Hi, I’ve been having some network connectivity issues, and I’m looking for some guidance on resolving them.
I’m home from college for the summer, and I connect to the internet wirelessly from my home’s basement using a Linksys wireless USB Network Adaptor, model no. WUSB54G to a Verizon DSL home wireless network (my modem is a Westell, Model 327W). However, since I got home, I have been unable to connect. I called a cousin who’s got a little more experience in this realm to see if he could fix the problem, which he did. A kink in the scenario is my cousin and my father, who is the primary account holder (more on this a little later) aren’t on good terms, so whenever my cousin is around for whatever reason, there’s a problem.
My cousin spoke with Verizon, and succeeded at restoring connectivity (I don’t know the exact steps he took, but he said there was some issue regarding the account passwords) however, within two days, I was once again unable to connect. I’ve spoken with Verizon tech support between 7 and 9 times over the last two weeks to solve this issue, and on the first several calls, operators succeeded in restoring connectivity; they walked me through changing some settings on the modem, but the crux of the issue was the passwords. Resetting the password (I’m not sure if it was the password for the account or the modem, and if they had to match [this is really the area where I’m stuck]) would restore connectivity. The other side of the password issue is that over the next week, my father would change his Verizon account password daily, saying he didn’t want me to know his password; this I think [ital] was the reason for my inability to access the internet wirelessly. This has been a very touch/messy issue, so it’s something that I don’t want to approach my dad with again without a very clear step of steps I can take toward the solution.
Despite all of that, there was one occasion where a Verizon technician who succeeded in helping me fix the problem temporarily with out doing password reset, and again, I had wireless internet for only about a day and a half. His directives were to change the modem’s channel from 6 to 11, which I did, and flushing the DNS Cache via the Window Command Prompt.
Aside from that messy, amorphous password mess, of which my diagnosis and reading is entirely speculative, I’ve spoken with Verizon tech support reps on several other instances, and they’ve essentially just had me check my modem settings, ie read them the unit’s status lights (btw, wireless has and continues to be green and blinking), and making sure there was no WEP Security Key enabled. At the end of those exchanges, the operators checked with a higher up, and they then reported that they could no longer help me, and then recommended I call Linksys tech support, which I did.
I spoke with Linksys tech support twice. On the first call, at their directive, I downloaded the product’s driver from their website from another computer, saved it to a disc, and installed it on my computer. I was unable to connect using that driver’s software (the message given read as “Cannot Associate with Access Point”, which I assumed was just jargon for “Can’t connect”), and thought that the issue was not a matter of whether I used Windows’ Wireless Networks to connect, or the Linksys driver. The second time I spoke with Linkys tech support, I was walked through uninstalling and reinstalling the device literally four to five times, before being told that it sounded like there was a problem with my device, and that he would check with his chief engineer to see if the product’s warranty would cover product replacement. The operator got back to me, saying it did not, thus terminating the exchange.
Other items of note: Using both the Windows View Wireless Networks function, and the Linksys driver, I am able to view my home network on the available networks tabs, but am unable to connect to them. Though I receive the “Cannot Associate with Access Point” in the Linksys driver window, in the Windows tab, I click “Connect” to my home network, and receive a message box that reports “Waiting to connect”, and an unending moving progress bar.
My Linksys adaptor’s Power light reads as lit, but the Link light is unlit.
