strange issue with wireless card on a laptop. 1

[wvdba]

Hi.
i have a thinkpad T42 that has a wireless card in it. a week ago, when i turned it on, it said it could no find any wireless networks. it always connected to the wireless network at home. when i looked at the tcp/ip stuff, it had this ip in there: 169.254.56.37
i erased it and set it to dhcp.
still can't find any wireless networks. device manager shows the device working fine. the driver has been verified and updated. the antenna wires seem to be connected correctly. any idea what the issue could be?
thanks.

 

[goombawaho]

Reset the IP stack and then reboot and see if it helps. Give us the IPCONFIG /ALL information at a command prompt after doing this below (at the command prompt) and rebooting.

netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

netsh winsock reset catalog

 

[goombawaho]

^^^^ That only addresses the software side of things. It could be a malfunctioning wireless card. You could try deleting it Device Manager and let it reinstall itself.

Make sure the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Utility is running if NOT using the OEM wireless management tool and maybe give the windows version a try OVER the OEM tool.

 

[wvdba]

i even tried uninstalling/re-installing the device. no help. i also tried an external usb wireless card. still no help. the device is running windows not oem.

 

[Lemon13]

are you sure your accesspoint (wlan-router/modem) is working?
set your ap to use no protection (wep,wap,wap2), transmit the ssid, check the channel its working on and make sure no ip or mac-filtering is set.
use the same settings on the wifi-card and give it a static ip out of the range the ap expects, temporaly shut off firewall.
if it works apply security settings on the connection, if not change ap or wifi-card

M. Knorr

MCSE, MCTS, MCSA, CCNA

 

[goombawaho]

Did you try what I suggested - resetting the IP stack in windows??

If you did what I asked and then if you tried a different network card (USB), then either the entire IP stack in windows is really jacked up beyond repair OR you have networking problems with another device (router, ethernet cable, modem) upstream of your computer.

 

[wvdba]

goombawaho,
i have yet to try that. the pc is with a friend 150 miles away now. i'll post back the result.
thanks much.

 

[goombawaho]

Yes please do keep us informed. I like to be right and if not, it allows others to punish me for being wrong. Everybody wins.

 

[BadBigBen]

could also be just that the wifi card gone bad...

or reset the ROUTER, e.g. power down, wait 5 secs. then power back on, repeat several times if necessary...

the IP 169.254..56.37 is explained below:

APIPA

Short for Automatic Private IP Addressing, a feature of later Windows operating systems. With APIPA, DHCP clients can automatically self-configure an IP address and subnet mask when a DHCP server isn't available. When a DHCP client boots up, it first looks for a DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address and subnet mask. If the client is unable to find the information, it uses APIPA to automatically configure itself with an IP address from a range that has been reserved especially for Microsoft. The IP address range is 169.254.0.1 through 169.254.255.254. The client also configures itself with a default class B subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. A client uses the self-configured IP address until a DHCP server becomes available.

source:

http://sbc.webopedia.com/TERM/A/APIPA.html

also have a read:

Overcoming Wireless Network Configuration Obstacles

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[wvdba]

bigbadben,
the router seems to be working ok. all the other laptops are picking up the signal from it. as for the wireless card, i put a brand new external usb wireless card, still it didn't find any wireless source. so, i'm gonna try the net commands once i get my hands on the laptop. i'll post the results so that others may find it of benefit.
thanks much.

 

[wvdba]

ok,
i tried these commands and that fixed it.
netsh int ip reset
netsh winsock reset catalog
thanks everybody.
cheers.

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking. I use those commands all the time when malware has jacked your (IP) stack.

There are similar commands for Vista which have also fixed these kinds of issues.