[eddiewa]

Unable to connect to the internet

I am using two computers in a network setup - one is Vista Home Premium operated and the other is XP professional.

Until three days ago I was able to connect to the Internet using a Router setup on the Vista machine and a wireless connection on the XP. Overnight something changed and when I started the Vista machine next day I received the message that no networks were available - the XP machine was also not receiving any signal. By unplugging the hard wire from the computer I was then able to receive a connection on the XP machine. After shutting down and disconnecting the Router I then attempted to run the WRT54G router setup wizard ver.8 - setup proceeded OK and the internet and LED lights were all lit - however at stage 8 after checking for computer settings I received the error message:

"unable to connect to the router - check that the router has been connected to the computer and that your ethernet adapter is working"

again by removing the hard wire connection I was able to receive a connection on the XP machine.

I have tried extensively to Google for a answer to the problem - which by the results seems to be quite an extensive problem to a lot of guys - but being a "Newbie" a lot of the answers may as well be in a foreign language!

I did try to install and use a wireless card on the Vista machine but this still resulted in no connection to the Internet.

I assume that some configuration setting (s) has been changed somehow but short of reinstalling Vista I am at a loss how to proceed. Hopefully some kind soul will be able to help in terms that I can easily understand.

Regards and thanks to all

[hermes]

What may be happening is that the network that each device is a member of is different. In the system properties I would guess one is workgroup and one is called linksys. When you connect them both they conflict. This is because one is wired and one wireless.

For sanity, check that neither has a static IP address. Also, check if things change with the windows firewall turned off on both in case they have both had a windows update.

Or, a weird problem I have seen is down to this: Which device was the Linksys setup software initially installed on? That is the one that needs to make any changes.

I can't think of anything else right now, but it would be worth cabling both devices into the router and seeing if that works. It would help to diagnose the problem if we knew if that works.

[eddiewa]

Thanks Hermes for your reply --
Much appreciated.

So far I am working slowly through your suggestions but as I warned you I am a "newbie" and probably a dumbhead trying to understand all the jargon :-)

I tried the IPCONFIG command with the following results

on the Vista machine
windows IP configuration....................no result

on the XP nachine the following result
windows IP configuration Ethernet Adapter Wireless Network connection
connection-specifc DNS suffix............no result
IP address 192.168.1.100
subnet mask 255.255.255.0
default gateway 192.168.1.1

and thats all for now.

Eddie