Hello fellow Radifiers,

I have a wireless network at my place. I wanted to broadcast a Winamp stream from my computer, so for that I had to port forward a few ports on my router, and make my IP configuration so that it was a static IP.

It worked fine without any problems. However when I went to a local library, and also a Panera bread, I tried to access the internet. It would see the networks and act like it connected, but I wouldn't be able to access any internet application.

I did go into the Network Connections and set everything back to auto like "Obtain IP Address Automatically" and "Obtain DNS Server Address automatically". I thought that was the problem, but even after doing that, the laptop doesn't connect anywhere except at my house. It says it's connected but no internet application is actually able to get any info.

If anybody knows what may be going on, I'd greatly appreciate some help.

I have Windows XP
My wireless card is D-Link AirPlus DWL-G650, which worked perfectly everywhere before doing the static IP business. So while I'm sure that's how it got messed up somehow...even after setting all the settings back to normal, restarting, and even uninstalling and reinstalling the card, the problem hasn't gone away. It only connects at my house.

I'm trying to avoid having to restore my computer to an earlier Ghost image because even though that would work fine I'm sure, I would like to be able to broadcast through winamp, so I would have the same problem again in the future.

Thanks.

Does the computer connect to the wireless network at the library?  Have you checked to make sure you have the correct encryption settings on the wireless network for the library and Panera?  If you encryption is set wrong, it will appear to connect but not pass any data.

Does the card pull an IP address on networks outside your house after you set it to "Obtain automatically"?  Next time you are at the library, set everything to automatic.  If you still can surf, open a command prompt and type the command "ipconfig /all" without the quotes.  Make a note of the IP address, DNS server, and default gateway of the wireless card.  Try to ping the default gateway listed (the command is simply "ping x.x.x.x" where x is the IP address.)  Try to ping your DNS server.  Let me know what happens on both.  If both work, try to ping google.com and let me know what happens.

Are you running any firewalls on this computer?  Have you tried momentarily disabling the firewall to see if you can surf with it off?  Some 3rd party firewalls get cranky if you move them off their home network.  Just don't forget to turn the firewall back on - its not a good idea to connect to a public wireless access point for too long without a firewall.