wireless router help

[Red Shirt]

My mad tech savvy skills expired decades ago. Need someone to point me in the right direction. I have a cheapo Netgear wireless router cabled to the satellite internet modem. We use a variety of laptops and a desktop all running off the wifi router. It used to work perfectly for my application, then Avast advised updating the firmware. I probably wouldn't have updated as we have no neighbors close enough to steal our signal, but the satellite had speed issues. I knew the problem was on the satellite companies end but had to try everything just in case. Honestly these two issues are otherwise totally unrelated (I have internet speed back and did nothing but keep pestering the provider). Anyway followed the firmware update directions carefully. It works on everything except my XP laptop. I know it connects to the router with excellent strength. It even seems to be trying to establish a secure connection but eventually times out. I dug out another old XP machine and tried to connect with same result. All other computers, games (WII-U), and even my wife's Nook work fine. It has to be something about the firmware but I'm baffled. Where do I begin to look? Give me the for dummies version please. 

[Green Baron]

I have the same configuration here.

I assume that Password and security is set up correctly.

Do you use the router's list of mac-adresses ? If so, is your laptop in the list ?

 

[Red Shirt]

8 minutes ago, Green Baron said:

Do you use the router's list of mac-adresses ? If so, is your laptop in the list ?

Password and security are the same in all devices. I don't know what mac-adresses is... The laptop is a Compac running Windows XP. My other machines are Win 7 and 8. Some 64 bit some 32 bit.

[Green Baron]

MAC is an adress of each network card. Wireless routers allow to filter by network card adresses so that only allowed machines can connect to the router.

The laptop connected before ?

Your router offers dhcp ?

Before checking mac-adress pls check the network settings on your laptop allow for automatic detection and configuration. I kindly ask to use the internet to look for one of numerous howtos on that. Check whether your router offers dhcp.

I have a Netgear N150, that has the list of mac adresses under

Advanced - Wireless settings - Wireless card access list. If that is turned on pls turn it off and check again.

The dhcp setup is under

Advanced - LAN setup - use Router as DHCP. Is that on ?

 

 

He, Scotty needs technical help ... :-)

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by Green Baron

[Camacha]

XP is old, very unsupported and very unsafe. They might have taken the precaution of detecting it somehow and denying service to devices that are a major liability. Another option is that they started using more recent standards which, again, might not be supported by XP.

Edited August 2, 2016 by Camacha

[Guest]

Verify whether or not you can connect via ethernet cable with the xp machine. If you can, then it may be a simple case of an outdated driver on the xp machine, which is a fairly simple fix.

[Green Baron]

XP works fine here. Need more information ...

 

[LordFerret]

It could be the wireless card in the PC, and the 802.11 standard its driver supports. I've had issues with this before, and the solution was having a driver update for the laptop to support 802.11b/g/n. What exactly was the router's firmware upgrade for?... what did it do?

[Red Shirt]

17 hours ago, Green Baron said:

He, Scotty needs technical help ... :-)

I gave her all she's got Captain.

2 hours ago, LordFerret said:

What exactly was the router's firmware upgrade for?... what did it do?

Now that is a good question. Obvious partial answer is stop XP from working. I only did it because Avast said it was a problem. Never fix something that isn't broke, especially when you don't know what you are doing. 

Nothing was touched on any of the devices except the router. The computers are all set to auto detect settings. 

I'll research the reason for the firmware update and try to remember how I got in to the router in the first place.  I must have used the Genie. Maybe I can go back to the previous firmware.

[Camacha]

4 hours ago, Green Baron said:

XP works fine here. Need more information ...

 

How do you know? Without knowing more about the configuration and specific hardware Red Shirt uses, you do not know whether the two situations can be compared.

43 minutes ago, Red Shirt said:

I'll research the reason for the firmware update and try to remember how I got in to the router in the first place.  I must have used the Genie. Maybe I can go back to the previous firmware.
 

Try 192.168.1.0 or 192.168.1.1 . If that does not do the job, check the router or documentation for another similar IP address.

