Can ping but can't surf

23 Aug 2006 7:16 PM

mrkate

I've seen posts that are similar but not exactly the same situation, so here
goes:
I have a wireless router for my desktop (wired) and my new laptop. I can
surf without problems on my desktop and my laptop when it's wired. But when
I try to surf wirelessly on the laptop, no luck. I can ping both ips and
urls on the laptop wirelessly. I also took the laptop to a coffee shop with
wifi, and I was able to surf just fine. So I'm stumped. I have seen some
posts that hint at a winsock problem, but why would it work in the coffee
shop or when it was wired? Seems like it must be a router config issue, but
I can ping everthing, desktop, router, outside world. It's not a DNS issue
because I can ping urls. Any ideas?

23 Aug 2006 7:54 PM

ato_zee

On 23-Aug-2006, =?Utf-8?B?bXJrYXRl?= <mrk***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Seems like it must be a router config issue, but
> I can ping everthing, desktop, router, outside world. It's not a DNS issue
> because I can ping urls. Any ideas?

Ping (echo request) is a different protocol.
If you can get a dotted quad IP address from the ping enter that in your
browser instead of the URL.
Personally I'd suspect that your security settings are too high but it
wouldn't explain why the wired connection works, or wireless working
at a public access point.
Try ipconfig /all > C:\ipconfig.txt on desktop and
laptop, see where they differ as far as wireless adapters
are concerned.

23 Aug 2006 8:56 PM

mrkate

Two new pieces of info:

1) the problem seems to be related to packet size. If I ping with a packet
larger than around 200 bytes, it fails, whereas my desktop doesn't.
2) I was able to try it on another wireless network and it doesn't work
there. So the only wireless network that it worked (the coffee shop) was an
11g network, whereas the two that didn't work are both 11b networks. My
laptop's internal wireless is supposed to be compatilble with 11b and 11g.

Show quoteHide quote

"ato_***@hotmail.com" wrote:

>
> On 23-Aug-2006, =?Utf-8?B?bXJrYXRl?= <mrk***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > Seems like it must be a router config issue, but
> > I can ping everthing, desktop, router, outside world. It's not a DNS issue
> > because I can ping urls. Any ideas?
>
> Ping (echo request) is a different protocol.
> If you can get a dotted quad IP address from the ping enter that in your
> browser instead of the URL.
> Personally I'd suspect that your security settings are too high but it
> wouldn't explain why the wired connection works, or wireless working
> at a public access point.
> Try ipconfig /all > C:\ipconfig.txt on desktop and
> laptop, see where they differ as far as wireless adapters
> are concerned.
>

23 Aug 2006 9:45 PM

Lem

mrkate wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> Two new pieces of info:
>
> 1) the problem seems to be related to packet size. If I ping with a packet
> larger than around 200 bytes, it fails, whereas my desktop doesn't.
> 2) I was able to try it on another wireless network and it doesn't work
> there. So the only wireless network that it worked (the coffee shop) was an
> 11g network, whereas the two that didn't work are both 11b networks. My
> laptop's internal wireless is supposed to be compatilble with 11b and 11g.
>
>
>
> "ato_***@hotmail.com" wrote:
>
>> On 23-Aug-2006, =?Utf-8?B?bXJrYXRl?= <mrk***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Seems like it must be a router config issue, but
>>> I can ping everthing, desktop, router, outside world. It's not a DNS issue
>>> because I can ping urls. Any ideas?
>> Ping (echo request) is a different protocol.
>> If you can get a dotted quad IP address from the ping enter that in your
>> browser instead of the URL.
>> Personally I'd suspect that your security settings are too high but it
>> wouldn't explain why the wired connection works, or wireless working
>> at a public access point.
>> Try ipconfig /all > C:\ipconfig.txt on desktop and
>> laptop, see where they differ as far as wireless adapters
>> are concerned.
>>

There may be a setting in the laptop's wifi adapter configuration
utility that sets it to g-only or mixed. This is definitely the case
for wireless g routers, but I can't recall if I've seen such a setting
for wifi adapters. You probably will have to use the configuration
utility from the laptop/wifi mfr for this.

24 Aug 2006 5:09 PM

mrkate

After mucking with it some more, turns out that if I set the wireless driver
to use "11 Mbps" instead of "best rate" that solves the problem for the 2nd
11b network. As for home, that still did not work. I tried an older 11b
only pcmcia card for the laptop at home and that worked. So seems like some
incompatibility between my built in wifi and various wifi networks. BTW my
laptop is an hp dv5000 model, the built-in wifi is a broadcom.

Show quoteHide quote

"Lem" wrote:

> mrkate wrote:
> > Two new pieces of info:
> >
> > 1) the problem seems to be related to packet size. If I ping with a packet
> > larger than around 200 bytes, it fails, whereas my desktop doesn't.
> > 2) I was able to try it on another wireless network and it doesn't work
> > there. So the only wireless network that it worked (the coffee shop) was an
> > 11g network, whereas the two that didn't work are both 11b networks. My
> > laptop's internal wireless is supposed to be compatilble with 11b and 11g.
> >
> >
> >
> > "ato_***@hotmail.com" wrote:
> >
> >> On 23-Aug-2006, =?Utf-8?B?bXJrYXRl?= <mrk***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Seems like it must be a router config issue, but
> >>> I can ping everthing, desktop, router, outside world. It's not a DNS issue
> >>> because I can ping urls. Any ideas?
> >> Ping (echo request) is a different protocol.
> >> If you can get a dotted quad IP address from the ping enter that in your
> >> browser instead of the URL.
> >> Personally I'd suspect that your security settings are too high but it
> >> wouldn't explain why the wired connection works, or wireless working
> >> at a public access point.
> >> Try ipconfig /all > C:\ipconfig.txt on desktop and
> >> laptop, see where they differ as far as wireless adapters
> >> are concerned.
> >>
>
> There may be a setting in the laptop's wifi adapter configuration
> utility that sets it to g-only or mixed. This is definitely the case
> for wireless g routers, but I can't recall if I've seen such a setting
> for wifi adapters. You probably will have to use the configuration
> utility from the laptop/wifi mfr for this.
>