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General discussion

Network connection...

Mar 2, 2005 12:29PM PST

I have a Netgear 624 wireless router hooked up to my desktop with a ethernet cable. I also have an IBM laptop that has built-in wireless. I can access the internet from either computer anytime my cable modem is powered. However, my home network is a different story. My laptop normally is in a different room that also has an ethernet cable connection that plugs into the router. So I can plug into the laptop IF I want to with hardwire. Normally, I don't as I take the laptop to other parts of the house.

When the laptop is plugged into the network with the ethernet cable, I have full sharing of all shared folders on either computer. However, if I unplug the ethernet cable, I lose this ability although I can still access the internet through the same router that my ethernet cable run through.

The computers are in the same workgroup and all the other options have been checked several times. Even with all firewalls off except the hard firewall in the router, I still can't access my shared folders in wireless mode only.

Both computers are running Windows XP with SP2 installed. Anyone have any ideas about correcting this problem? From reading other "Subjects", this problem seems to be more common than not.

Discussion is locked

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PING
Mar 3, 2005 6:08PM PST

try pinging the address of the computer that's physically connected to your router.
In both computers, go to run,
type cmd
enter
in command prompt type ipconfig
enter

this will give you the addresses of your computers.
you should be on the same network on your wireless as if you were plugged via the cat5 cable.
type
ping x.x.x.x
the "x" is the numbers you get from ipconfig
ex: ping 192.168.0.1
there's a possibility your wireless computer is on another network by accident.
check to see that the SSID on your laptop is the same as on your router and that you're router is not using a default SSID.
Also, try starting from scratch. No encryption, no mac filtering, no anything. Start bare, But change the SSID so you can be sure that it's yours.
Erase all wireless SSID's that were recorded in your laptop. That way, when you look for your SSID, it will be the first one on the list to be searched for by windows. Once you get it working, enable all securities you want.

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different profile.
Mar 4, 2005 9:06AM PST

Is you laptop wireless profile setup same as your home network? Your home network has different SSID? WEP security setup? etc.

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different profile
Mar 4, 2005 4:29PM PST

What do you mean by "is my laptop wireless profile setup same as my home network?" If you mean are they in the same workgroup, yes they are. The SSID and WEP settings are correct. Where do I "read my wireless profile setup?"

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for the sake of trying...
Mar 4, 2005 6:44PM PST

go to network properties and put your wireless to a bridge.

right click on connection icon on the taskbar, Open network connection, right click wireless, add to the bridge...

Note:
sometimes the bridge is not available or disable.
You might also have to reenter your wireless ssid/password.