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I'm currently trying to connect my work laptop to my home network. It works fine when I connect to a Linksys router via wireless connection (At my brother's place).

At home I have a D-Link DIR 655 Xtreme N router. Everything works fine from my desktop, my ps3, when I have guests come over with their laptops, they're able to basically just plug in a spare ethernet cable and connect. It's not that simple with my work laptop for some reason.

It's running on windows XP Professional SP3 (I've researched and seen that SP2 had some known issue that should have been resolved with SP3)

I also tried ipconfig /renew "Local Area Network 2" and the message I get says "Adapter Local Area Connection 2 is not enabled for DHCP.

I was able to enable DHCP however now it says "Unable to contact your DHCP server" in the command prompt when I try to renew. I've also tried simply using the repair function (right click and select repair" but it errors out when attempting to renew my IP.

The router is DHCP enabled.

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Have you tried starting and stopping the "Wireless Zero Configuration" in the Computer Management screen under the management tree of: Computer Management (Local) --> Services and Applications --> Services --> and in the right side scroll down to the bottom and you should see: Wireless Zero Configuration. You can stop and start the service by right clicking and selecting stop and right clicking again to select start. I have seen this turned off and it doesn't auto restart unless you make it.

And what encryption method are you using on your D-Link DIR 655 Xtreme N router (WEP, WPA, WPA2, TKIP, EAP) and did you put your password in? From what I understand the DIR 655 only has WPA and WPA2 and maybe at work and at your brother's place with the Linksys the routers are set up for different protocols or no security at all.

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Thanks for the response Greg.

I was able to locate the Wireless Zero configuration and the only options available were stop/restart. So I'm assuming it was already active. I did go ahead and restart it, but that did not resolve the issue.

The encryption method being used is WPA/WPA2.

I would hope it's not the card, and while I'm no expert I'm doubtful only because it wouldn't seem logical for it to work at different locations, but I'm not rejecting the possibility either.

Just a little more background, I've also tried connecting straight from my cable modem to the laptop. That did not work.

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Update your router FIRMWARE. Many people have this problem with SP3 and most tend to try over complicated ways to fix it. SP3 changed the network stacks from SP2 to be more like Vista, and as such many routers were left incompatible with it. I had the same issue myself then found out it was my firmware being out of date. Give it a try, if it doesnt work then it's one less thing to tick off the possible causes list.

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Thanks Mad Max. I had this problem and was able to resolve it with the firmware upgrade !

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Since you use this laptop at work - does your work require you to log on to a Windows active directory domain with your user ID and password? And if so do you have a home profile (User account) set up for you to log in to your home setup. Where I work people bring in laptops from home to use on the company's network. And I have to set the laptop book to connect to a Windows active directory domain and set up a new user account on the server. This work logon ID is only valid to access the network and the Internet from work only, not from home. And when they bring their laptop back home an try to get on the Internet, they can't because you can't access the work network connection from home because you're not at work anymore. So they have to log offof their work ID and login with their home user ID and to have free access them permissions to access the network equipment and wireless routers for home use. The reason why I say this is because you can log on to the laptop as administrator and try to access your router that way, or create a new user ID and login as that newly created user ID and see if you can access the Internet.

I don't know if you are using Internet explorer, but you can go into Tools and Internet Options, then go to the Connections tab and click on the LAN settings. You want to make sure that Automatically Detect Settings is checked off in the box. And make sure that Use A Proxy Server is unchecked. This is the proper configuration for setting up a work laptop to be used at home.

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Try this:

Make sure that there is no firewall software and the XP firewall is off while troubleshooting.

Verify that the DHCP Client service is started. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Right-click My Computer, click Manage, expand Services and Applications under Computer Management, and then click Services.
2. Verify that the DHCP Client service is running.
3. If the service is stopped, right-click DHCP Client, and then click Start.

If that doesn't work, then the tips here in the link below.

Windows XP Network Troubleshooting - Problems with Network Cards
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...etworkcard.htm

Dan 'J5'

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Thanks for the responses guys. I'm in the process of updating the firmware, I'll cross my fingers for that to work. If not there's still a few other ideas you've provided that I'll be attempting as well.

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Myabe you need some secure configuration, add some password on it.

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In simple thoughts you should try: ipconfig /release then followed by a ipconfig /renew this should grab you a local ip which is not being used by any other user.

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Hey James, If you get this far down, you must really be in trouble...take it back to basics & get it DHCP-ing with a wired connection first. That will rule out most things. Once that works, introduce wireless into the mix, possibly disabling the Zero Configuration service if you still have problems

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