Home Network Issues
 

I'm a little new to this side of networking and am having troubles. I bought a D-Link DI-614+ Wireless Router w/ 4 port switch (Only afterwards do I learn that D-Link sucks for networking components). When I first bought it, everything worked except that I would lose my connection for 1 second about every 2 hours. After trying a lot of different things we returned the router and got a new one. I no longer have a problem with losing my connection, however only 2 out of the 4 computers on our network are actually on the network. 1 of the computers on the switch, and the laptop which should be using the wireless are not connecting. I've tried everything I can think. I've upgraded firmware, I've switched ports on the router for the computer, everything I try, I always get the same result of the same 2 computers not getting anything. Before the new router all 4 worked fine. All computers are running Windows XP Pro, except for the laptop that is running XP Home.

I'm also unable to access the router most of the time by using the default IP address it was set with. I've never changed it.

Anybody out there have an idea what's going on and could offer a little help? Thanks.

Is the notebook the only PC that is utilizing the 802.11 connection? Have you verified the IP Stack on the two non-connected machines? Are they on the same workgroup and subnet? Can you ping the router from all machines, or just the two?

Yeah, the laptop is the only one using the 802.11b connection, but it doesn't work even if it's connected directly to the switch. I can't ping the router from any computer, because I can't connect to it. I don't know if it's just changed IP addresses or what, but what it should be doesn't work anymore. I was able to connect to it for a minute after unplugging it for 10 minutes and plugging it back in, hopefully reseting it *shrug* I tried using the reset switch on the router but didn't see any effect on anything.

Just a couple quick questions that may help things a bit. Are you using static or dynamic IPs? If you used one, have you tried using the other? What mode do you have the network in?

They're dynamic IPs. I'm not sure what you mean by what mode I have the network in, though.

Have you checked the router to see if it's using MAC address authentication? You might want to ensure that the PCs you have hooked up to it are allowed to use it...

But not being able to access the admin area would kind of throw a wrench in that one, I suppose....

What IP addressing are you using?
Are you running and is DHCP setup correctly??

I'm in the process of setting up my own home network with a 4-port hub.

1x WinXP Pro (with internet dial-up) running ICS
1x RedHat 8.0
2x Dec 3000 M-800 Alpha Systems (Tru64 V3.0f)

Literally starting today with the XP & RH boxes, Alpha's I'll connect later.

Sounds like MAC filtering as Achernar stated above.

hmmmmm.
 

Your problem is that you are using XP.

It actually sounds like the DHCP server is flaky go figure. Make sure the network names are the same and the AP has the correct permissions. If you want to be able to share files the "file and printer sharing" must be turned on.

You have to let the network boot up innitailly one computer fully at a time to establish the right IP's. Don't use ICS with windows it blows. Make sure all of the network stack is installed.

Got a Linksys router to replace the D-Link, everything is working perfectly, but it's only been installed for about an hour. I'll have to wait and see if any more problems arise, but I'm not expecting anything to.

D-Link routers are peices of shit, I've had 2 and neither worked right.