Re: Cannot connect Acer Aspire to Range Extender (WN2000RPT)

zuzuspetals · ‎2011-07-21

Hi. I recently bought an Acer Aspire One A150 ZG5 from eBay. It works really well and will connect to every wireless network I've tried apart from to the Netgear Range Extender I have at home (WN2000RPT). I can connect to my wireless router at home (a Netgear DG834G) without any problem but that doesn't have enough range that I can use the Acer in another room. I have other devices connected to the WN2000RPT (iPad, Tivo and I brought home a laptop from work to see if it could connect - it could).

So I'm puzzled. I've checked all the settings on the Acer and it doesn't seem to have any trouble, as I say, connecting to any other wireless network; it's just the WN2000RPT it has a problem with. I can see the WN2000RPT on the list of wireless networks on my Acer, I try and connect but it always fails. When I run diagnostics it tells me either that there is a problem with the router and to turn it on and off again, which I do, but then sometimes the error is that it's unable to obtain an IP address, but usually the message is that the Network key on the Extender and Acer don't match. I know that's not right as I put the password into Notepad and copied and pasted it. I've also typed it in about 30 or 40 times but somehow it always gets rejected. All the green lights on the Extender are on and it works fine with all other devices. Any suggestions? I can mail the diagnostics report if that helps (the forum wouldn't allow me to post it here as it was too long). This bit at the end may be important though:
"Error renewing the IP address: The DHCP client has obtained an IP address that is already in use on the network. The local interface will be disabled until the DHCP client can obtain a new address."

Retired_Member · ‎2011-07-21

disable wireless security if it works then your wifi card may not support the security you are using. reinstall wifi card check for updated drivers.

Delete wireless from list and re-enter "KEY"

I've also typed it in about 30 or 40 times but somehow it always gets rejected this to me would suggest security is not supported try another other than WPA and or WPA2

zuzuspetals · ‎2011-07-21

Thanks searay. I'll give that a go but I suspect it's not the wifi card as the Acer can connect to and use my normal router which has exactly the same security as the wifi extender (WN2000RPT).

Retired_Member · ‎2011-07-22

make sure wifi card is set to " obtain IP address automatically

zuzuspetals · ‎2011-07-22

Hi again searay. Thanks for your help so far. Here's what happened. I disabled wireless security on my Netgear router (DG834G) but this did not get picked up by my range extender (WN2000RPT) despite multiple unpluggings. I thought that the range extender just picked up on the settings of the main router. So, the range extender remained on WPA security and my router was open (I've turned it back to WPA again now as I didn't want to leave it open).

In the manual for the WN2000RPT (ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/WN2000RPT/Documentation/IG/WN2000RPT_IGPM_30_Nov10.pdf) it says that I should be able to connect to www.mywifiext.net or www.mywifiext.com to change settings on the WN2000RPT but when I try to do that the browser just times out.

I'm very puzzled. By the way I did check 'obtain IP address automatically' was checked. It is. My Acer is still unable to connect to the WN2000RPT but it can connect to the main router and any other wireless network I've tried it on.

Any other ideas? Shall I try updating the driver for the wireless card on the Acer anyway?

Thanks.

zuzuspetals · ‎2011-07-22

Just a note to say that the Acer can now connect to the Range Extender. You were right: the wifi card in the Acer was using an old driver which could only see 802.11 g or b and the Range Extender was 802.11n. I got a driver from Atheros (http://www.atheros.cz/getfile.php) and now all is well. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I still don't know why I can't connect to the Range Extender using www.mywifiext.net but I'm not going to worry about that for now! Thanks again.