View Full Version : laptop not connecting to wireless - how can i tell what has the problem?
wallofbeans
31-12-2005, 15:50
ive got my desktop connected through a wire into my netgear dg834g router and my girlfriends laptop connected wirelessly... all was fine until a few days ago.. but now the wireless connection isnt working... she cant even see my router on her laptop anymore (although she can see two other connections but we don't know who they are!)
how can i figure out if something is wrong with her computer (or she's accidentally changed something) or if it is a problem with the wireless part of the netgear router?
it still works perfectly fine for me and al the lights are flashing as they always have been...... once i figure out where the problem lies then i can start asking you guys how to fix it!
thanks
Violator
31-12-2005, 16:10
Presumably she cannot ping the router?. Do you have MAC address access enabled on the router? You haven't switched off the Wireless Access Point on the router by accident?.
Have you also tried resetting the router?. I had some similiar problems with that particular router, which I've solved by updating to the latest firmware.
wallofbeans
01-01-2006, 13:09
Presumably she cannot ping the router?. Do you have MAC address access enabled on the router? You haven't switched off the Wireless Access Point on the router by accident?.
Have you also tried resetting the router?. I had some similiar problems with that particular router, which I've solved by updating to the latest firmware.
um... i don't know what 'ping'-ing the router means... yes have mac address access enabled... how could i switch on or off the wireless access point? is there an actual switch on the router?
im not sure how i would reset the router... ive unplugged it and plugged it back in if that counts... i thought about the fireware thing and upgraded to the latest but it hasn't made any difference.. as far as the laptop is concerned my wireless connection isn't there...
Violator
01-01-2006, 13:42
um... i don't know what 'ping'-ing the router means... yes have mac address access enabled... how could i switch on or off the wireless access point? is there an actual switch on the router?
im not sure how i would reset the router... ive unplugged it and plugged it back in if that counts... i thought about the fireware thing and upgraded to the latest but it hasn't made any difference.. as far as the laptop is concerned my wireless connection isn't there...
OK. Pinging the router just means sending a short packet of information to see if the laptop can reach the router or not. From a command prompt, type 'ping 192.168.0.1' (that's the default IP for the router) and see if you get a response.
There is an option in the setup menu to turn on/off Wireless Access, make sure it's on. Try also to switch off MAC address access temporarily and see if this makes a difference.
Do you have any security enabled on the router (WEP, WPA etc)??.
wallofbeans
01-01-2006, 16:09
im absolutely sure i havent touched any of the set menu settings... is it still possible that fiddling with them now will make a difference? could they have changed all on their own?
im not PC friendly (ive got a mac, my gf's laptop is PC).. i originally spent a long time setting this wireless connection up but didnt really have a clue what i was doing and followed specific instructions from a friend.. the set up has worked perfectly for the past year and a half... that is until a few days ago...
as i said, i havent touched a thing on the settings at my end (ie anything to do with the router itself) so am assuming that the wireless facility in it has broken or my other half has changed something in her wireless setings without knowing it and i dont have a clue how to get it back....
sorry but... what's 'command prompt' mean?
you're going to have to talk in idiot proof terms im afraid...
ps. oh and the 'security options are set to 'disable'...
wallofbeans
01-01-2006, 16:20
There is an option in the setup menu to turn on/off Wireless Access, make sure it's on. Try also to switch off MAC address access temporarily and see if this makes a difference.
i just deleted the MAC addresses that id alowed access to the connection and refreshed the page to see if the laptop MAC address appeared as available again. It did so i again allowed it access, pressed apply.. then went to the laptops wireless settings clciked on 'repair', it repaired something, refreshed the IP address and it all started working again!
fantastic! thanks for the advice... im still really confused as to why i needed to that and what went wrong in the first place? any ideas?
EDIT: hold on! the connection only lasted for 30seconds or something and then cut out again... i went back into the router settings did the same stuff again then went into the laptop wireless settings thing and told it to 'repair' again.. it did it again (but took a little longer about it)... it seems to be holding this time....
any clues what is going on?
wallofbeans
01-01-2006, 16:34
it only lasted a couple of mins and it lost the connection again..... but then came back on a minute or so later..... its never done this before!
could be that some one close by has just got a router too, and its on the same channel.
In the routers webpages there should be some pages for the wireless setup, one of which would be channel...try changing this number by two (up or down)
wallofbeans
01-01-2006, 16:47
could be that some one close by has just got a router too, and its on the same channel.
In the routers webpages there should be some pages for the wireless setup, one of which would be channel...try changing this number by two (up or down)
hmm.. it just went on and off again.. when i scan for available networks there are a couple of others that appear then disappear... maybe an xmas present for somebody that is messing with my connection?
if i change the channel on the router webpages do i need to change anything on the laptop to match it or will it just figure it out for its self?
no, just the router needs changing channel, the laptop will loose the connection but should instantly reconnect though!
It could be that if you haven't changed the routers password from the defualt, someone is messing with your setup...just change the password!
wallofbeans
01-01-2006, 16:55
no, just the router needs changing channel, the laptop will loose the connection but should instantly reconnect though!
It could be that if you haven't changed the routers password from the defualt, someone is messing with your setup...just change the password!
do you mean the 'admin' password? i changed that when i first hooked all this up....
i changed the channel from 1 to 3 but the signal strength is jumping around from excellent to poor and then off.... the laptops wireless connection thing shows the signal strength bouncing around and the channel flipping between 3 and 11 for some reason.... what's 11 got to do with it?
EDIT: i changed from channel 3 to 11 (seeing as the laptop was so interested in 11) and it seems to be holding steady right now....
any ideas what's going on with this?
mmm, it could be that when it was on 1, there was a router with the same name on 3...but that's a guess.
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