Dell PC will not recognize Time Capsule

[kgrass]

Our two MacBook Pros and an IBM ThinkPad all connected to TC easily but our Dell Inspirion 600m will not. The TC is set up as the router as well as the backup unit. It is set up to be compatible with "g" as well as "n", TC software is installed on the Dell, and the Airport software is listed as an exception in the firewall on the Dell. We also made sure the Workgroup information on both the TC and Dell matched. Finally, we downgraded the security on the TC to be WEP but are still unable to get the Dell to recognize the TC and connect to the Internet.

What's really odd is we have sometimes been able to get the Dell to connect to the Internet but not others and it has recognized the TC at least once. The distance to the TC is not an issue as it doesn't pick it up in a scan even when it is next to it.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

kgrass

 

[Cliff3]

I posted this to the dupe that you edited...

1. Make sure you have the latest wireless drivers for the Dell
2. Disable the firewall on the Dell
3. Ping the router from the Dell
4. if this works then remove all security (encryption and MAC address filters) from the router and see if you can connect
5. If that works, then add encryption back in and test again

If the ping doesn't work, then type ipconfig /all in the cmd window you opened to execute the ping command to see what the current network configuration is on the Dell.

Hopefully the latest Dell driver supports WPA/WPA2 encryption. WEP is not all that secure. You should probably mention which wireless card you have installed in the Dell. Presumably it's running XP with the latest service pack?

 

[kgrass]

Dell Troubleshooting

Thanks Cliff3,

We have a Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN Mini-PCI Card. I don't see any more current drivers for this on the Dell site.

I've also disabled the firewall on the Dell but the TC is still not detected when using the Rescan function on Airport Utility.

kgrass

 

[Cliff3]

What was the outcome of the ping, and what is the output of the ipconfig command?

 

[kgrass]

Dell Troubleshooting

Sorry Cliff3 - I don't know how to ping the router. Presumably the ipconfig should be typed into the Run command line. I've done that but the black screen just flashes and goes away.

Also, the OS is XP with SP3.

Thanks,

kgrass

 

[MacBass]

Sorry Cliff3 - I don't know how to ping the router. Presumably the ipconfig should be typed into the Run command line. I've done that but the black screen just flashes and goes away.

Also, the OS is XP with SP3.

Thanks,

kgrass

Click on the start menu, click "Run", and then type cmd and hit enter. The command prompt should come up, and first type ipconfig/all and hit enter. This will bring up all of your wired/wireless information. The "Physical Address" will be your MAC address and your IP address will also be displayed.

After you've done that, type ping ###.###.##.##, replacing the #'s with your TC's IP address, and hit enter. Your computer will ping - send tiny packets of data to the the device's IP address and have them bounce back, all the while timing the process - your TC and it will let you know if the ping was successful or not.

 

[kgrass]

Dell Troubleshooting

Thanks MacBass,

The ping was unsuccessful - 4 packets sent and none received. I did notice that on the ipconfig info it indicated that IP routing was not enabled. Could this be the source of the problem?

kgrass

 

[Cliff3]

1. Open a command window by selecting Start > Run > cmd
2. Ping the router - you'll need to know the ip address - this is on the main Airport Utility screen (refer to attachment) - at the command prompt type ping n.n.n.n - in my case, it would be ping 10.0.1.1
3. If the router is not accessible, then the ping will timeout. Otherwise it will look like the attachment.
4. If the ping is not successful, them run ipconfig /all. The IP address is in the second block of text - in the case of my XP VM, the address is 10.0.1.192. If your PC isn't seeing the router, then the IP address will come back with 169.254.something.

By the way, this is not a time capsule problem you're having, it's a Dell problem.

 

[kgrass]

Dell Troubleshooting

Thanks again Cliff3,

I don't have all of the information you are showing in the ipconfig response. There is no IP address info in the Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: section. It also indicates that the Media State is "Media Disconnected". Does this offer any clues?

kgrass

 

[Cliff3]

Thanks again Cliff3,

I don't have all of the information you are showing in the ipconfig response. There is no IP address info in the Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: section. It also indicates that the Media State is "Media Disconnected". Does this offer any clues?

kgrass

Nope. There is could be a problem with your wireless driver. I would download the latest version of that and reinstall it. Disable all the security in your environment for now too. Once you have basic connectivity, then you should add it back in. Until then, it could be part of the problem and should be disabled.

