Wireless Computer Help

[simmadown]

If there are any computer experts out there, I received a laptop for christmas & was trying to set up the wireless this weekend. I was at my brother in laws & he has high speed interenet set up with a wireless router. I couldn't access the internet at all. Tried for hours. It always said connected when I went to the the network settings for the wireless, but when I tried to access any website, it was a no go. We knew the wireless was up b/c my brother in law pulled out his work laptop & he was able to connect & surf. ANy suggestions on this.

[baz67]

I am no expert here, but what are his security settings for his home wifi network. You may be able to connect, but without the correct access code you will not be able to access the network.

[simmadown]

the network is open. even when i scanned for wireless networks my brother in law was the only one that showed up & it said open. I even tried to connect to my neighbors connection since I mentioned the trouble I was having, so he said he would turn off the encyption for the day. I was able to see it. It said ssid: linksys & open system. Same thing. Icon on bottom of screen says connected to linksys, but no interent pages would load. Only tried that one time, since it was very frustrating.

[Kinred]

You may need to add your MAC address to his wireless router. On my wireless network, people can see the SSID (on yours it says linksys) and open system. But the are not able to get on due to a feature call MAC filtering. Only the MAC address that I have in my wireless router are able to get through.

[stealth71]

You need to log into the router and check its setting. Go open an Internet Explorer (IE) window and in the address bar type: 192.168.0.1 then press enter. It will probably ask for username and password. Ask your bro-in law if he knows it, you can try admin and no password. I think that is default. Then check wireless settings. Mac address filtering and Encryption should be off for testing. Save and exit. In the IE window select Tools->Internet Options... then click the Connections Tab. Click setup and follow LAN setup directions. Hope that helps. Let me know if you need more help.

[simmadown]

thanks for the tips guys. i will print all this out & try it tonight.

[Flight396]

Hey- Not sure which OS you have, guessing it's WinXP, if so, try going to Start, Settings, Network Connections. You should have a Wireless Connection in there. If your pc is at least seeing a wireless connection, it should be in there. Try right clicking on the icon for that wireless connection, hit properties, and a box will pop up. Switch to the Wireless Networks tab at the top, and try selecting/unselecting "Use Windows to configure my wireless settings" box. I had that problem with an older 802.11b PC-card and had to select, then de-select that box to get it working. Good luck!

[David Pozzi]

Yes, do the above, you have to run an internet setup wizard to tell the laptop to access the internet thru the wireless connection.

[simmadown]

I finally got it working. Don't know what happened, but I triedall of the settings & I still didn't have internet. I then tried stealth71's suggestion of typing in 192.168.0.1 & after I hit enter, I noticed a different screen came up. Instead of the usual, "page not found" screen, the msn search page came up instead. After that I had internet. Very strange, but at least it works now.

The wealth of information here is awsome. There seems to be no boundaries.
thanks

[gEtyOpAPiOn]

I Hope You Are Not Running An Unsecured Connection As Anyone Can Park In Front Of Your House And Use Your Internet Hehe That Could Be Scary

[sinned]

Don't tell him that Rick...that's how surf away from home.