Wifi issues in the UK - Acer Aspire One netbook - I'm stumped!

[pdoodley]

I am stumped!!

As soon as my friend got to the UK for a study abroad this summer, her Acer Aspire One netbook (Windows XP service pack 3) stopped connecting to the internet.
Here's what happens: the computer will show a list of available networks, she chooses the one she has the network key for, enters the key, connects to the router, but then runs in to trouble. The network status will always say the computer is connected to the router with a mid to high signal strength.

At first she would get the same error in both Chrome and Firefox. "Unable to reach proxy server." I had her adjust those settings in each browser and now she simply gets page not found errors.

When she runs the Diagnose and Repair tool, XP comes back with an error saying it is unable to renew the IP address. So I had her run the commands "ipconfig /flushdns", "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" but still no connection.

She is able to connect via her Ipod touch, and her friends can also connect via the same router/network key.

My only other theories are malware problem, firewall problem, stuck with a static IP address from the U.S. or some sort of faulty network setting I haven't thought of.

Any ideas people have would be GREATLY appreciated!!

 

[carnageX]

Check the IP settings first; then check for malware. Go through our guide: Spyware Asylum

 

[pdoodley]

Thanks for the reply!
Do you have some direction on what IP settings to check exactly? Or maybe how to fix some common ones?

 

[pdoodley]

Maybe one other thing to note is that ipconfig /all returns a private IP address on her laptop. I tried tracing her computer's IP address as well as her DNS server but both were privtae

 

[carnageX]

Since it's XP:

Start > Control Panel > Network Connections > (do this for both wired and wireless adapters) > right click > properties > highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" in the list in the middle > click Properties > make sure "Obtain an IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS address automatically" are both checked > hit Ok on all open dialogs. > repeat for the other connection.

 

[pdoodley]

Thanks again! I'll give that a try next time I talk to her.

 

[carnageX]

Sounds good; good luck. If the settings are already set to automatic, then I would go through our guide I posted earlier.

 

[pdoodley]

Update: I went through the solutions on this thread and about 10 others and no luck. There's no static IP, the DHCP and DNS settings are automatic, ipconfig /flushdns, /release, /renew didnt work, netsh int ip reset didnt work, reset the sockets, updated driver software, uninstall/re-install the wireless adapter, and probably some other stuff I'm missing.

But here's the interesting part:

I reproduced the problem on my XP service pack 3 laptop and it ended up being an authentication issue. You can enter the wrong network key and it will give you the error "unable to renew IP address after a while." So on my laptop, I entered the wrong network key, did all the same fixes, got all the same results, and then entered the right network key. It connected.

That might seem obvious, but like I said before, she can connect on her ipod touch as well as her friends laptop with the exact same network key. I checked and the encryption types are exactly the same too (WEP-PSK).

My best guess is that this is an authentication issue, but I can't see what exactly could be causing it.

One other thing is that I haven't done anti-malware stuff yet, but I don't think it's the cause. Only reason why we haven't done it yet is that she's not very tech-savvy and might have issues with putting some software on a usb drive and transferring it.

Anyway, any other ideas on how to authenticate correctly?

 

[carnageX]

Has she totally removed the connection (go through the Advanced wireless settings and in the priority list, just have her click Remove). Try that, and then re-add the connection, making sure she types in the correct network key.