no wireless connection

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

The symptoms sound similar to others posted in this newsgroup. I'll try to be as brief as possible here but include all the relevant facts.

Hardware: NETGEAR MR814v2 router, offending computer HP zd7000/Broadcom wireless adapter
Operating System: Win XP/Home
The Story: My home network has four desktops connected to the router by ethernet cable and two laptops with wireless connections. I've configured these with few problems so I am not a complete network neophyte.

I bought a new HP laptop. First tried using the network wizard. The wireless connection was unavailable. Next I painstakingly went through every setting available from the icon in the Network Connections control panel comparing the new laptop setup with that in a laptop that connected successfully. This included the TCP/IP settings. Still no luck.

In the "wireless connections" dialog box there are two available connections shown both named NETGEAR. One has the computer-to-computer network checkbox checked. The other doesn't. Any change to these checkboxes is immediately reset by Windows. If I try to connect to the infrastructure connection which is what I want, the connection fails and I am automatically connected to the peer-to-peer connection. An IP address is assigned but it is in the range 169.xxx.xxx.xxx not the 192.168.xxxx.xxx that is used by the router. Neither the internet or other computers on the network can be accessed. If in the advanced dialog box under the wireless connections dialog box I prohibit peer-to-peer connections then I just get an unavailable connection and a red x through the wireless connection icon. The workgroup name is set correctly.

A few other salient facts: Windows firewall is turned off. No security of any type is activated on the router. The computer wireless adapter is set to channel 6, the same as the router. The HP laptop works perfectly when connected to the router by an ethernet cable.

Other things I've tried: power everything off and back on. Turn off other wireless laptops to avoid interference. Install service pack 1a. Download Broadcom wireless adapter user interface with new drivers. The "site monitor" on this interface shows a good strength signal from the router. I confirmed that the signal was from the router and not one of the other wireless computers by turning off the router and observing the signal going away. There are probably more things I've tried that I am forgetting.

One final note: A few months ago, a friend tried to connect his laptop to this network with similar problems. In that case we just gave up. He was later able to connect to other networks with no difficulty.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.