Hi all, can someone please help me with my problem? I have a home network (server - sbs2003/ISA2000, workstation laptop - winxp sp1) and I used to have a cable modem connection and the home network worked fine. I've recently moved home and took the opportunity to get a wireless router/modem and a wireless card for my laptop. Now the problem I have is this, when connecting the server/laptop to the wireless router I get an IP address from the router going to the server fine (router default gateway 192.168.1.1 IP address to server 192.168.1.101) I have switched off DHCP on the router so that an IP address can be given to the laptop from the server internally, but this does not happen. I get a private 169.xxx.xxx.xxx IP address instead. Now if I re-enable my internal network card on the laptop and reboot it connects to the network fine and issues an internal ip address and I get internet access as well as access to all shared drives. Also if I enable DHCP on the router and use the wireless card I get a 192.168.1.102 IP address to the laptop from the router and can get internet access (but no shared drive access). I have switched off the router firewall for the time being until I can resolve the problem (winxp firewall is not enabled) Obviously I want my laptop to access the home network via the wireless connection so what am I missing? Why am I not getting an internal IP address when trying to connect to the server via the wireless connection. I have updated the wireless card drivers and also the firmware for the router. Can anyone else give me some idea as to why this is happening?

Likely you're not getting connectivity because you're trying to use DHCP from the server and not the router. While booting up, your laptop will not have any IP address, meaning, it's not part of the same network as the server so it can't communicate with the server and therefore can't receive IP information from DHCP on the server. Since you have DHCP turned off on the router, it can't get any IP info from anybody because it never connects to the network and you end up with the APIPA address assigned to your laptop's wireless NIC. The internal NIC is likely hardwired into the network with a network cable, and that's why it's working and the wireless isn't. You have three choices the way I see it. 1) Statically assign your IP info to the laptop's wireless NIC. 2) Enable DHCP on the wireless router 3) Leave the laptop hardwired into the network so it can communicate with the server and get DHCP from it.

Thanks for the reply, I understand what you mean. I guess option one is the one I would want to go for as I don't want to turn on DHCP on the router and I want the laptop to access the server as well as the internet. Only I don't know what IP info needs to be statically assigned to the wireless NIC? Is it the IP info from the router or from the server? This is usually where I get confused being a network novice and all that.

You'll want the TCP/IP info to be in the same range as the server for sure. I'm betting the router is as well since you have internet connectivity. If your server is 192.168.0.2 and the router is 192.168.0.1 then make this last PC/Laptop 192.168.0.3. Use all the same info for the rest, gateway, DNS etc. that is on the server and it should work.

I used to have the same problem. You need to check if your network is bridged or not as this will prevent your network card from communicating with your router thus not getting its IP. Go to start->control panel->network and internet connections->network connections If you see icon named bridged network or somthing similar then delete it this should fix your problem OMOZALI