Cannot access internet even though Netopia home says connected

[charrington]

Hi all,
I am having the strangest problem with my wireless eircom broadband.

I cannot access the internet via wireless when I start my dell laptop.
I have an excellent wireless signal and I can ping the Netopia router without problems.
However, when I plug the ethernet cable into the laptop I can access the internet fine, so far so good.
Now, here's the strange thing, when I plug the ethernet cable out again I can access the internet via wireless! I can take the laptop anywhere in the house and the internet is available. However, once I restart the machine the internet is unavailable via wireless until I plug in the ethernet cable, strange.

Has anyone ever experienced a similar problem?

Thanks,
Carl

[charrington]

Update:
I have tried various things I have seen on message boards:
I changed the Netopia channel to 2
I removed XP Service Pack 3 and re-applied Windows security updates

[dickiesam]

Hi there,
I may be talking rubbage here but it looks like your laptop is not trying to access the router to establish a wireless connection when it boots up especially since when you use the physical cable connection between the two, the laptop 'hooks up' without a problem.

Have you tried establishing a wireless network between the laptop and the router via the Control Panel > Wireless Network Setup Wizard without the Ethernet cable being plugged in?
Dickiesam

[charrington]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I have just solved the problem by right clicking on the PROset Wireless icon in the task bar and allowing windows to manage the wireless connection. As soon as I did this my connection problems vanished

[dickiesam]

Hi,
Glad I wasn't talking rubbage then and not far off the mark. I had a similar experience when trying to install a Netgear wireless router using the Set-up CD that came with it. Couldn't get it to work, so decided to let Windows have a go on its own. Did all the physical connections with the PC powered off but with the router and modem switched on. I had read somewhere you should give them both a couple of minutes to warm up before trying for a connection. Then switched on the PC and Bingo! Connection made.. no problem.
Cheers,
Dickiesam