XP can connect to router and LAN but not Internet

Question

I have a modem router (TP-Link TD-W8961ND) connected to the internet and working fine. It is broadcasting a wireless network and that too works fine.

I have a second modem router (Siemens SL2-141) functioning as an extender. It is wired to the first router and broadcasting a wireless network with the same SSID, same security, but on a different channel. DHCP and UPnP are disabled on the second router.

My iPad, iPhone, and Win7-based ThinkPad are all able to move between the two networks with no problems.

We also have a WinXP SP2 Netbook. When in proximity to Router1, this machine accesses the LAN and Internet with no problems. As soon as it gets closer to Router2, it picks up the signal and shows an "Excellent"/"Strong" connection but it can no longer see the internet. It can see Router2's config page and the other machines on the network but it cannot get past the router to the internet.

Answer 1

There's some good suggestions here: How can I get the same SSID for multiple access points? Personally, I use three routers with a hard-wired backbone, all with different SSIDs and passphrases and on non-overlapping channels. Only the router connected to the internet is used for DHCP though. It's a more complicated setup but it works for me.

Answer 2

well one thing I'm curios about as you mentioned when you move the computer from AP1 two AP2 is when it is no longer able to use the connection. but what happens if the computer was booted up in a spot where it can only see AP2? I've been playing around with wireless my self and I have noticed that if I change the wireless channel on my router (but not one of the other settings) my wi-fi will crash, it'll still show it's connected but get nothing. I then tell my computers to disconnect from the wi-fi and reconnect and boom right away they got internet right away. what I think is going on is there's some bug where windows will still see it's there, but it's still trying to use the original wi-fi channel for the actual payload data. until it's told to reconnect which then everything is back in sync. I've also noticed that windows apps don't like switching connections if for instance I was on wired and have the wi-fi off, then I turn on the wi-fi verify it's connected then pull the cord, it'll act like I unplugged the cable before i started up the wi-fi and thus drop everything for a few seconds before it realizes the wi-fi is there.

I'd suggest trying using two different names on the two ap's (you can use the same key) and see if that makes a difference. if it's just that it's not updating what channel to use to pull down the payload data from this should work as it'll see it as two different wi-fi's if it's going to be buggy when stwiching wi-fi networks well that's windows for ya.

Answer 3

With XP, when your machine is initially connected to AP1 (the cable modem on channel X) and attempts to shift connection to AP2 (your wireless router on channel Y), the connection fails because your adapter is expecting to connect to SSID with Passphrase on Frequency 2.4ghz Channel X and is instead connected to SSID with Passphrase on Frequency 2.4ghz Channel Y.

Since the initial connection was on Channel X, your adapter is unable to properly re-establish DHCP since it still thinks it's connected to AP1.

A quick fix is to change the SSID of AP2, unless of course you're using repeater or repeater bridge modes on AP2, in which case the Channel for AP2 should be the same as AP1.

If you change the SSID for AP2, your XP machine will have two configs stored and should be able to swap between networks relatively seamlessly.