I have two computers: a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop with wireless capability, and an old Gateway desktop. Both are running Windows XP. I have a Linksys cable modem connected to a Linksys WRT54G router which is connected to the desktop PC.

This setup was working fine, and Internet connectivity was trouble-free until one day I was not able to access the Internet on either the desktop or the laptop. I AM able to access the Internet on the desktop if I connect directly to the cable modem, so I know my cable connection is ok. On the laptop, I cannot connect to the Internet even when I connect directly to the cable modem. The error message on the desktop is "Limited or no connectivity" when I try to connect through the router. The laptop is not giving me an error message: getting a strong signal from the router, and says network adapter is fine.

I've tried disconnecting and reconnecting the connections with no results, linksys call center was no help. I purchased a new router, a Netgear WGR614, but still got the same results, so I'm back to using the linksys. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers on the laptop to no avail.

Don't know what else to try -baffled by the problems with both computers when the router seems to be working fine. Any ideas?

hi mate, welcome to daniweb! i had a similar prob, which was that i had accedently restricted my router to one device / client at a time, however this is easily solved and theres usually an option for it in your setup up.

so all of your computers work when connected to the modem, but only the gateway desktop works when going through the router as well?

darren

Hi.

From the laptop; can you ping the router?

I'm not sure if I understood fully what you said, did you say that the laptop will connect to the router and appear to be fine but can not connect to the internet?

If the laptop does appear to connect to the router then I suggest you try the following (no particular order - just some thing to try):

Ping the router
Ping the desktop (when both are connected to the router)
Try using the desktop to ping the laptop
(if all of the above work then try pinging google)

If you can ping the router, and if you can ping the desktop try trace routing:
in a DOS window/command prompt typ Replace the xxxs' with the IP addess of your desktop - see what message you get.

If this works try trace route to google or the BBC or something again look for messages it may help identify were the connection is failing.

The problem appears to be you laptop more than anything else so check the routers config/setup make sure you have not enambled mac eddress filtering or something like that - if so then you'll need to add the MAC address of the laptop to your router (I think this is unlikely as you said you tried 2 routers)

I think the problem may lie with Windows, if you have XP then for now disable the Windows Firewall - if you have any other firewalls on the laptop - disable those as well - see if you can now connect to the web. If disabling the firewall (remember to turn off the Windows firewall) works then let us know and we can advise as to how to get the firewall to allow normal traffic through.

Hope this helps

Got frustrated and called on some help. Not clear on what the problem was, but is is fixed now. Thanks for replying.

if its all working now, might be an idea to change it to `solved`

Embarassingly enough, I had the same problem yesterday and struggled with it for longer than I care to admit before realizing I had overlooked something ridiculously simple...

In my case the internet had failed overnight, so my router obviously lost the dynamic DNS when the cable connection on my modem failed. When I checked back in the am, my cable modem and router were working, but the router would not renew the DNS.

Recycling the router (or both modem and router independently) is not enough. It doesn't matter that your modem is working properly [again]. If you lost your cable connection at some point, you may need to power down BOTH router and modem (for 10 seconds) simultaneously. Then turn back on the modem and let it come up. Then turn back on the router and let it come up. Viola, the router will then be able to successfully retrieve a new dynamic DNS.