Help with PC connecting to Apple network

[ntoren]

I have an old Toshiba tank of a laptop that's running XP. Just rebooted after it sitting dormant for months and am having trouble connecting to the wireless network our neighbor hosts for our two apartments. I have a password that works fine for my two Macs but am running into issues with the Toshiba. I believe her wireless router is an Apple brand.

Looking into the Wireless Network Connection Properties, I see the network I'm usually on. Connection status shows "limited or no connectivity", 66 packets sent, 0 received. Clicking the network properties I pull up a new window with three 3 tabs, Association, Authentication, and Connection. On Assoc tab I see a field for the network key and field to confirm it. When I enter the usual, I get a warning, "The network password needs to be 40bits or 104bits depending on your network confirguration. This can be entered as 5 or 13 ascii characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters." The password I have used on the Macs is 15 characters long.

When I try to Repair the connection, it goes through the following: "Disabling the wireless network adapter" then "Renewing your IP address". Fails becasue it cannot complete the second task. Network details provides the following: I have a Physical Address, IP Address 169.xxx.xxx.52 and Subnet Mask but no Default Gateway, DNS server or WINS server, whatever they are. Those last three are blank.

 

[DelJo63]

I have an old Toshiba tank of a laptop that's running XP. Just rebooted after it sitting dormant for months and am having trouble connecting to the wireless network our neighbor hosts for our two apartments. I have a password that works fine for my two Macs but am running into issues with the Toshiba. I believe her wireless router is an Apple brand.

should make no difference at all

...On Assoc tab I see a field for the network key and field to confirm it. When I enter the usual, I get a warning, "The network password needs to be 40bits or 104bits depending on your network confirguration. This can be entered as 5 or 13 ascii characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters." The password I have used on the Macs is 15 characters long.

that sounds like a WEP key; you should at least be using a WPA or WPA2 encryption 'passphrase'

When I try to Repair the connection,

don't do that on a WiFi connection

it goes through the following: "Disabling the wireless network adapter" then "Renewing your IP address".

which means your wired NIC connection is still active and it needs to be disabled if you want a WiFi connection

Fails becasue it cannot complete the second task. Network details provides the following: I have a Physical Address, IP Address 169.xxx.xxx.52 and Subnet Mask but no Default Gateway, DNS server or WINS server, whatever they are. Those last three are blank.

because you're RENEWing the wired and not the WiFi and the wired is not connected

 

[ntoren]

Thanks, jobeard.

1. Would you recommend disabling the LAN connection? Have done that and no change.

2. On your rec that we should be using WPA encryption do you mean I should be using one in general or this is required to connect in this instance?

 

[DelJo63]

Thanks, jobeard.

1. Would you recommend disabling the LAN connection? Have done that and no change.

if you intend a WiFi connection; yes, otherwise disable WiFi if you want a wired connection (which is the only one that can be REPAIRED

2. On your rec that we should be using WPA encryption do you mean I should be using one in general or this is required to connect in this instance?

in general; WEP has been cracked long ago and it can be done in just seconds!

 

[ntoren]

Any more suggestions? As I read your message I'm only noting a suggestion to disable the wired option which has not seemed to do the trick. Many thanks.

 

[DelJo63]

what's the symptom now that you're not using /release, /renew or repair ?

I would DISABLE encryption for the short term and get the connection to work;
then go back and enable WPA and set a new passphrase.

 

[ntoren]

symptom now is that I still cannot access the internet. Firefox/IE tells me I'm not connected to the internet. Even though after entering an IP address on the laptop of 192... I have "Very Good" connectivity. However, still only sending packets, not receiving any.

Is the disabling of encryption done from my laptop, or my neighbor's computer who set up the wireless router? I am hesitant to ask her to adjust the settings on the router if it can be helped as I would rather not inconvenience her. Or if it can be done from my computer then great, please instruct in more detail. Many thanks!

 

[DelJo63]

symptom now is that I still cannot access the internet. Firefox/IE tells me I'm not connected to the internet. Even though after entering an IP address on the laptop of 192... I have "Very Good" connectivity. However, still only sending packets, not receiving any.

huh? On a WiFi connection, you should not set the IP address but it should be acquired with the connection. What changed?
get me this information:

connect as best you can
then get a command prompt (run->cmd) and enter
ipconfig /all >mytcp.txt
​

now follow-up to this post and attach the mytcp.txt file

Is the disabling of encryption done from my laptop, or my neighbor's computer who set up the wireless router? I am hesitant to ask her to adjust the settings on the router if it can be helped as I would rather not inconvenience her. Or if it can be done from my computer then great, please instruct in more detail. Many thanks!

forget it then -- if it's not yours then you have no control over it.

 

[ntoren]

See attached. FYI, the values for the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS servers are the same that I entered manually. Maybe they were automatically generated and are equivalent to those I entered manually.

 

[DelJo63]

the gateway address can NOT be the same as your IP address

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

192.168.0.2​