Networks My new wireless network doesn't work

I just installed a WLAN card in one of my computers and my internet server. It originally was wired, (DLink 538TX 10/100) but the computer is on the other side of the house, and the cable was just long enough to reach if it was lying in the hall, so I got a pair of WLAN cards. (DLink G520 802.11G)

The cards have communication between them, (It says "Signal strength: very good") but neither computer can ping the other. Both have different IP addresses, the same Subnet mask, and the are on the same workgroup.

I don't know what the problem is, can anyone offer me some advice?

 

Overzealous firewall?

 

I tried turning it off and changing the security level (ZoneAlarm) but it had no effect.

 

Are both IP addresses in the same subnet? ie:

Good:
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.2

Bad:
192.168.1.1
192.168.2.1

 

If your using WinXP have you turned that firewall off too? As that little gem's caused me hours of hair tearing out fun.

 

some wireless cards are set up by default to connect to an wireless access point.
When I first tried setting up my first wireless network, I used a pci wifi card and a pcmcia for the laptop.... it woulnd't connect at first... BUT if you have a "ad-hoc" setting you will be able to achieve a connection... but you then wont be able to add anymore wireless devices.
Belkin used to have a wireless router that plugs into your network (cat5) socket on your internet server PC. If i find my old one i'll post the model number, wass very cheap and had the best signal i've ever had from a router/APN

Hope that helps.

 

Try also going into Zonealarm and in the Firewall Zones add an ip range that covers the ip's of your pooters.

 

The IPs are in the same subnet, (192.168.0.1/2/3) Zonealarm was set to have those IPs and their subnet mask as 'trusted' and at low security.

For some reason the connection doesn't seem to have an option for the windows firewall or ICS, prolly because it's on a network bridge. (2+ connections with the same network settings) Could the bridge be the trouble? Windows seemed to really want the connections to be bridged for some reason, I don't know why though.

The connection is set to ad-hoc, it connects to the other computer, but refuses to transmit any actual information. The little icon in the system tray says 'connected' but the computer doesn't respond to Ping or connect to the internet.

 

Trust me on this one

Go to Zonealarm Firewall Zones, from the options under add, choose 'ip range', type the appropriate 'from' and 'to' addresses, etc and it should work.

I had trouble the first time I set a network up with Zonealarm sticking its nose in.

I finally found that if you specifically set the ip range (disregarding whether Zonealarm has autodetected your network or not) it just.. works!

It was like a bingo/euraka moment!

 

that definitely sounds like a firewall issue to me (XP in particular - you don't mention your OS)

 

Get a cheap router. Adhoc (P2P) connections are unreliable.
Failing that, try changing some settings. Also try changing the order of the device startup. When I tried to connect my Axim X30's onboard WiFi to Alayna's Tungsten T5 (with a Sandisk WiFi card), it will work if she starts up the WiFi on her Tungsten T5 first, but not if I try to start the WiFi on my Axim X30 first.
Then, I decided to take my Netgear MR814v2 (which had a "defective" Ethernet port (so I bought another one for my LAN), but it started to work again after a flash to a MR814v3) with me, and use some AA batteries to power it, so there would be a router. It was much more reliable.

 

I tried adding an IP to the firewall's trusted sites, didn't work. I had to add it as a subnet in order to make it work properly. I'm a little surprised, even with the firewall off, it still wouldn't work.

Thanks for the help guys.