Hello all: Came across this board in my search to resolve a challenge on an older lap top runing Window 2000 Professional. Unable to reach DHCP Server. Using PCMCIA card for wired network connection is no problem. Another lap top (Win XP Home) using wireless connects fine. Uninstalled and then physically removed the PCMCIA card in Safe Mode. Installed drivers and software for Netgear WG511T and physically installed PCMCIA card according to procedure. The card is blinking away, but can't find the DHCP server. Disabled APIPA in registry, still no joy. Signal is strong and shows as 48 Mbps steadily. Ping of 127.0.0.1 works fine. Router is a Microsoft Broadband Wireless Router that has otherwise always been working fine for the past 2+ years (MS discontinued this router), and as noted all other wired and wireles connections work fine. Command line 'ipcofig /renew' produces a result stating that the network card is not bound to TCP/IP. Has anyone been able to resolve this issue?? Thanks! Mr. Pastry - a.k.a. Mark

In control panel/network connections right click your wireless connection and select properties tab. In the list of protocols used by the connection is there a tick in the box for TCP/IP ? If not then put one there. Then highlight TCP'IP item and select the properties tab. Make sure obtain ip address automatically is enabled. Once you get this far you may then need to input the appropriate network security key in order to connect to your wireless router. (that is if you have enabled any form of security) I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

Thanks for your input Richard. TCPIP is checked and obtain IP address automatically is set. The 128 bit WEP key is entered and correct (triple checked with a helper). The correct SSID is entered as well. According tothe 'blinking' lights on the card, it is connected to the network, but no activity. No IP address is assigned. And the system tray icon shows green - as in it is connected to a network nod. I am pretty aptient - stubborn actually - with thissort of thing, but I am at my wits end now. Any more ideas would be appreciated.

Are you certain you have selected the appropriate type of WEP key? ie Open or Shared? Also check that you have selected the correct key number (1 to 4) I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

Hardware failure shows up in mysterious ways. As a test disable wep/wpa so wireless is open on both. Can you connect? If not download the latest driver. If still no go bite the bullet and get a new card. If you can connect you know the harware works. Then its just matter of right driver, and right config. One step at a time. Start simple and go to complex. Give a person a fish you feed them for a day. Ask a person to internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

MrPastry, have you checked the DHCP server to make sure you have any more available IP addresses? Some times you can quickly run out of addresses if for example you have long lease times and un-used addresses are not currently available.

Thank you everyone for all your help and suggestions!! By the time I found this site I had slowly patiently, only one thing at a time, gone through and tried a number of different things. I have been maticulous about all the setting each step of the way. I ws so sure disabling APIPA would do the trick. I made one more change yesterday on the router and finally had a chance to boot up the ol' laptop today to see what I might reap. I applied MAC address filtering on the router, under my own theorie that somehow the old IP lease was stuck somewhere in the registery and thus DHCP could not be resolved. I don't even know if this is possible. It just made sense to me. Today whe i booted the lap top I noticed the WEP was set to 64 bit and it should have been 128 bit. For some reason the last time I again tried reinstaling the card and software, after diabling APIPA, I got sloppy and did not select 128 bit on the drop down menu. So, now I am not absoutely certain it is the MAC filteringthat helped resolve it, and now that I have it working I don't want to risk testing a theorie and be back to scratch again. One odd observation is that with the MAC filtering applied the wireless connected devices no longer showup in the router's management tool on the front page. Once again, many thanks for your ideas, help, encouragement, and support!