Help! Wireless Not Connecting

[mysticsniper]

Within the past 24 hours. I noticed that my wireless connection had dropped. The router was turned on downstairs, but I was unable to connect. I typed in the SSID and the passcode, but it kept saying "unable to connect".

I then took the computer downstairs and connected it to the router via the cat5 cable. I have since been able to connect to the internet and when I click on the wireless device. It tells me I am connected. But as soon as I remove the Cat5 cable, I lose my connection.

So far, I have changed the SSID, and the encryption and the passcode. I have even updated all the drivers and even been into the TCPIP setting, to make sure it obtains an IP address automatically But I am quite stumped now

I am using the following hardware

Netgear DG834N Router
Netgear WPN311 Wireless Card

 

[varkanoid]

Reboot the router ?

It could be that a neighbour nearby is using the same wireless channel as you and is conflicting with your wireless connection. When you look for SSID's does it come up with someone elses also and what is the signal strength ?

If you have say your channel set as 1 try and move it to the other end of the scale say 11.

 

[Detroit_Waves]

Reboot the router ?

It could be that a neighbour nearby is using the same wireless channel as you and is conflicting with your wireless connection. When you look for SSID's does it come up with someone elses also and what is the signal strength ?

If you have say your channel set as 1 try and move it to the other end of the scale say 11.

This is what I recently had to do to mine, so this would be my first suggestion too.

 

[mysticsniper]

Reboot the router ?

It could be that a neighbour nearby is using the same wireless channel as you and is conflicting with your wireless connection. When you look for SSID's does it come up with someone elses also and what is the signal strength ?

If you have say your channel set as 1 try and move it to the other end of the scale say 11.

Yeah have rebooted several times. I am on channel 6 at the moment, will change to a different one and see what happens. My SSID is hidden amd not being broadcast, so I have to input that manually.

 

[RubinRemus]

When you say you have the wifi "connected" but when you remove the catv cable you "lose" the connection, you may find Windows is "mis-representing" the situation to you.

Most OS's will "prefer" a wired connection over wireless, so if you switch to catv it will use it.
However, with Windows, when you unplug the catv it is usually too dumb to realise it can switch back to the wifi (which is also connected and ready to use)

So, when unplugging the catv, your browser will still be directed to the catv LAN connection and fail.
Restart the browser and it should work fine over the wifi.
(This is based upon you actually having the wifi connected, which is how I read it in your post)

Also, above advice about rebooting your router - always No.1 thing to do first when wifi shows problems! Most domestic wifi routers aren't too reliable over the long term.
No.2 thing to do is reboot Windows. That's not too reliable over long term either

If you're using windows, open a command prompt and type:

ipconfig /all

This will list all available devices and show their details, such as IP address, Gateway, DNS, etc.
You can make sure your wifi device has actually received all of these details from your router (Unless you don't use DHCP, but I expect you do)

You can also try:

ipconfig /renew

This will ask for, and fetch, the same details over again, in case it wasn't assigned any before (often the case if the connection was problematic, Windows will time-out and assign a 169.x.x.x internal address instead)

If the wifi shows as connected, try to ping your router:

ping 192.168.0.1

Or, whatever address the router is at (Your gateway address)