Connecting Laptop wirelessly to a Network

Zeek12

I recently had Eircom Broadband installed but for some reason I cannot get my Laptop to connect to the network. I've added the network in the network & sharing centre, and at first it seemingly allowed me to connect to it. But it says "Access: Limited" and there is a red X symbol at the top of the network & sharing page. And I cannot access any webpage. The Laptop is running on Vista.
My Tablet can access the Eircom network without a problem so it appears the problem lies with the Laptop (the Laptop can access the network if I connect an ethernet cable to the modem but the socket is not conveniently positioned so that's not much use to me).
The wireless indicator/button on laptop doesn't show any apparent problem.

Any ideas how I can resolve this? Thanks.

dub45

Have you had your laptop connected to any other wifi networks that it might be carrying old settings for?

Can your laptop connect to other wifi networks?

Try and delete the network that you set up and just try and connect to the eircom wifi by entering the password when requested.

JRant

Your new modem should have come with a CD. Pop it in your laptop and instal the drivers.

If I remember Vista correctly there's a repair connection option when you right click the wireless icon in the taskbar. Click this and you shpuld be able to reasign a new IP address for your laptop automatically. Could very well be a clonfict of IP's in your home network.

dub45

JRant wrote: »

Your new modem should have come with a CD. Pop it in your laptop and instal the drivers.

If I remember Vista correctly there's a repair connection option when you right click the wireless icon in the taskbar. Click this and you shpuld be able to reasign a new IP address for your laptop automatically. Could very well be a clonfict of IP's in your home network.

It shouldn't be necessary to use that CD and its not a good idea. Running the set up puts in Eircom DNS settings and this can stop it connecting to other wifi networks.

JRant

dub45 wrote: »

It shouldn't be necessary to use that CD and its not a good idea. Running the set up puts in Eircom DNS settings and this can stop it connecting to other wifi networks.

Can't say i've had any issue with doing it in the past but it's been a while since I've used Vista.

dub45

A laptop doesn't need drivers to connect to a wifi network.

Zeek12

dub45 wrote: »

Have you had your laptop connected to any other wifi networks that it might be carrying old settings for?

Can your laptop connect to other wifi networks?

Try and delete the network that you set up and just try and connect to the eircom wifi by entering the password when requested.

Already done that. Was previously connected to O2. Deleted that network and then added the new network but it still doesn't solve the problem.

Zeek12

JRant wrote: »

Your new modem should have come with a CD. Pop it in your laptop and instal the drivers.

If I remember Vista correctly there's a repair connection option when you right click the wireless icon in the taskbar. Click this and you shpuld be able to reasign a new IP address for your laptop automatically. Could very well be a clonfict of IP's in your home network.

No. There was no CD with the modem.

JRant

Zeek12 wrote: »

No. There was no CD with the modem.

Did you try right clicking the wireless icon on the taskbar and selecting the repair option?

Zeek12

JRant wrote: »

Did you try right clicking the wireless icon on the taskbar and selecting the repair option?

I don't see a wireless icon there. Do you mean in the bottom right of the screen? I only have a network icon there (icon is 2 monitors/screens). Or should I be looking elsewhere for the wireless icon?

zg3409

Zeek12 wrote: »

I don't see a wireless icon there. Do you mean in the bottom right of the screen? I only have a network icon there (icon is 2 monitors/screens). Or should I be looking elsewhere for the wireless icon?

2 monitors is normally the wired connection. The wireless icon is normally a computer with 3 ))) symbols beside it.

You could look in the control panel for wireless settings, possilby under network.

zg3409

Have you went into the Eircom modem settings and turned off wireless security? Sometimes some laptops wireless card cannot handle security or can onyl handle WEP but not WPA etc. Also it may be 802.11b only and if the eircom unit is set to "N" only then it will not connect properly.

It is normally recommended you re-enable the wireless security after any tests.

Zeek12

Yeah, that was the problem exactly. I seem to have sorted it now.
Thanks for the advice!