Perculiar wireless networking problem

[PlatinumFX]

Hi all, before I begin - I shall list the involved equipment and some crucial facts.

Router: Linksys WRT54G
Wireless Adaptor: Belkin F5D7051uk
PC: Shuttle SN25P

Fact 1 - The network connectivity and thus internet connectivity has worked fine previously.

Fact 2 - Two of my house mates connect wirelessly (a third via a cable) and they have had no problems what so ever nor experianced/observed any minor difference in the routers behaviour.

Fact 3 - Nothing has been changed. Not on the router, nor my PC's BIOS, Windows settings, Windows Zero Configuration utility or the Belkin software (which is set to cede control to WZC).

My wireless adaptor can see the network, correctly picking up its name (SSID) and being given automatically the key (WEP). It claims to have excellant signal strength yet receives no packets what so ever. Eventually, the adaptor assigns itself a 169 address given its inability to contact the DHCP element of the router.

Fact 4 - I have replaced the wireless adaptor, used the Belkin utility for configuration and reinstalled windows. The same behaviour is observed in all scenarios.

Fact 5 - I have tried using the USB adaptor in all my shuttles USB ports.

Fact 6 - I can't (they wont let me) test my adaptor on a house mates or friends computer. I will ASAP seek to try one of their adaptors on my mine.

Fact 7 - The instance where I went from a working set up to a non-working one; was that I was browsing the internet in Firefox, when out of the blue (this is unusual) the wireless network dropped and has since always given the results described above Fact 4.

Beside's trying a different adaptor, I haven't a clue what to do next and my have to settle for a cable but this is less than desirable!

Apologies in advance if I have missed any crucial information.

Thank you for reading and I would appreciate any thoughts on where to go next because this is driving me nuts!

[MiniMax]

I assume you know what IP-address range the DHCP-server is controlling?

I would change the IP-setup on your adaptor to use some static IP-address in that range. As long as it is not used by any other device, no one will suffer.

Next, once it has an IP-address in the correct range, install and run Ethereal. You should now be able to monitor some of the IP-traffic on the network (broadcasts, NetBIOS browsings, etc).

If Ethereal shows traffic, then you know that you can receive IP-traffic.

Next, try to ping the DHCP-server, and see if Ethereal can see the ping-pong.

[PlatinumFX]

Thank you very much, I will give that a try and let you know what happens.

[Darth Llama]

If you are using WEP encryption, try using a different key as well. For some reason, my linksys router generates 4 wireless keys, but only the first one works. I have a similar set up with 2 wireless PC's and one cabled. Both my wireless PC's use the same network key at the same time, and that's the only way it will work. If I try to use one of the other 3 keys, I can't even obtain an IP from the router.