[Red Shirt]

The firmware update was to fix SOAP vulnerability. The laptop shows as an attached device.

@Green Baron I did not understand the dhcp or lan changes. Turn these off on the router? Before I risk losing all access thought I better ask.

[Green Baron]

Red Shirt,

sorry for being so frankly direct, i fear that giving hints via the forum might leave you without connection. Because that i will give you an overview now but before we proceed a few questions:

Do you have only clients in your network ? PCs, printers, consoles, tv, etc, no servers (except maybe an internal fileserver or streaming device for your tv) ?

Is your modem configured to just pass everything through ? You don't have to login into an account given by your provider ? My provider is quantis and the modem is thick as brick, i mean it does nothing but give me an ethernet connection.

All the other clients work as before ? It's only the two XP machines that have problems ? (i can only help you with some network knowledge)

If that is answered we go ahead with a standard configuration that really should work, setting the router to receive IP address from the modem and serve as a dhcp server for ip v4 for your clients and pass everything else just through. If that is verified and it still doesn't work, the next thing would be to look at the specific config of your xp-machines with the help of others. Ok ?

I go out for a beer now, see you later

[Red Shirt]

@Green Baron Yes only clients, no servers. Modem I have no control over. It is Exede's satellite modem and I can make no changes. The router is configured to pass everything through except stuff like remote access. All other machines work except my XP laptop. All my stuff is set up to auto-detect settings. No settings were changed on any machine. The firmware update to the router is the only difference. 

I can ping Google and my IP with no losses, so the laptop is connected to the router. 

I have searched the laptop to see if there are any old virus scan programs like Mcaffe. Nope. I temporarily disabled Avast and the firewall to eliminate them as problems. Made no difference. 

Before messing with the router settings (for fear of having no access) I am going to look for a driver update for the XP machine.

Edit: By the way, the router is set up as a dhcp server.

 

Edited August 3, 2016 by Red Shirt

[LordFerret]

Just for giggles, something you could try...

Go Control Panel / Network Connections
Find your WLAN connection, right-click on it, select 'Properties'
Click the 'Configure' button of the wireless network adapter, open the 'Wireless Networks' tab ... then delete your network from the 'Preferred networks' list.
Then close it all and let XP detect your network again. You'll need to reenter your password.

1 hour ago, Red Shirt said:

Before messing with the router settings (for fear of having no access) I am going to look for a driver update for the XP machine.

That would also be something I'd suggest.

[Green Baron]

 

If you can ping google from the laptop it's not a protocol or router problem, but something on the laptop on a higher level. Can't help then ...

 

[Guest]

..and make sure the time and date is correct on the old pc's.

[Red Shirt]

3 hours ago, Green Baron said:

If you can ping google from the laptop it's not a protocol or router problem, but something on the laptop on a higher level. Can't help then

Thank you for your help just the same. Your asking questions has taught me a lot. Haven't solved the issue yet but I know a bunch of things it isn't. 

I'm going to try @LordFerret suggestion.

@Otis I have eliminated this as a possible.

Think it is time to move on to the Netgear forum. Thanks All for the help.

[E-Rikkie]

it's probably not the problem, but worth checking anyway

have you checked the proxy settings in the browser on the XP machines?

[Red Shirt]

You've got to be kidding! I finally solved my router problem this morning. My oldest laptop running XP stopped being able to connect to webpages after a router firmware update (3 other computers on the network worked fine). I had been out shopping for a cheap replacement. Decided I wanted nothing to do with Win 10 (I've seem the latest Bourne movie -kidding mostly). Decided to take a final look. Uninstalled Avast and it worked fine. I had previously tried disabling it and the firewall on the XP laptop just in case but it didn't help. I had to completely uninstall then reinstall. Not sure why a change to the router firmware would mess up my XP connections - especially since the only reason I did the firmware update is because Avast told me to do it. 

This is just my little couch laptop that I surf the forum while watching TV. It isn't necessary but I sure was missing it.