Wireless problem with Toshiba C660

[Maurice Batey]

Yesterday I helped my cousin move over from a WinXP PC to a W7 laptop.
Everything went smoothly; the wireless connection (to son's router across
the yard) came up first time, and functioned without hitch.

This morning, although it shows auto-connection to that SSID, it also says
'No internet connection', and there is none. Tried disconnecting and
re-connecting. Still shows

"Currently connected to:
(Bench icon) Unidentified network
No internet connection"

- as does the Panel icon. W7's wireless diagnostics say all is well!

(My Toshiba A120 continues to connect to the same SSID, as does his old PC.)

Network Connection Status shows "DHCP enabled" (wonder why) and "IPV4
address 169.254.28.181", whereas ifconfig on my (Linux) laptop shows:

INET address: 192.168.0.5 Bcast 192.168.0.255 Mask 255.255.255.0

I don't understand the big difference in IP addresses between the 2 laptops
connecting to the same SSID.

How do I get W7 not to use DHCP here, and get an address similar to those
that my laptop gets? Is that the root of the problem? (Why did it change
overnight?!)

HELLLPPP!

 

[Jim]

Yesterday I helped my cousin move over from a WinXP PC to a W7 laptop.
Everything went smoothly; the wireless connection (to son's router across
the yard) came up first time, and functioned without hitch.

This morning, although it shows auto-connection to that SSID, it also says
'No internet connection', and there is none. Tried disconnecting and
re-connecting. Still shows

"Currently connected to:
(Bench icon) Unidentified network
No internet connection"

- as does the Panel icon. W7's wireless diagnostics say all is well!

(My Toshiba A120 continues to connect to the same SSID, as does his old PC.)

Network Connection Status shows "DHCP enabled" (wonder why) and "IPV4
address 169.254.28.181", whereas ifconfig on my (Linux) laptop shows:

INET address: 192.168.0.5 Bcast 192.168.0.255 Mask 255.255.255.0

I don't understand the big difference in IP addresses between the 2 laptops
connecting to the same SSID.

How do I get W7 not to use DHCP here, and get an address similar to those
that my laptop gets? Is that the root of the problem? (Why did it change
overnight?!)

HELLLPPP!

I believe the 169.254.28.181 address was given by Windows, not the
router. If you have a desktop don't connect it to the internet and see
what IP address it has. I think you find it's in the 169 range.

Jim

 

[Big Steel]

Yesterday I helped my cousin move over from a WinXP PC to a W7 laptop.
Everything went smoothly; the wireless connection (to son's router across
the yard) came up first time, and functioned without hitch.

This morning, although it shows auto-connection to that SSID, it also says
'No internet connection', and there is none. Tried disconnecting and
re-connecting. Still shows

"Currently connected to:
(Bench icon) Unidentified network
No internet connection"

- as does the Panel icon. W7's wireless diagnostics say all is well!


(My Toshiba A120 continues to connect to the same SSID, as does his

old PC.)

Network Connection Status shows "DHCP enabled" (wonder why) and "IPV4
address 169.254.28.181", whereas ifconfig on my (Linux) laptop shows:


INET address: 192.168.0.5 Bcast 192.168.0.255 Mask 255.255.255.0


I don't understand the big difference in IP addresses between the 2 laptops
connecting to the same SSID.

How do I get W7 not to use DHCP here, and get an address similar to those
that my laptop gets? Is that the root of the problem? (Why did it change

The 169. IP means the O/S assigned the IP, because it timed-out and
could not obtain an IP from the DHCP server on the router.

Check the settings on the card.

Reset the TCP/IP stack to release the 169 IP and reboot to see if the
machine will obtain the IP from the router's DHCP server.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

 

[Paul]

Yesterday I helped my cousin move over from a WinXP PC to a W7 laptop.
Everything went smoothly; the wireless connection (to son's router across
the yard) came up first time, and functioned without hitch.

This morning, although it shows auto-connection to that SSID, it also says
'No internet connection', and there is none. Tried disconnecting and
re-connecting. Still shows

"Currently connected to:
(Bench icon) Unidentified network
No internet connection"

- as does the Panel icon. W7's wireless diagnostics say all is well!

(My Toshiba A120 continues to connect to the same SSID, as does his old PC.)

Network Connection Status shows "DHCP enabled" (wonder why) and "IPV4
address 169.254.28.181", whereas ifconfig on my (Linux) laptop shows:

INET address: 192.168.0.5 Bcast 192.168.0.255 Mask 255.255.255.0

I don't understand the big difference in IP addresses between the 2 laptops
connecting to the same SSID.

