Problem with Wireless Router at Coffee Shop?

[mar122999]

I have a P4 2.3Ghz Toshiba A35-S150 laptop with a built-in wireless 802.11g card. I go to a local coffee shop near my college with my laptop and try to connect to the internet via their wireless router. I have also tried connecting to it via cable. I can't see the router or change settings, but one thing that I do know is that everyone else seems to be connecting fine. There is not anything wrong with my PC (spyware, adware, viruses, junk files, missing files, ...etc).

I plug the cable up or turn on the 802.11g wireless card and I see a "Found new hardware" prompt at the bottom of the screen (I'm using XP Pro). It detects a Linksys router and installizes it correctly. After installation, it says that the device is ready to use. I double click on IE and get "Page cannot not be found" and below it says "DNS error or cannot find server". I check network connections and it shows that I am connected at 11Mps. My internet network icon on the bottom-left hand corner of the screen shows that data is going out, but very little is coming in. I tried using something else to access the internet to see if it is IE related like Kazaa, LiveUpdate, pinging within DOS, but I still don't get any response.

One thing that I DO notice is that I am NOT getting a default gateway # within "network connections". I am getting a IP address and subnet mask #. Keep in mine that I do have DSL at home and when I plug it up, it works great (Zero problems). Any suggestions on what I should check for?

[mar122999]

bump

[washe]

question?

when it detects the router, do you tell it to use the wireless conecction of the cofee?

Looks like its not getting the ip, dns and gateway info of the shop...

[agathodaimon]

yeah... you might need to get some ##'s from them and enter them into your network properties.
Maybe you could set it to automatically detect settings? Would it work then?

[mar122999]

It is getting a ip address #, but not a gateway #. Is this gateway # important? (NOTE: Whenever I connect my DSL up at home, I DO get a gateway #).

I tried entering the IP address in manuelly and automactically. Still same problem.

I tried connecting both wirelessly and by hardwire. Same problem. It detects and uses the connection that I specify to use. Everything seems OK with the connection. I think it may be with the gateway #??? Think so?

(NOTE: I also tried connecting and disconnecting to get different IP address #'s (and I did), but I still have the same problem).

[Front242]

You may have to manualy enter the DNS address if it cannot negotiate it by itself. Enter ths DNS address but let the server assign your ip .

[Siliconjunkie]

Well, first and formost, you should not be detecting a router as new hardware. The PC is oblivious to the router.

If it was an encryption problem you would not get an IP. What is the IP you are getting from them, if its 168.254.x.x then it is being generated by XP and you are not getting it from them.

[mar122999]

It is just detecting that a new device was found and it is being installed.

How do you manuelly set the DNS address?

The ip address was like: 10.0.0.138

[Front242]

Start>right click my network places> choose properties> right click net device> choose properties> highlight TCP/IP> click properties button>check "use following DNS server. you need to get the DNS numbers from the server admin at the coffee shop.

[mar122999]

I'll do that. I'm not sure if I can get a admin over there, but would it be fine to check someone elses PC to see there DNS?