Wifi problem

[Goldberry]

Recently got back from an extended vacation where my built in wifi worked fine at internet cafes.

Now using my home router it doesn't connect. It sees the router but doesn't get an IP or DNS. If I go to cmd Ipconfig it shows 0.0.0.0 for address. Tried repair, reboot router and cable modem my T40 but it just cannot get an IP. Hardware devices shows it to be working properly.

Plugged in the old ethernet card from my previous laptop and it gets an IP no problem.

Anyone have any thoughts on what is wrong

[killer]

Just a thought, but it may well be worth checking to see if you have malware on your machine. The reason I say that is because after a stay in France last year, where we accessed the internet via a number of different hotspots, we discovered that our computer had been infected with a trojan.

[muckz]

I had intermittent problems with my Atheros a/b/g wifi card in T41p. Basically, it saw my router, but it could not determine what encryption mode it used. It was WPA/WPA2, but the brackets didn't show anything. But every other router that my wifi card found had either (WPA) or (WPA2) in the brackets.

I reset my router to default factory settings, then my laptop could connect. I slowly, one by one, restored my router to my own custom settings, and it was working, including WPA/WPA2.

Eventually, it stopped working again.

So I downloaded Lenovo System Update, which scanned my hardware and automatically downloaded the latest drivers, including one for Atheros wifi card.

Since then, all my problems vanished!

[davidspalding]

I just had problems like this this morning. My T43 (with IBM/Atheros 11a/b/g card) stopped connecting the Linksys WRT54G 1.1 router, without any changes on either. Claimed that the card's driver didn't support the encryption (WPA2-AES).

Same with a new X32 with Intel 2915 11a/b/g ... claimed the driver did not to support the encryption the router was using. Reinstalled the Intel PROSet software and driver, no joy.

I got the T43 fixed by changing the WPA passphrase on the router, and my T43 and an old Omnibook with a Cardbus Cisco ABC wifi card both connected. But not the X32. NO matter, I'm wiping the X32 shortly.

I don't think anything received new drivers or firmware since it all worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.

[killer]

How odd! Do you use Access Connections or Microsoft to connect?

[Goldberry]

How odd! Do you use Access Connections or Microsoft to connect?

Microsoft

[Goldberry]

I changed the WEP key and this fixed the problem.

[davidspalding]

I use Access Connections on my stinkpads, 3.82 on my T43 (last version that worked well with the drivers, AND was fast to respond), and 4.52 on the X32 (which is pretty good; the 4.0x and 4.1x versions I had problems with).

Windows might be the way to go on my X32 after I wipe and restore it, as I'll have lowered security on it.[1]

[1] E.g. Fast user switching, a Power-on and Syskey password and no user passwords, no CSS or other IBM TSRs aside from power and hotkeys.

[killer]

@Goldberry, WEP code is easily broken. Use WPA, if possible, to protect yourself.

@Davidspalding, I use the latest Access Connections available, currently 5.20. It works well.