Page 1 of Wireless connection with Telewest Broadband

Hi,

Really hope someone can help.

I currently have BBI connection with Telewest which I understand to be a cable/DSL connection. The cable currently goes into a Motorola Surfboard SB4200 Cable Modem. This is then connected to my laptop via USB - all works fine.

I decided I wanted to be able to connect wirelessly (mainly so I can watch TV and work at the same time) so have been out and bought a wireless router (Netgear WGR 614) which I was told is what I`d need for a Telewest connection. Got home and it didn`t work. Spoke to Telewest extended support who advised best to get a Wireless PC card as the one inside my laptop, I no longer have the drivers for.

So went and bought a Netgear 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card (on the advice of the person in the shop). Got home, installed and still not working. The card is installed fine, just doesn`t seem to receive any transmissions from the router.

I know the Internet connection is working fine and I have been able to connect the router to the laptop (only through network cable though), but I can`t get the connection to work from the cable modem to the router and from the router to the laptop all at the same time. I`ve spoken to Telewest numerous times and just had probably the longest, most pointless call of my life to Netgear support.

Telewest have said that I should speak to Netgear so I have done (no use). The guy said it was probably that I needed to upgrade from Win 98 SE to XP - I`m not really wanting to do this because of the expense plus all the products I`ve bought say they are compatible with Win 98.

Does anyone have any ideas - would be much appreciated as spent a fortune (for a student) today and not working?

Many thanks

Richard

Have you configured the router for wireless connection yet?

If so have you noted the channel, SSID, network type (infrastructure or ad-hoc) and have you enabled WEP; then have you configured the wireless PC card with the same settings.

If you haven`t configured the router yet you need to have a look at the router manual to see how to get into configure it.

I have Telewest Broadband via a Motorola Surfboard SB2400 as well and have it connected to a Belkin wireless router (both wired and wireless connections) and have had no problems with it.

Report back with state of your router/wireless card configuration and I`m sure that somebody will be able to help, even if I can`t

Quote:
Have you configured the router for wireless connection yet?

If so have you noted the channel, SSID, network type (infrastructure or ad-hoc) and have you enabled WEP; then have you configured the wireless PC card with the same settings.

Hi,

Thanks for replying. I think this is probably the problem, i.e. configuring the router, but the problem is I can`t even get to configure the router through the wireless network card because it won`t connect.

I`m pretty sure the channel is 11, the SSID I`ve been told can be anything 26 digits long, network type (I haven`t seen this anywhere) - I`ve tried enabling WEP and tried without through the PC Card, but still no luck.

Been trying to do this for pretty much 12 hours now, so going to get some sleep and try again tomorrow. Any ideas would be gratefuly appreciated.


Thanks

Richard

You don`t configure the wireless through the wireless, you need to do it via a wired connection first.

Connection your machine to the router with a network cable.

Then go to the router admin page via your browser. The default url is http://192.168.0.1, with username admin and password password.

Go to the Wireless settings page and configure it up.

Hi,

OK - I`ve now been able to connect the cable modem to the router and the router to the laptop (via a network cable) and this works fine. I have been to configure the router for wireless settings but still not having any luck.

The settings I have on my router are:

Name (SSID): NETGEAR
Region: Europe
Channel: 11
Mode: g and b
Wireless AP: On
Broadcast Name: On

I have enabled 128 bit WEP with the settings:

Authentication type: Automatic
Encryption Strength: 128 bit
Key 1: 8198e272f82d84f0e8273649ec

There is also an option there to set up Wireless Card Access List which I haven`t done anything with.

I have been to the settings of the wireless card which allows me to choose the following settings:

SSID name: NETGEAR
Network Type: Access Point (Infrastructure)
Use WEP Encryption: Yes
Enter Key manually: Key 1: 8198e272f82d84f0e8273649ec

Still not working - any ideas? Sure it`s something obvious I`m missing.

Thanks

Richard

I have exactly the same router and it worked straight away with my Centrino laptop.

Try it on all the default Wireless settings - no security. You should be able to get the wireless connection because there`s no security. Once that works, then you can set up the security - it`s important.

I have changed the SSID on mine, stopped it broadcasting, enabled 64bit encryption and set up the access list to only allow my laptop. It all works a treat.

It may be that Win98 needs a little more setting up - since it was out well before wireless setups were mainstream and affordable. XP is almost certainly designed to handle them better. On my laptop it comes up with a list of available wireless networks automatically, you click the one you want and click connect. There`sno need to manually enter any information unless the connection is encrypted - then you need to enter the key and it will connect.

This item was edited on Friday, 15th October 2004, 10:26

Hi,

I`ve tried all the different settings I can and still with no luck, so have ordered Windows XP Professional upgrade so hopefully that will fix things.

I`m pretty sure the connection is there because the two lights are flashing on the card at the same time which means it is connected (according to the instructions), but it still won`t allow me to connect to the router through the wireless card or to the Internet.

Thanks

Richard

Have you tried connecting to the router configuration via the wireless card? Does your router and/or wireless card have a manual and/or online manual on configuring it with Windows 98. I know this is a bit late as you have ordered XP Pro, but maybe still worth a shot.

Also how do you authenticate with Blueyonder via a usb connection? I ask because mine authenticates via MAC address of my network card and when I set up my router I had the option of registering the MAC address of the router with Telewest or cloning my NIC MAC address in the router. As you are no longer connecting via usb (or at least you aren`t when attempting wireless connection) I`m wondering if you have to do anything with the router and/or notify Telewest so that it will authenticate.

Hi,

Thanks for the ideas. I`ve tried to configure the router through the wireless card, but it won`t allow me into the configuration of the router - only lets me if I use a network cable.

I spoke to Telewest yesterday about this registering addresses etc with the router and modem but they assure me this isn`t a problem because when I reset the modem it clears the addresses that were already there and searches for what is available.

I`m pretty sure now that there is no problem with the modem, router or network card and that all the cables work. It just seems that although the network card works, for some reason it won`t fully connect with the router wirelessly - it looks like it can see the wireless connection, but is just not connecting to it.

Thanks

Richard

It sounds like a software configuration issue to me. When I get home I`ll post the configuration of my router and wireless card. I run a Linksys router with a Win98 laptop and I have no problems. You just have to make sure it`s in the correct mode. I`m not sure infrastructure is right, but I`ll have to check when I get home as I I`m blocked from getting into the router from work.