 

[kgrass]

Dell Troubleshooting

Good news - on a second search of the Dell site I found a more recent driver for the network card. After downloading it on the Mac and transferring to the Dell it solved the problem. At least most of the problem.

The Dell now connects to the Internet reliably but only with WEP level security. Changing the TC setting to WPA2 prevents the Dell from connecting. If anyone has ideas on how to fix that issue (maybe inherent in the card being used?) please let me know.

Thanks Cliff3 and MacBass for your help!

kgrass

 

[Cliff3]

Your driver should be dated 10/2006. It would seem your wireless card driver supports WPA - read this article on the Dell support site: link to article. Edit: You can specify WPA/WPA2 Personal as the security type on your router and it will support both modes. I have my network set up this way to support an older HP wireless printer that doesn't support WPA2.

 

[kgrass]

Dell PC will not recognize Time Capsule - Lessons Learned

Cliff3 - thanks for the edit and the article. A prior 30 minute chat session with Dell was fruitless as the advice consisted of, "Let me transfer you to a service that will know the answer right away, for a nominal fee" and the supervisor who I eventually got connected to who advised it would recognize WPA2. After getting your post I set the Time Capsule for WPA/WPA2 and it worked like a charm.

Key lessons learned:
Always make sure you have the latest drivers and any other software involved (duh!). Avoid going to the Dell or Microsoft's websites as finding items is not all that intuitive and mistakes can be made (I didn't find a more recent driver on my first search.) Instead, go to Device Manager and right click on the device to use the option that looks for the most recent driver. I would have saved countless hours if I had gone this route rather than going to Dell's site.
Be patient and use all research tools available - including this forum. By simply reading the "manual" and following instructions I was able to have 3 of our 4 laptops connected - 2 Macs and an IBM Thinkpad - with Time Capsule with a minimum of hassle. It helped that I had previously read some reviews that suggested using an Ethernet connection for the first backup.

I now am enjoying the Time Capsule as both the router and back up unit for our household with in a mixed PC and Mac environment.

kgrass

 

[fedrujte]

Dell printer doesn't work with Mac

I have a Dell 964 all-in-one printer, I tried downloading the driver from the Dell website but unfortunately it's not compatible to Mac computers. Is there anything that can be done or do I have to buy another printer that is compatible to Mac.

 

[MacChris]

Same issue

Thanks for the posting and the response people. I have a new Time Capsule and I'm having the same issue. I thought it was going to be easy.

 

[ccharno]

Able to connect to internet but Airport Utility doesn't recognize the TC

I have both a MacbookPro and Dell PC connected to my Time Capsule for wireless internet. I have been able to connect my HP printer through the TC to my Mac, but when I open up Airport Utility on my Dell I cannot get it to find the TC to configure it for using the printer?

I know its recognizing my TC with the Linksys connection, but how come when I try to access the TC it says it can't locate any wireless Apple devices? (I have installed Bonjour and tried to turn off my firewall, nothing has worked)

I would appreciate any help!

 

[bshoreman]

I finally was able to connect my dell inspiron 600m - windows xp sp3 - to a belkin router running wpa2 security. Wireless adapter is intel pro 2100 3a mini pci. I installed the most recent driver I could find - 1.2.5.37 dated 8/2/2006. I let windows control the connection. At that point it would see the network but whenever I tried to connect I would get "limited or no connectivity". The odd thing was that when I plugged directly into the router, the wireless connection would also then connect. I could then unplug from the router and stay connected wirelessly. Obviously not a great solution. The issue seemed to be that the laptop was not being assigned an IP address. Finally I simply configured tcp/ip on the wireless connection with a predefined IP address, gateway and DNS. Now I connect without any problems.

to do this:
- first get tcp/ip information while connected via hardwire
- start / run / command
- enter ipconfig /all
- write down IP address, gateway and DNS addresses
- start / connect to / show all conections
- right click on wireless connection / select properties
- in general tab scroll down to tcp/ip - double click
- specify use following IP address
- enter the IP address you wrote down - except that the last segment must be a higher number. For instance 192.168.2.4 from ipconfig becomes 192.168.2.10
- subnet mask will auto fill
- enter gateway exactly as written down
- specify use following DNS server address
- enter preferred DNS address exactly as written down
- press OK
- press OK

You should now be able to connect to WPA2 wireless