Linksys Wireless NIC acting "weird" 1

[rtshort]

I am working in a different field now, but I do still "dabble" in computers from time to time. My neighbor, whom I used to work for, has asked me to help him with a "weird" problem. He owns a local computer store and I used to work for him. I've been doing a few service calls and such since one of his techs quit him a few months ago.

I'm trying to set up a wireless network for one of his clients. Should be simple, but I think the office has "evil spirits" in it. hahaha

At this office(home office) there is one Desktop PC and one Laptop. They want to accomplish Internet access, Printer Mapping, and Drive Mapping over wireless. The Internet connection is DSL.

At first I got the Linksys error message "You are connected to the access point, but the Internet can not be found. Also I couldn't map the drive or the printer. I took the laptop back to the store. After changing the workgroup name to the store, I mapped the printer and a drive over wireless(Linksys router) sucessfully.

I took the laptop back to the home office today. I disabled the wireless adaptor to get into the router there via Ethernet. I saw nothing wrong. I reset the router to default via the reset button, and disconnected the ethernet cable. When I enabled the wireless card, I kept getting an error message, "external exception e06d7363" All caps are numbers. I searched this on the Internet before posting here. I found several post, but none that were of help to me.

I'm just wondering if there may be some kind of EMF in the house? I don't think I'm missing anything, but I'm VERY open for suggestions.





Rob
Just my $.02.

 

[CiscoGuy33]

Rob,

Few things -

First go to Linksys site and make sure that you have the latest greatest firmware upgrade for that model AP/router.

Any wireless phones, baby monitors or microwave ovens?

Try unplugging EVERYTHING in the room except AP and computer and see if that helps - check adjacent rooms - wireless speakers? anything?

Try adjusting the height and angle of the AP - I have seen it moved a few feet make a world of difference.

Just some thoughts!


E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[rtshort]

Thanks Cisco,

After about 2 hours of reading threads searched from Google, I did read about the phone thing. I knew they had wireless phones and I almost stopped right there thinking that would do it. It's a good thing that I didn't stop.

I read in one thread to uninstall the Linksys Utility and let Windows manage the wireless connection. To my suprise, that worked.

I got ont he net and mapped a drive. Tried to map a printer and got the message that "Windows cannot connect to the Printer. Operation could not be completed."

I checked and re-checked all of the permissions and shares. The computer that the printer is on is Win98 and the laptop connecting to it is WinXP. It finally hit me that the Win98 Computer would not have the XP drivers on it. I loaded the drivers from the CD like I was installing a local printer. Then I went back and installed the network printer. It went right in and threw up the License Agreement.

Bad from there. I tried to print a test page and it wouldn't. Forget the error message but I typed a few words in Notepad and tried to print it. I could see from the wireless connection properties that it was sending and recieving info to and from the printer, but it never printed.

I'm doing homework on that now if you have any suggestions.

Thanks a million for the reply.

Rob
Just my $.02.

 

[rtshort]

Well, after searching on the net for over an hour, I decided to look on the Lexmark site for the specs.

Turns out that this printer is only networkable with one of their print servers.

The printer sells for $75.00 and the print server sells for $149.00.

hahaha Go figure.

Thanks again Cisco. I appreciate it.


Rob
Just my $.02.