Author Topic: Wireless Internet Connection Help  (Read 1826 times)

Smoke

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« on: April 22, 2005, 05:25:38 PM »
Just hooked up my Linksys Wireless Router.

Everything seems to work mostly.  My computer (wired) has access.  My wifes laptop works when we hook up a cable.  But when we try to connect hers with her wireless card...nothing.

Techno geeks at work assured her it would work "automatically" whenever she got near a wireless router.

to that I say "HA"

Any suggestions.  I'm pitifully new to wireless networking.

Smoke

RevDisk

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2005, 06:00:13 PM »
Make sure you actually have wireless access turned on.  Check your manual for the proper steps of configuring your wireless access.  Not all Linksys routers are exactly the same.  (If you provide the model number, we can meantion how to do so, step by step.)
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HForrest

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2005, 06:02:52 PM »
I'm JUST back online from a wireless router problem. Our Linksys Router broke for God knows what reason. Apparently, Linksys brand is crap and has its share of problems. Two people have recently told me this. I generally don't like Apple, but my mom has a Mac and just bought this Apple "AirPort" router system. It works with her Ibook and I had no problem connecting it to my PC through the Linksys Wireless-B card I already had. I'm not sure what other brands there are (Netgear, maybe?) but again, I haven't heard the best things about Linksys and don't have much trouble believing them with all the problems we've had.

Dave

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2005, 06:40:35 PM »
Smoker,
there could be a number of different reasons.
First, is your wife's machine a B or a G wireless card. I assume you're talking about a linksys WRTG54.
The second, and the most likely is that you need to "do a site survey" this should find the wireless network.
The last one is, since it's her work machine, there might be encryption enabled. This will prevent things  from working.

Smoke

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2005, 07:05:23 PM »
We are talking a WRT54GS.

Wireless G, she has a G card in her laptop, and the manual says this router is B & G compatible, so should work either way....right?

I know encryption is not turned on on the router, not sure of her card....I'll check that.

How do I do a site survey?

Phantom Warrior

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2005, 09:05:15 PM »
Ummm...I'm no ace, but I'll throw out the things I ran into with mine.  



Make sure the software for the wireless card is installed on the laptop.

Make sure it is correctly enabled.  Sometimes I have to specifically disable my Ethernet card to get my wireless card to take precedence.

Double click the wireless icon.  There should be a button in the window that says something like "Look for available networks."  Click it, you should get a list with your network at the top.  Select it and click "Connect."



Sometimes I have to do that the first time through to get everything squared a way.  None of this is technical, it's all emprical, so I hope it helps.

lee n. field

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2005, 05:06:36 AM »
Make sure wireless is turned on on the router, and make sure the computer is trying to connect on the same channel.  If encryption is set up you may need to enter the WEP key.

Getting wireless to work in Windose can involve a lot of fiddling and tinkering, and is not (in my experience) real reliable.
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Vodka7

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Wireless Internet Connection Help
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2005, 09:45:18 AM »
I don't know about Linksys routers or wireless cards, but I have set up a Belkin network at my ex's house, and I have a D-Link system, running at mine.  For both of those brands, the instructions that came with the wireless card specifically said, in nice big letters, "Disable the Windows XP management of your wireless connection."  I don't know why it causes such a big problem with those two brands, but in my experience, they were right.  Whenever Windows randomly decided to handle my wireless network connection for me, everything stopped working Smiley

That said though, routers are like printers, for every one good story you hear about a particular brand, you'll hear a dozen "stay away from Brand X, it blew up my toaster!"

On XP, what worked for me was going to Start, Control Panel, Network Connections.  Right click on your Lan connection, and select disabled, like Phantom suggested.  Then, double click on the wireless connection.  There's an option somewhere like "Disable windows management of wireless networks."  The computer I'm on is wired, so I don't have it on my screen, but it looks something like that, and I know it always takes me a while to find it.  Make sure it's turned off.  Then click OK.

Now, run the program that came with your wireless card.  It should already be running in your system tray (by the clock, it might be hidden in XP, so click the arrow and check all the icons.)  There should be a pretty hard to miss button somewhere that says something like "Scan for networks."  Click that and see what comes up.  Hopefully, one of the networks that show up will be your router.  If it does, double click on it and you should be all set, unless you've set up encryption, in which case you'll need to enter the key you used when you set up the router.  (Not the login password BTW, it should be an option somewhere once you log into the router.)

If your router doesn't come up, then maybe like RevDisk suggested it doesn't enable Wireless by default.  Log into the router and make sure.