Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone,

Just got a new T60 for my wife 1953-E4u. Pretty typical unit, outfitted with 1GB RAM, A/B/G wireless, etc..

It's just a few hours out of the box. I'm having trouble getting it connect to our home wireless router and am looking for suggestions.

The router is a Belkin b/g wireless unit about 2, maybe 3, years old.

I entered in the two mac adresses of the new computer into the mac address filtering list. A wired connection provisions fine, no problem with internet access.

I then set up the wireless on the T60, creating an Access Connections profile for this computer using the same settings as the other computers in the house use. No joy. No connection. Fails at authentication.

I turned off the router's mac address filtering, just to double check. That wasn't the problem, still no connection.

Re-entered the profile, being very diligent with each keystroke. No joy.

Decided to update from 128 bit WEP up to WPA-PSK encryption. On the router, entered all new security settings. On my personal machine (a T42p) I created an access connection profile for these new settings. Connected perfectly, first time.

Entered the same exact stuff into the new T60, but it doesn't connect. Grrr. Note that it SEES the router. It can find the ssid I'm using for the router. Very strong signal. But the association fails.

I've re-entered everything numerous times. Updated windows to current everything. Updated wireless driver and Access Connections. Still no association.

Please, any experiences or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is the first time I've been stumped with something like this...

Marc

Just as a further note, the T60 does connect OK to other, unsecured access points. There's several such ones in my neighborhood, and for kicks I created a generic profile with no security, and it associated right up with one of those.

It's just having problems with my own access point, using either WPA or the older WEP security. Any ideas appreciated.

If I were diagnosing this for someone else, I would say they entered something wrong, but for the life of me, I've been careful with my entries and don't know what it might be...

Some edited-in further information:

I tried removing the Access Connections software (4.12), rebooting, and configuring the connection in Windows only. I get the same problem. The network shows up, but fails to associate.

I checked; I'm running the latest version of the Belkin firmware available for the router.

Marc

As a further note, I went into my Belkin router settings, and turned off ALL security features. I'm broadcasting my SSID, no MAC address filtering, no security. For a few minutes I'm a spammers's haven.


And the T60 STILL won't connect. It sees the access point but they refuse to connect! Connections to other unsecured access points in the neighborhood do work...

How very freaky. Any ideas, anyone? Anything at all?

Marc

Marc, it does sound freaky and i'd be a bit purturbed! (sp?)

I have a belkin F5D7230-4 wirelessG router and the connectivity goes like this, if I can't connect with my t60 i go to the t42 if I can't connect with the t42 i pick up the t30 if that can't connect somethings wrong. The access point is more than 50' away.

Have you tried just using windows to configure the wireless settings? Ixnay on the access connectionsyay? I don't use it because it really has not worked any better for me. When I got my t60 I expected the card to connect better (intel3945ABG) than my other two and was painfully mistaken. I called tech support they sent me another 3945abg card which gave me the same results.

Of course if you call tech support they will walk you through some things first, as they did with me, and I had reinstalled to factory also. You might try this and also resetting the router back to factory specs and starting from scratch, and you could also try setting the intel to "G" only. Have you checked for any firmware upgrades on the router, there is none for mine, and it works great for the other two machines.

Good luck and don't beat yourself up over this, just keep plugging away. Ohh yeah, the tech support guy told me that his friend got a buffalo card and it was fantastic , I didn't quite no what to say to that, he was just trying to be extremely helpful I guess.

Make sure your IP addresses are correct too.

Hi Kyocera,

Thanks for your response. You're often the first to respond to my various questions.

I did try using windows only for setting up a simple connection, and it didn't work either (see second post in this thread). Grr.

After trying everything else, I went to BB and plunked down $50 for a standard Linksys wireless G router. Plugged in, entered security info, and the T60 connected firt time no problem at all.

So, for some reason, the Belkin router I have and the T60 just refuse to play together. So far the Linksys is doing fine.

Now I need to see what to do on my T42p so that I can use WPA2 and update to the strongest security available... At WPA I'm one step behind I think. Of course, any hacker on my block has lots of easier targets, as unsecured connections seem to be the norm here.

Marc

Seems like most people use the defaults on their wireless routers, makes it easy to travel in a car and stay conected.

After reading of your experience maybe I need to look into a Linksys