Hello all. Hope yall can help me with my little problem here. Here it goes:

I have a Dell Desktop 8200 and a Gateway laptop. Recently our Dell started having problems so we had to get it repaired. While the Dell was out of commission I ended up getting a Gateway laptop as a present. I have cable internet connection and to get on to the internet with my laptop all I do is connect the ethernet cable to the ethernet port on my laptop and I;m connected to the internet. Recently we got our Dell back and it's working good as new so my mom wanted to use it and get on the internet with it so I took the ethernet cable out of my lap and put it in the Dell but it can't access the internet. It says their is limited connectivity and it says I can try and repair it, so I click on the repair option but it says it can't be repaired because of something havcing to do with unable to renew my ip adress and DNS something. I am so confused about this. Anyway I just bought a router and and I would like to set it up so both of the computers can have internet access. And so I can take my laptop anywhere in our apartment and get on the internet. Tried setting up the router with the cd rom set up wizard but I'm quite confused, because during the setup it said it had to check for something but it seems that because the Dell is not receiving the internet signals it couldnt check what it needed to check for and it was asking me to manually put in my ip address and other stuff that I don't know.

Have a look at the attachment here:
Basics-networking

Let's work with one system at a time and get the Dell to access the internet.
disconnect the laptop altogether.
plug the Dell directly to the DSL modem and power down the modem.
use CP->Run and enter
cmd /k ipconfig /flushdns
leave the Command window for now and we'll come back to it later

To config your ethernet NIC;
use Network Connections (NC)
right click on Local Lan
click Properties
select TCP/IP and click Properties
select Obtain IP and DNS dynamically
click ok
click NC
disable Local Lan and then reenable

power-up the modem.
after the modem light stop strobing and the Data light flashes randomly,
go back to the command window and enter
ipconfig /all
you should see something like
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : ventca.adelphia.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-B0-31-CC-1D
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . .. : 192.168.0.4 <<A
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 <<B
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1 <<C
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.111.16.30 <<D
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, August 14, 2005 8:38:36 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, January 18, 2038 8:14:07 PM

your <A,B,C,D> addresses will be different, but should not be 169.x.x.x nor 0.0.0.0

you're suggesting it's a WIRELESS router, right?

It's a Linksys Wireless - G Broadband Router Model: WRT54G

I got the dell which I am currently talking to you from to access the internet by just unplugging the power cord from the modem and restarting my computer and then just plugging it in. But when I went through the whole setup wizard with the router it ended up losing internet connection again.

I really don't understand what I am doing. Because the router wizard tells me I have to take out my ethernet cable from my computer and plug it to the back of the router and take this blue cable that the router brought and plug one end into the ethernet port of my pc and one end into the back of the router but during that whole process I somehow end up getting that stupid message again saying "limited or no connectivity" and the router tells me that it can't access the internet. Meanwhile all the lights on my modem are on and showing that I have internet access and all the lights on the router are on showing that I have internet access.

Am I even doing this whole router business correctly. I am just following the onscreen wizard from the cdrom that the router brought. Did I even buy the right router? LOL. All I want to do is to be able to have my Dell destop and my Gatweay laptop to be able to access the internet and for me to be able to access internet on my laptop anwhere in the apartment.

I am sorry if I sound dumb but I honestly know nothing about routers and wireless concections and so on.


Well anyway I did what you suggested I do and now I will wait til you can suggest what I do with my router. Thanks.

Here's what I want you to do. take that Linksys setup disc and lay it on your desk, sit your coffee cup on it. Now, disconnect the power from the modem. Leave it off for at least a couple minutes, now lets reset the router to factory defaults, there is a little reset button on the back. Hold that button down for 10-20 seconds, wait an additional 30 seconds for it to reboot, now remove power from it.
Power the modem back on, allow it to boot up, then power up the router, since this is a cable connection you should have internet now hardwired.
If internet now works hardwire, proceed below:

Open IE(or your favorite browser) go to 192.168.1.1(for linksys routers), it will ask for un/pw(un is left blank, pw is admin) Now navigate to Wireless, set your SSID to something other than the default of linksys. Save the settings and try to connect the laptop to the SSID you set in the router, if it connects and gets internet go back in the router and go to Wireless Security, set the encryption key using the settings you prefer. I suggest using WPA PSK, since its pretty easy to set up and fairly secure.

