[Ross Rundle]

I have an Evo N200, XP Pro with 3com XJack wireless PCCard NIC fitted.

I connect to a wired network at work and use wireless at home. When wired I have no problem. When using wireless and coming out of hibernate I sometimes cannot get an IP address from the DHCP Server although I am showing connected to the correct SSID in teh balloon from teh system tray. The only solution is to reboot.

I have an ME system connecting wirelessly which does not have any problems so suggests teh Access Point and Router/DHCP server are OK.

Any suuggestion would be appreciated. Thanks, Ross (UK)

[Gavin_16]

You may find that the software states that the unit is connected but this may not be the case. Can you try to reconnect without rebooting?

[Ross Rundle]

Gavin, Thanks for the reply.

If I go into the wireless network status and try to "repair" the connection - occassionally it will but on most ocassions it will not. Hence the reboot.

Just as an extra bit of info - I get the same problem whether I use the 3com Wireless LAN manager or the XP Wireless configuration.
Thanks
Ross

[Roger Faucher]

Ross:

When it fails, do you do an IPCONFIG? Is that how you determine it's not getting an IP address from the DHCP server? Have you tried IPCONFIG /release and /renew? This often works for me (XP SP1). I also extended the lease duration on my DHCP server (in the wireless router).

HTH!

Roger

[Jason_184]

What I found with my card so far, is that if I choose disable and then enable on the card, the network comes back instead of still saying unavailable. Its quicker that rebooting, I have a question in about why my card does this, but no response yet.

[Ross Rundle]

Thanks for all the suggestions - I have now moved to wireless at work and now that I'm not switching between wired and wireless all seems to be working well (fingers crossed). Only one small problem in that the network sometimes doesn't show as available in the sysytem tray even though it is but this is an acknowledged Misrosoft problem which they claim will be fixed in the next SP.
(Just for info, Gavin, I was assuming I wasn't getting the IP address because the network status was showing a default private address and the documenatation said this was as a result of not getting an IP from the DHCP server.)

Ross

[Jack Hall]

This sounds like you might be dealing with the issue Microsoft documents in their Q Article 302088 titled "Wireless Network Adapters May Lose Connectivity When They Appear to Be Functioning". You can find it at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302088.


Jack