A slight hitch…

These drugs have me very, VERY tired.

I also can’t fall asleep. It’s amazing, the circles my brain runs in when I’m this sleepy, and yet not sleepING. For instance, while I lay in bed I figured out that the problem with wireless connectivity in my house can be solved if I simply take the wireless-access computers and force them to not use DHCP. I don’t know what the DHCP problem is with my router, but as I lay in bed I figured out that that it was DHCP that was failing.

So I got out of bed, printed an IPCONFIG /ALL from a machine where wired DHCP had provided valid settings, picked a likely IP addy, and then plugged those settings in to the wireless Kidputer. BAM. Instant internet access. With a 128-bit WEP key, no less.

I also had some other genius ideas while not asleep. I probably shouldn’t implement them just now, though. It’s 2am, and I really do need to try to get some sleep.

The good news is that the time I was thinking about spending tomorrow giving my 10-year old internet access can be spent napping instead. It’s only a slight hitch, after all.

–Howard

13 thoughts on “A slight hitch…”

  1. And then, before going to bed, I figured out how to embed Google Adsense code in my phpAds rotation.

    Hopefully now the idea hamster will get off of his wheel and go nibble on some sawdust.

    –Howard

  2. >I don’t know what the DHCP problem is with my router

    Is the router also the Wireless Access Point?

    If not, I’ve seen on one or two models of Access Point that drop broadcast traffic on the Wireless LAN (which would cover DHCP broadcasts) which prevents wireless clients from getting an IP Address from a wire-based DHCP server.

    Barry

      1. I’m guessing it’s not a linksys card.

        Next guess is that you are using 128bit WEP Shared Key. (Because I’ve met situations where I could connect to a network but not actually send/receive traffic when using “shared key” mode.)

        If so, have you tried using WPA?

        1. It IS a Linksys card, we had problems with AND without WEP, and with whichever key length we tried.

          The only thing I didn’t do was force a reset of the router, and I’m not interested in pushing THAT button just now.

          1. Hmmm, sounds like a new scenario. I like new scenarios, it’s just a shame that there are several thousand miles seperating us or I’d be volunteering to “pop in and fix it”. Or maybe that’s for the best. I get told off enough by the better half as it is… 😉

            If you’d like some more remote troubleshooting I can be reached at gmail (hobnobs@), rather than glut your LJ with tech support, but as it’s working at the moment I’m betting it’s not as high a prority as “sleep” and “Shoulder recovery”.

            Get well.

            Barry

      2. A cow-orker here has mentioned that he had a similar problem, and just switching the Wireless from channel 11 to an alternate seemed to fix it. Your mileage may vary on this one though.

        1. My problem was that my Win2K server stopped giving out DHCP addresses… so I just hard-coded my router and laptop and all was better.

          1. I mostly see that issue when there’s another DHCP server active on the network. If Windows’ DHCP server detects the other DHCP it decides to shut down. (Unless it’s using a scope ID, but I’ll leave the DHCP geeking for when it’s necessary.)

            Er, sorry about turning this post into a helpdsk thread Howard… I hope you’ve slept through it. 🙂

          2. DHCP is teh evil.

            For what it’s worth we just recently had that very problem here where I work. We have a county wide DHCP server but one department off site had its own DHCP server running for a separate network they ran on their site. When we switched the networks over to Active Directory they went nuts because both servers saw the other DHCP info and shut down. Took us a few days to figure out what the heck had happened and get them to play nice again.

            My sympathies to anyone who has to deal with DHCP problems. They can be very frustrating even if the answer turns out to be simple.

  3. Speaking of drugs…

    Sorry to hear your pills have you down. Amazing the things you can think up when you have no choice but to stay awake and think. Speaking of thinking, I thought Tagon threw the stupid pills down the head after the strip on Thursday, November 13, 2003
    http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20031113.html
    Cute old plot device. Hope you get plenty of rest.

Comments are closed.