***NOTE*** Not all wireless adapters support passphrase so if yours doesn't, use the actual key and not the passphrase when entering the key into your computer.

What os is on the Dell?

Go to a command prompt on the Dell and type this command (do this when its connected to your modem).

ipconfig /all > c:\ipconfig.txt

And then attached the ipconfig.txt to a message.

It rather rounds like the service shop assigned a static IP to the laptop.

To fix that, right click on Network Neighborhood. Select properties. Right click on the lan connection (migh be called something else depending on your Windows version which you need to tell us). Select properties again. Select where it says Internet Protocal (TCP/IP). You may need to scroll down in the box a little. Select that and hit properties. Make sure that both of the options in there say to obtain automatically. After that hit ok until you are back to your desktop. Reboot the computer and try again.

This is not working. I connected my ethernet cable to the router, connected the blue router cable to the ethernet port on my Dell desktop and to the back of the router and plugged in the router and all lights are on showing I have an interent connection. I go to my network settings and it shows that my Lan is connected (but I still can't access internet) but then there is something above the Lan called Internet Gateway and it says it is disabled so i click on enable to enable it but it doesn't do it. Since my laptop has a wireless chip or whatever in it already am I supposed to have the laptop on at the same time for the Dell to have internet access, or shouldn't the dell be able to access the internet with just it connected to the router by itself? Or am I just talking some mess? I really don't understand what I am doing.

Sounds like you installed the OS while you had a network cable plugged in, either that or you tried using the setup wizard to create your connection. Delete anything that shows up under network connections, then uninstall all network adapters from device manager and reboot, if you have XP the relavent ones should come back, if you have another OS you will likely need to reinstall the drivers for your NIC.

Make sure your setup is as follows; cable modem to Internet port on router, LAN1 to desktop.

Check the IP of the desktop system; right click on Local Area Connection, click Status, then Support, it should give you an IP such as 192.168.1.100(this is usually the first IP assigned by Linksys routers by default) Above the IP it should say "Assigned by DHCP"

go to 192.168.1.1 enter the pw as I described in my last post, go to status and tell me what info it gives. It should show the IP, subnet, dns, etc... that the router is getting from the modem.

let's clarify what's going on. You expect 'Wireless' and the wizard is saying,
use cabling - - what gives? This is because the system needs to be
configured for the proper access to the wireless adaptor. Once it is
configd correctly, you'll never need (hopefully) the cables again.

don't jump to conclusion here. the modem has access and the router knows
some of what the modem knows, but your system is not yet configured for
wireless access. In fact, if you leave the cable from the router to your
system, you'll likely see that your browser will run fine. QED: the wireless is
not correctly configured, while your ethernet NIC will pickup the DHCP info
easily and away you go :-)

don't beat yourself up. just slow down and take one step at a time.
There are several repsondants to this topic and I suggest you take ONE
like Stormbringer, and follow one set of suggestions. The thread itself will
act as your notepad and history of information, but you need to get the manual
out and try one step at a time with guidance from one repondant here at a time.

best wishes

Right I come online and everything is fine my little thing at the bottom says i'm connected i go on the internet go on myspace.com that works fine but it wouldnt let me on girland i looked at the bottom of my page and theres like a little thing with 2 computer windows and a across through it.
It says; Local area connection a network cable is unplugged.
I looked an nothing was unpluged.
can someone please help me.

Danielle start a new thread for your issues and the Help Team will be along shortly to assist you.
And Welcome Aboard !

patio.