How do I get W7 not to use DHCP here, and get an address similar to those
that my laptop gets? Is that the root of the problem? (Why did it change
overnight?!)

HELLLPPP!

169.254 is an "APIPA" address. Translated, it means the computer could not
reach a router running DHCP, to get an address. The OS locally assigns
that bogus address as a substitute, and as a hint of the failure to set up
networking properly. That's how Windows handles it. (Other OSes may simply
refuse to set up a network device at all if that happens.)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa505918.aspx

It sounds like you know about the two options, to either statically
assign private addresses in the 192.168.x.x range, or to tick "DHCP"
or the like, to have the client computer reach the router that serves
up DHCP addresses. For example, my little $40 home router with four
Ethernet ports on it, runs a DHCP server and serves private addresses
in the 192.168.x.x range. Addresses are randomly assigned, which isn't
particularly convenient.

On my Windows machine, the network setup for TCP/IP in the network control
panel would be set to "Obtain an IP address automatically". That's DHCP.

On the router, when you enable DHCP, you define a range of addresses. For
example, mine go from 192.168.x.x to 192.168.x.x+10 or so. I don't have
10 computers, but when I run virtual machines in WinXP, they get addresses
too. I keep my DHCP pool a bit bigger than it needs to be.

*******

I don't think I can really give you a flow chart of all the things to
check. I'm not good with wireless. I presume you wouldn't even get this
far, if the encryption part of things wasn't working. I'd start by looking
at the TCP/IP dialog for the wireless device, and see how it's set up.

On a router, I think you can apply various filters to "foreign" computers,
to determine whether they're candidates for getting a DHCP provided address.
Perhaps MAC address filtering for example. If it was my problem, I'd just
wander aimlessly from menu to menu in the router device, until I
"found something interesting"

If the router keeps a log, you might also see if there are any messages there.
Mine doesn't log enough info, to be of any help, but you never know what
you might find. At least my router lists the currently allocated DHCP
addresses and the "names" of the computer (that's in a separate dialog).
For example, my Gentoo computers show up as "distcc" and "gentoo", which
are their (local only) host names, so I can quickly tell they've been given
addresses. My Windows machine is one of those automatically generated names, with
some random digits in it.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Maurice Batey]

If you have a desktop don't connect it to the internet and see
what IP address it has. I think you find it's in the 169 range.

Haven't checked that yet, but its connected IP is 192.168.0.101.

 

[Char Jackson]

169.254 is an "APIPA" address. Translated, it means the computer could not
reach a router running DHCP, to get an address. The OS locally assigns
that bogus address as a substitute, and as a hint of the failure to set up
networking properly. That's how Windows handles it. (Other OSes may simply
refuse to set up a network device at all if that happens.)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa505918.aspx

Just a small side note to say that APIPA addresses aren't exactly
bogus. Small networks work just fine with APIPA addresses (and no DHCP
server), allowing two or more similarly configured machines to
communicate with each other without issues.

I agree, of course, that ending up with an APIPA address when you do
have a DHCP server running is a sign that that computer was unable to
get a response from the DHCP server, for whatever reason, so that's
where the troubleshooting starts.

 

[Maurice Batey]

The 169. IP means the O/S assigned the IP, because it timed-out and
could not obtain an IP from the DHCP server on the router.

OIC. Well, it was OK yesterday, and no change was made before the failure
this morning...

Check the settings on the card.

Could you be more precise, please?

Reset the TCP/IP stack to release the 169 IP and reboot to see if the
machine will obtain the IP from the router's DHCP server.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

Did that, via the FixIt program from that web site.
It ran, but after re-booting, the same problem has occurred - IP of 169.254...

Many thanks for your swift response; much appreciated.

 

[Maurice Batey]

It sounds like you know about the two options, to either statically
assign private addresses in the 192.168.x.x range, or to tick "DHCP"
or the like,

Yes. Well, as I reported earlier, DHCP is 'on' in the settings.
I have not been able to find out how to turn it off, and even if I could I do
not know how - in W7 - to allocate a fixed IP address.

(As my own laptop was given 192.168.0.5, presumably e.g. 192.168.0.9 would be
safe?)

How does one - in W7 - turn DHCP off and allocate an IP address for wireless?

(The other burning question: Why does a wireless connection arrangement that was
working perfectly yesterday fail to do so today, when there were no changes
made, and another laptop continues to get a useable IP from the router?)

