Limited Connectivity?!?!?! Stupid Wireless!

I am trying to connect to an existing wireless net connection in my new house and for some reason it just won’t work!!

I have Vista (FAIL!!) and everyone else, of course, has XP. But I have set up a wireless connection on my machine before. I’m pretty decent with computers so I don’t understand whats happening.

It picks up the network, so I type in the WEP code and it says “blah blah blah you are only connected with limited connectivity.” So of course I’ve checked the WEP code and it is correct.

I’ve also checked all the other settings and I’m using the same “open” network type thing that the router has. I JUST DON’T GET IT!!

Any ideas, guys??

I asked the IT guy at work and he said something about an SSID, but my network properties just tell’s me the SSID is the same name as the Network connection name. It doesn’t ask me for any other authentication or passwords or anything other than the WEP.

SO FRUSTRATING!!

 

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Could the network have a MAC filter in place?

 

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If a MAC filter is set to an ALLOW list and the machine in question is not on that list, you'll find you'll be able to connect to the Router however any MTU tests will fail. I found this out from connecting an XBOX 360, it kept coming up with an MTU error and wouldn't connect to XBOX live. Turned out I hadn't entered my replacement XBOX 360's MAC into the allow table.

 

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As for the actual problem, Is your Router a Dual Band one? (does it have 802.11b/g ?)

I ask because the following page on the philosophy of how to configure an XBOX 360 with Media Center kind of brushes on my point. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/extender/setup/homenet.mspx

(Originally I actually saw a support video which was educational)

Simply using a wireless network with just A, B or G Band is going to cause network congestion when you have more than one connection being made. This is because your connections will share than bandwidth which allows them to interfere with one another.

The way around this is to have multi bands to split your connections across on different frequency levels.

The message you are getting is probably refering to connecting to one Band while there is a second band present. It is possible to use both however I believe it requires bridging and would probably cause problems in itself. If you can connect to the internet/network then you shouldn't worry.(This means using the PING command to ping both IP addresses and Canonical domain names. If you can get IP's but not a domain name, then it means your DNS isn't resolving the domain but you are connected.)

 

have you tried a download test?
i've powered up my machine and got a message that said i had limited connectivity, so i do a download test and everything is up to par. i haven't a clue as to why it would say that.

do a download test here:
http://www.testmy.net/d_load.php
choose the smart test if you aren't sure what size to choose.
tell us if the results are acceptable or not.

 

Ah yeah.. I have one of those 802.11 thingoes. So um... what does this mean?? haha

 

How does one do a download test on the net if their internet does not work?!?!

 

"Limited or no connectivity" usually comes about when Windows has assigned your Network Card (in this case, the wireless card) an autoconfiguration IP address. This will be 169.254.X.X (with the last two octets being randomly generated numbers between 1 and 254), and is assigned when the NIC (Network Interface Card) is unsuccessful at obtaining an IP address from the DHCP server that is supposed to be supplying the address. Try shutting down the computer and unplugging the power for 30 seconds. This will allow the network card to clear any cached addresses (even if the computer is off, I believe the NIC gets power).

Otherwise, you can remove and readd the device in the device manager.

 

You can also try going into command and reseting/renewing your IP address.

 

You can try going to the command prompt and type IPCONFIG /renew. If nothing happens, usually your ISP has the problem. Try calling their tech support and tell them to check their side.

 

802.11 is the name of the "wireless networking standard"

Examples - 80211A, 802.11B, 802.11G, 802.11N

I do a lot of piggybacking myself, and occasionally run into these kinds of issues - the majority of the time, the problem is when there is a MAC address filter in place.
The second most common problem is if I'm too far from the AP, or if there are too many obstructions. There's a cafe I go to in the mornings, and the place doesn't have its own internet---but it's in a downtown area, and a bunch of surrounding buildings do. I can not get internet unless I sit at a table next to the window (I'll detect the other networks.......I'll connect to the AP, but it will act like the gateway is down; if I sit next to the window, then it works fine).

At home, I've occasionally been able to produce these sorts of problems on my router when I'm using some sort of weird extraneous security setting (IE - using TKIP as opposed to just plain ol WEP)