Weird network issue

Adnams Drinker

Adnams Drinker

Adnams Drinker

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Joined
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Cambridge
We're currently experiencing a weird and bloody annoying issue with our wifi, which no doubt has a simple cause, but is driving the missus and I up the wall.

Basically, if I boot up my laptop, her laptop stays connected to the wifi, but then cannot access any website. Both machines are fairly old and running Windows XP SP3 and both show as connected to wifi at all times. When I shut my down, BOOM, she can browse the internet again.

First thing I did was restart the cable modem (Virgin Media broadband) and router, which didn't do any good. I must stress I know naff all about networking, but my immediate suspicion was that they both had the same IP, particularly as the machine I'm currently using is an old one I had in the back of the cupboard and hadn't been on our wifi for several months, after my more up-to-date lappy decided to die on me. I've checked by doing an IPCONFIG and each has a different IP.

Has anybody experienced in the black art of networking got any idea what the hell is going on here? Everything else that has ever been connected to our wifi (our iPhones and family member's laptops and phones) has had no issue whatsoever, so this is just bizarre :(

I am a complete novice when it comes to networking, so please go easy on me LOL :p
 
Nah, never get an error message, but when she tries to access a website it just hangs with 'Connecting ...' in the status bar at the foot of the browser window ...
 
Oof! A few more questions

(a) Does your old machine have any interesting networking history? i.e. did it have anything like a VPN set up on it at any time?

(b) You say that other devices work ok, but does this mean that they work ok if your machine is connected at the same time? i.e is it only your GFs machine that is locked out by your machine being on?

(c) Does the GFs machine remain locked out if you turn your machine's wifi connection off (rather than fully shutting it down)?

(d) Does the GFs machine remain locked out if you take your machine physically far away from the router (but still connected).

(e) Are you willing to post the results of an "ipconfig /all" from your's and your GF's machine whiclst they're both on?

(f) Can you set a "ping" of the router going from you GF's machine, then turn your machine on, then turn it off? See what happens.

Lots of questions, sorry, but this is weird!
 
gregorius said:
Oof! A few more questions

(a) Does your old machine have any interesting networking history? i.e. did it have anything like a VPN set up on it at any time?

(b) You say that other devices work ok, but does this mean that they work ok if your machine is connected at the same time? i.e is it only your GFs machine that is locked out by your machine being on?

(c) Does the GFs machine remain locked out if you turn your machine's wifi connection off (rather than fully shutting it down)?

(d) Does the GFs machine remain locked out if you take your machine physically far away from the router (but still connected).

(e) Are you willing to post the results of an "ipconfig /all" from your's and your GF's machine whiclst they're both on?

(f) Can you set a "ping" of the router going from you GF's machine, then turn your machine on, then turn it off? See what happens.

Lots of questions, sorry, but this is weird!
Click to expand...

Blimey, maybe it ain't something so simple then ... here goes:

a) possibly - it's an old work machine of my brother's and may well have been on a company VPN at some stage ... is there any way I could tell on the control panel screens? I'm using the machine with a completely new user account, but one that has admin privileges, in case that might be relevant

b) yep, when my laptop is online, only the wife's is having any trouble - our phones are absolutely fine

c) no, if I turn wifi off on my machine, hers can then access sites no problem

d) we're both quite a distance from the router - it's in a bedroom on the back of the house and we're sat in the living room on the opposite side of the house

e) sure no probs - although let me know if what I've done is the networking equivalent of publishing my debit card's PIN number!

My machine - when it's connected:

ip-mine.jpg


and hers - shows the same info whether her machine is connected or not:

grab-vix-uc.jpg


Just noticed I missed the top bit off the grab of hers - the host name is different and the Node Type is set to 'Mixed', but Primary DNS is blank and IP Routing and WINS Proxy both set to 'No', same as mine.

f) bit new to this networking lark - can you let me know what I type at the command line?
 
Adnams Drinker said:
f) bit new to this networking lark - can you let me know what I type at the command line?
Click to expand...

At the command line, find the IP address of your router by typing "ipconfig". The IP address you want is the one for "Default Gateway". Then you just ping it, e.g.

ping -t 192.168.1.254

The ping command sends out packets and bounces them off the target machine (the router in this case). If the connection is fine, you'll see the replies coming back with metronomic regularity. If it's borked, you won't.