Thank you for your rapid response, Paul; much appreciated...

 

[Maurice Batey]

I agree, of course, that ending up with an APIPA address when you do
have a DHCP server running is a sign that that computer was unable to
get a response from the DHCP server, for whatever reason, so that's
where the troubleshooting starts.

Thanks, Char - that's interesting.

If I can't get this working by tomorrow he's going to return the laptop on the
grounds of instability in its wireless system...
(Worked yesterday, fails today - when other laptop does not.)

 

[Big Steel]

On Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:32:45 -0500, Big Steel wrote:


OIC. Well, it was OK yesterday, and no change was made before the failure
this morning...


Could you be more precise, please?


Did that, via the FixIt program from that web site.
It ran, but after re-booting, the same problem has occurred - IP of 169.254...


Many thanks for your swift response; much appreciated.

You got another wireless card you can use to see if the problem
follows? Maybe the card has gone defective.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Yes. Well, as I reported earlier, DHCP is 'on' in the settings.
I have not been able to find out how to turn it off, and even if I could I do
not know how - in W7 - to allocate a fixed IP address.

(As my own laptop was given 192.168.0.5, presumably e.g. 192.168.0.9 would be
safe?)

How does one - in W7 - turn DHCP off and allocate an IP address for wireless?

(The other burning question: Why does a wireless connection arrangement that was
working perfectly yesterday fail to do so today, when there were no changes
made, and another laptop continues to get a useable IP from the router?)

Thank you for your rapid response, Paul; much appreciated...

It's just a standard problem with Wi-Fi connections under Windows, not
just Windows 7. Usually this happens due to the Wi-Fi security method
used, such as WEP, WPA, etc. I would try changing your router's
encryption method to something else and see if it fixes it. The security
levels go up in sophistication in this order: none, WEP, WPA1, and WPA2.
And within the WPA category (both 1 & 2) you also have a choice of
encryption methods of either TKIP or AES; I wouldn't touch these
encryption settings, first change between the overall methods.

You should first see if turning off the security completely, and see if
it obtains the DHCP address that way. If it doesn't work at this most
basic level, then there is something wrong with the Wi-Fi of the
computer. If it does work with no security, then slowly start increasing
the security level up to WEP, then WPA1 and finally WPA2. Sometimes an
increased security method combined with a far distance from the router
will result in this problem.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Char Jackson]

Yes. Well, as I reported earlier, DHCP is 'on' in the settings.
I have not been able to find out how to turn it off, and even if I could I do
not know how - in W7 - to allocate a fixed IP address.

My suggestion is don't turn DHCP off at this time. If the issue is
that your wireless laptop can't communicate with the wireless router,
then manually assigning an IP address isn't going to fix anything.

Make sure you're trying to connect to the proper wireless router,
first of all. If the local router has a generic SSID (wireless network
name), your neighbor might be using the same name and you could
accidentally be trying to connect to the neighbor. Try disconnecting
and reconnecting to the proper wireless network, since each time you
connect you'll be invoking the process to request an IP address.

If you continually can't connect, or can't stay connected, it may be
interference from a multitude of possible sources, such as cordless
phones and microwave ovens, to name two. Try moving closer to the
wireless router.

(As my own laptop was given 192.168.0.5, presumably e.g. 192.168.0.9 would be
safe?)

If you do go down the road of manual IP assignment, (not recommended),
you should try pinging the new address from another (connected)
computer. If you don't get a reply, it's safe to use. If you do get a
reply, it's already in use and you need to pick another address within
the same subnet.

How does one - in W7 - turn DHCP off and allocate an IP address for wireless?

The same as previous versions of Windows, essentially, but you really
shouldn't need to do that.

(The other burning question: Why does a wireless connection arrangement that was
working perfectly yesterday fail to do so today, when there were no changes
made, and another laptop continues to get a useable IP from the router?)

Wireless connections aren't nearly as stable as wired connections.
What you're describing isn't uncommon. Normally, you'll just reconnect
and go about your business.

 

[Char Jackson]

Thanks, Char - that's interesting.

If I can't get this working by tomorrow he's going to return the laptop on the
grounds of instability in its wireless system...
(Worked yesterday, fails today - when other laptop does not.)

Returning the laptop is far more drastic than anything I'd do at this
point. I'm not at all convinced (yet) that there's anything wrong with
it.

 

[Maurice Batey]

You got another wireless card you can use to see if the problem
follows? Maybe the card has gone defective.

No! It's brand new, so will be returned for full refund.