Belkin N Wired/Wireless Hates My Win 7

[redrhyski]

OK, first time poster, long time reader - good work!

Previously
I've got a Dell Desktop (Win 7) that was ethernet cabled into a router, and the router was wireless with other PCs that were brought into the house. Then one day I lost the Internet connection on the Desktop, with no lights on the router for the wired connection. I plugged in my laptop (XP) and confirmed that the wired part had stopped working even though the wireless internet connection still worked OK.

So I decided to get a new shinier router:
Belkin Wireless N Router F5D8638-4 v2 with
Belkin Wireless N Adaptor F5D8053

I got the router set up and connected to the internet OK. The wires worked with my laptop(XP) and I got the wireless part working OK too, using the laptop's internal card and trying out the new wireless N adaptor. So all my cabling and the new kit works fine on Windows XP.


Problem #1:
My Windows 7 desktop PC won't connect to either the wired or the wireless connections.

The Ethernet connection won't "pop up" when connected. There is a driver in Driver Manager but it doesn't reconize connections. There are no ethernet connections in the network connections display. The cables work fine with the XP laptop. I'm quite stumped on this one tbh.


Problem #2:
The wireless adaptor won't work. The driver installs and detects the wireless network (WPA-PSK) and takes the WPA key OK but then goes to "Limited Access".

In status there are 0/0 packets sent/received. I'm not sure about the IP4/6 stuff though, but it says "Not connected" for both.

I've used the drivers on the disk (no joy), the drivers from the website (no joy) both with compatibility set as XP and as Vista. Only once did I get the Belkin network utility program to install but it isn't at the moment.

I've trawled this and other sites and can't seem to find the solution. I've done things that others seem to resolved their issues but no joy for me.

Any thoughts? (thanks in advance)

 

[aem]

Sounds like a MAC adapter not recognised by the router. When you bought your shinier router, you set it up using your XP (laptop), right? Then once everything is set up, you tried and connect using your W7 PC. and getting limited connections.

 

[redrhyski]

I tried to set it up with the Win 7 Desktop but I couldnt get the wired connection to work. So I set it up with the trouble free XP laptop.

 

[aem]

Out of the box, you should be able to direct connect to the router using cable from any machine (via the default IP and default userid/password). When you do this, the router learns of the machine (adapter) which is connected to it at the time. If your router's MAC cloning option is set to disabled, it will not recognised any other adatper that is trying to connect to it, whether via wired or wireless. That should be the theory.

 

[redrhyski]

OK - for simplicity I mentioned only the laptop but basically I've also used an XP netbook too for plugging in and wireless comms. Ive had no problem with the netbook either.

My concern for problem 1 is that there's no indication that the plug has been inserted by the software. The two lights come on at the PC, showing connection and the signal light flashes regularly.

 

[aem]

Would you be willing to reset the router and use W7 PC to connect to it and setup your wireless network? Then see if your laptops can connect.

 

[redrhyski]

When you say reset, you mean factory reset, then plug in the Win 7 pc and set it up that way?

My priority is to get the router and the desktop wired, and then the netbook/laptop wireless. The wireless adaptor for the desktop is needed for other situations.

 

[aem]

When you say reset, you mean factory reset, then plug in the Win 7 pc and set it up that way?

You got it! Let it rip.

 

[redrhyski]

That obviously took a bit of time! I reset it while not connected to the PC. I rebooted the pc. I connected the router directly into the back of the Win 7 desktop, powered it and the lights lit on the router (for wired connection to the PC and power). The lights on the ethernet port on the PC were lit.

I started up the CD for set up but the program couldn't find the router. I tried entering the IP address for the router and it didn't respond.

I then rigged it all down, reset it on the XP machine and got my internet back.

So the PC ethernet port is lit but not working.........

 

[aem]

One way to tell if the ethernet port of PC is working or not is to connect it to the laptop and perform a cross-over network test. See my sig for some reading on cross-over networking (step 1-6, irrespective of the OS, the prinicple is what's applicable). If you have issue with cross-cabling you could have a port issue.

 

[zzz2496]

redrhyski,

Does the LED in front of your router light up for the port that's connected to your PC? Say you plug PC to port 1, is the LED indicator for port 1 light up when you plug your PC? If it lit up, then the problem lies with your PC, not the router. Here's what you can do, go to one of your laptop/PC that's working, check the IP address, try a "Manual IP address", put an IP address that is close to other computers (say you see your laptop has 192.168.0.10, use 192.168.0.11 for your PC). Match the other numbers as others computer's, everything other than IP address MUST BE THE SAME as other PC, that includes "subnet mask", "default gateway", "preferred dns server". Report back when you're done.

zzz2496

Edit: Don't use an IP address that's already used by other PCs, it will bark at you.
Edit2: If you use manual IP addressing, and it connects, then the problem lies with your Windows 7 installation, check in control panel => administrative tools => services => DHCP client, make sure it's running.

 

[redrhyski]

Ok AEM.

I strung up a crossover cable. From ipconfig /all:

Windows IP Configuration
Host Name ...... :Home-PC
Primary DNC Suffix : <- Blank
IP Routing Enabled: No
WINS Proxy Enabled : No

Tunnel Adapter Local Area COneection* 9:
Media State : Media Disconnected
Connection specific DNS suffix: <- Blank
Description : Teredo Tunnelling Psudo Interface
Physical Address:00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled : Yes

_____

Now there are no ip addresses as this PC is not getting one from the router?

So presumably, I reverse the set up and take the ip addresses from the XP machine that's connected to the router? I'm doing that nowish.

Ah, it's kind of irrelevant isn't it as it's a crossed cable? Anyway, I changed both over to similar ip's like in the tutorial (good work btw) and I'm getting request time outs.

 

[redrhyski]

zzz2496

Tried that after Aem's suggestion. Nothing happening. I changed the ip4 address in the local area connection (incidently an Intel 82566DC Gigabit) and saved the change. I went back to ipconfig /all and got the same response as I listed in post above. I see this tunnelling thing but no ip address that I recognise.

DHCP client is running.

Edit1: There's a light on the back of the router for each socket and it's lit up OK, plus the front "wired icon" is lit, so according to the user manual it's physically OK. Likewise there's a light at the back of the desktop when connected, but the "signal/activity" light is flashing constant pulses, not random activity style-pulse.

 

[aem]

So at it stands we are still unsure if your have a port (physical) issue or not. You cannot direct connect to the router to the default ip. And when you tried to test setup cross-cable and test ping it fails to get results.

If your router cannot detect your PC adapter MAC address, cos the cable or port connector is not working I'm not sure how to proceed as it would amost be a show stopper for u.

 

[redrhyski]

I'm convinced the cable's OK as the other PCs work fine with it. I'm starting to think of either something unknowble wrong with the hardware socket of something drivery - IDK.

 

[redrhyski]

I had another idea of deleting the ethernet card driver and letting Win 7 reinstall it. That was done but still no connection with the ethernet cable.