Stop the ping command with control-C.
 
gregorius said:
At the command line, find the IP address of your router by typing "ipconfig". The IP address you want is the one for "Default Gateway". Then you just ping it, e.g.

ping -t 192.168.1.254

The ping command sends out packets and bounces them off the target machine (the router in this case). If the connection is fine, you'll see the replies coming back with metronomic regularity. If it's borked, you won't.

Stop the ping command with control-C.
Click to expand...

Right - on my machine, all packets are sent and received varying between 4 and 6 ms (this machine is getting on a bit and has quite an old wireless card). If I hover over the icon in the tray, it shows as connected at 11 Mbps.

When I do so on her machine, I get 'Request timed out' for every packet.

If I then switch off wifi on mine and ping the router again from hers, each packet is sent/received between 0 and 2ms (her lappy shows a connection speed of 24 Mbps).
 
Thanks for posting all the symptoms. I can't immediately see anything wrong with your configuration. I do recall from a few years back quite a few people with windows xp complaiing of wifi problems; something to do with hardware incompatibility with routers, ISTR.

But from the symptoms, it could be a number of hardware related issues: your old laptop wireless transmitter producing electromagnetic crud (but we'd expect problems for other things connected to the router...); incompatibility as above...

Not really sure what to advise other than replacing your old machine or trying a different router; perhaps get a cheap usb wireless dongle for your machine and see whether the problem persists if you use this instead of the built in wireless.
 
Routers cost buttons these days anyway or even ask a mate to loan theirs to do some testing.

Another thing you could do if you have time is to format your laptop but don't use any drivers first until all the Windows Update ones are installed then test again.
 
Adnams Drinker said:
Actually, when you mentioned USB dongles, were you meaning something like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-049-TP&groupid=46&catid=1600&subcat=2034

Presumably, I just switch wifi off using the button on the front of the laptop and then plug this little gizmo in?
Click to expand...

That's what I had in mind. I've not used one myself, so check with the folk on here that it works that way for a laptop with built-in wireless. (can't see why it shouldn't).
 
I betcha I know what it is... your laptop has an ad-hoc wireless network setup (it is acting as a wireless network), and your wife's laptop has this wireless network memorised, so that any time you power on your laptop, your wife sees your ad-hoc network, connects to it, and hence nothing works.

Do an ipconfig /all on her laptop when your one is on and she can't browse.

This could be from a virus on your laptop.
 
rotor said:
I betcha I know what it is... your laptop has an ad-hoc wireless network setup (it is acting as a wireless network), and your wife's laptop has this wireless network memorised, so that any time you power on your laptop, your wife sees your ad-hoc network, connects to it, and hence nothing works.
Click to expand...

That was one of the things I was thinking about, but the ipconfig output above shows his computer as a broadcast node type.

This could be from a virus on your laptop.
Click to expand...

That's the worrying one; if it's a virus, the ipconfig could be fooled.
 
rotor said:
I betcha I know what it is... your laptop has an ad-hoc wireless network setup (it is acting as a wireless network), and your wife's laptop has this wireless network memorised, so that any time you power on your laptop, your wife sees your ad-hoc network, connects to it, and hence nothing works.

Do an ipconfig /all on her laptop when your one is on and she can't browse.

This could be from a virus on your laptop.
Click to expand...

gregorius said:
That was one of the things I was thinking about, but the ipconfig output above shows his computer as a broadcast node type.



That's the worrying one; if it's a virus, the ipconfig could be fooled.
Click to expand...

Sorry gents, didn't get an email notification about these latest replies - I was just referring back to the thread for something else and noticed them.

I WILL do a virus scan just to be sure, but I'm doubtful it would show anything - the laptop I'm using used to be my bro's and knowng what he's like about security, he would have had either NOD32 or at least Avast running on it at all times, but stranger things have happened!

If that doesn't show anything, I'll punt a tenner on the network dongle I linked to earlier - failing that I'll just say sod it and buy a new lappy later in the year!
 
Ordered the dongle over the weekend and it arrived in the post this morning. Bit of a win-win all round - not only has using it instead of the internal wifi card in my laptop solved the issue with the interference with my wife's machine, I'm also getting a connection speed of 150 Mbps, which is three or four times what I was getting before ... not bad for less than a tenner!
 
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