Acer 1712SMi - wireless connection problem

Just received my Acer 1712SMi yesterday.
WOW, what a machine...

I plan to post to the "Review" section as soon as I have a few days
use to go on.

I do have one problem so far...I can't get the wireless module to work.

It has the 'WLAN 802.11g mini-PCI Module' wireless module using the
3.30.15.0 driver that came with the machine.

The wireless finds my Linksys router. Shows as being 'connected'.
Signal excellent. Packets are going out from the adapter, but none are
being returned.

WEP key was entered for the adapter.

I disabled the security on the router just to see if that was an issue. No joy.

I have 3 other wireless connected PCs so I know the router is functioning
correctly. I even tried going ad-hoc to see if that made a difference. The
other 3 could talk to each other, but the Acer couldn't see or be seen.

I also uninstalled the device, let windows xp find it and re-install it, no go.

I didn't find much help on the forum and I went through most of what I
found on Google.

Anyone have any suggestions for me.

<first post - first notebook style PC>

Did I mention this is one awesome machine...

I am running VMware 4.5 with XP as the host and Win98, Mandrake, and
Red Hat as guest operation systems.

Thanks,

Still working on this...

Tried all suggestions so far.

Everything turned off: firewalls / anti-virus / WEP
Double checked everything. My son is here. His wireless laptop hooked right
up with no problems.

I even tried with everything turned off / unplugged except the laptop and the
router. No WAN, no other machines turned on, etc.

I can't ping anything fron the wireless connection.
If I go with static addressing, I can ping the interface only, but still can't
go anywhere else.

As you can see in the output below, the wireless connection can't talk to
the DHCP server built into the rouer. Yet the status tells me that the
wireless is "connected" "signal strength excellent".

So where is it getting this entry:
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.121.189

Going back to bed....Got paged way early this morning...had to drive in
and do stuff...

I'll check back later.

Thanks all,


C:\Documents and Settings\BAF>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ACER-BAF
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WLAN 802.11g mini-PCI Module
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : <edited out>
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : alwayson-line.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : <edited out>
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.51
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 65.203.190.6
199.217.159.17
199.217.162.3
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, July 17, 2004 12:02:48 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, July 18, 2004 12:02:48 AM

C:\Documents and Settings\BAF>ipconfig /renew

Windows IP Configuration

An error occurred while renewing interface Wireless Network Connection : unable
to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.121.189
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : alwayson-line.net
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.51
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

C:\Documents and Settings\Brad Burge>

Wireless Is Working Now.........

Wireless is working now...

here's the deal...

I looked and surfed at length and came up with the fact that the Linksys
"B" Wireless Routers don't always play well with some of the dual mode b/g
wireless devices (built into laptops). The chipset used in the Acer was
specifically mentioned. I talked to my wireless DSL provider and he confirmed
this. Some work great, some work ok, and some don't work at all.

Not trying to start a brand war here...

After some more google searches, I found the concensus that the D-Link
routers work well with this chipset. So I bought one. DI-524

Spent the better part of two hours trying to get the D-Link to work. The
WAN side would not connect to the Air-Bridge on the wireless dsl side.

More research...there is a setting in thr D-Link router that sets the speed of
the WAN side, 10 or 100...The factory setting is 100. I changed the router
WAN speed to 10, rebooted, and I am now writing this via the wireless
connection. I learned something today.

Hope this helps somebody else out sometime.

Now if I can only get the kepcap back on the left shift.

Thanks all,

Brad