Acquiring Network name problem on additional pc

[George K]

I have an apple powerbook with built in airport, my router is a belkin F5D7632uk4.

My apple picks up the router fine, all is well with the mac.

My housemate has a pc running XP, the network card picks up the connection fine when all the router defaults are in place.

However, the problem lies when I go into the router's web-based control panel & change the ssid of the network.

My apple still connects fine, & the pc kind of connects (gives the signal strength as 'excellent') but then starts to 'acquire network name' it is then unable to find this & fails in the connection.

I want to be able to change the ssid of my network to my name then put an encryption on (wep) but the pc isn't liking it.

any ideas??

also, is there a way of setting a plain text password 128k encryption instead of having to enter the extra long hex id everytime I bring my laptop home?? :confused:


thanks people.

[classicsoftware]

You need to run the Wireless Network wizzard on the PC and set the SSID to match the router.

[George K]

It just seemed to work fine then the ssid was the default 'belkin4g'

as soon as I renamed it to 'George_K' it went tits up.... even thought the apple just connects as usual.

[classicsoftware]

The card is set to the SSID you assigned it. It's looking for that SSID. Unless you change the card to match the SSID of the router it wont work. Please follow the advice posted and let us know what happens.

[George K]

ok will do, thanks

[pangea33]

It looks like you've got this thread under control, but I'm gonna throw two cents in anyway. Mainly because I just struggled through a networking problem that strikes me as vaguely similar.

I've got a Linksys router that had a notebook (xp home) and a desktop/fileserver (xp pro) hardwired to it. I decided to install a wireless lan card so I can stream audio to my home stereo via the notebook, and a halfway decent external sound card with optical outputs.

It was simple to connect to the wifi with default settings. Then I came to understand that I can only use "simple file sharing" if I intend to browse shared directories with XP Home. Permission free network shares over an unencrypted wifi would have just been laughable though.

I changed the name of the SSID, enabled WEP encryption, and entered the appropriate key for the wireless. Making sure that everything matched up properly. When trying to reconnect, I got the same problem that you're describing, George. *USING THE WIZARD* my notebook indicated that it found the network, had excellent strength, and connected successfully. It still wasn't working for me.

I'm claiming that you're doing everything right. No disrespect intended to ClassicSoftware, but I don't think your machine would have found the signal and aquired a connection if you hadn't already updated the SSID. At least I think you set that, based on how I interpreted your first post.

My problem was that I'm using assigned IPs and not DHCP on the internal network. After the wizard claimed a successful connection without any throughput, I had to config all the values in the advanced TCP/IP settings of the notebook by hand.

This included setting the authentication type, encryption type, network key, and key index. To do that I went to the wireless "network connection", clicked on the "wireless networks" tab, selected the "preferred network" showing the correct SSID, and then selected "properties." All the values came directly from the web interface of the router, but it was a real PITA tracking down the cause.

Hopefully some of these techniques will prove useful in resolving your difficulties. If not I just made you read a whole lot for nothing. ;-)

Good luck

[George K]

I changed the name of the SSID, enabled WEP encryption, and entered the appropriate key for the wireless. Making sure that everything matched up properly. When trying to reconnect, I got the same problem that you're describing, George. *USING THE WIZARD* my notebook indicated that it found the network, had excellent strength, and connected successfully. It still wasn't working for me.

I'm claiming that you're doing everything right. No disrespect intended to ClassicSoftware, but I don't think your machine would have found the signal and aquired a connection if you hadn't already updated the SSID. At least I think you set that, based on how I interpreted your first post.

My problem was that I'm using assigned IPs and not DHCP on the internal network. After the wizard claimed a successful connection without any throughput, I had to config all the values in the advanced TCP/IP settings of the notebook by hand.

This included setting the authentication type, encryption type, network key, and key index. To do that I went to the wireless "network connection", clicked on the "wireless networks" tab, selected the "preferred network" showing the correct SSID, and then selected "properties." All the values came directly from the web interface of the router, but it was a real PITA tracking down the cause.



This sounds like something I'm going to have to do....

My apple has been able to pick up & access any wireless network I have entered with immense ease, the only problems have been with this pc notebook.

But yea, when I click 'repair wireless network' it gets stuck on 'renewing ip' so I think it must be a case of playing around with the settings and manually entering some info.

Going to try this tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

[classicsoftware]

If this is true, then you have been doing more than you explained. You said it worked until you changed the SSID. If you changed more than that, you need to let us know otherwise we are grasping at straws and this is no way to solve any problem

[George K]

I apologise.

it did work, for both computers untill i changed the SSID. Now only the apple works. The message the pc gave me was 'unable to acquire network address' or something along those lines (I'm at work now you see) which only started happening after I changed the SSID, even though the card auto-finds wirelesss networks & should just connect (as I have no security yet)

I clicked on the option to 'repair wireless connection' it then went to a window which said 'renewing ip' then fails.

I don't really understand why the ssid should have changed the pc's ability to just connect. it didn't with the mac.


sorry again for not giving you more info, bare with me, I'm not 'really' sure what I'm on about.

[George K]

OK I've had a little play & nothing seemed to work...

turns out the xp network connection seems to have a problem with underscores. The apple still connected... but when I renamed the connection from George_K to GeorgeK, all was well.


thanks for your help anyway guys.


is there any way of setting a plain word password to connect to my wireless? Just so when friends come round they don't have to enter the full hex id when prompted so they can access my net?

[pangea33]

is there any way of setting a plain word password to connect to my wireless? Just so when friends come round they don't have to enter the full hex id when prompted so they can access my net?
Sorry, George. Here's what the quick install guide for my card had to say about this:

**Important:Windows XP Wireless Zero Configuration does not support the use of a passphrase. Enter the exact WEP key used by your access point.**

Its generated according to some sort of algorithm though. The four keys generated by my router have always been the same for any given passphrase selection. I suspect more than four meet the same criteria, I just haven't changed the phrase that often.

If nefarious individuals can create keygens for software applications, I suspect one of them can be found for this benevolent purpose. Otherwise, bling it to them on IM. What should they expect when leeching your bandwidth? :p