Laptop having trouble connecting to wireless internet

[Mexxy]

Hey Shane,

Got a friend who needs a little help with her laptop. We have a simple home internet wireless network, with a security key on it. Her laptop connected fine to her home network, but around my house, after she has entered the network key it simply stays on "Unidentified network" and there is no internet access.

We have looked for solutions and tried disabling Kaspersky and windows firewall, both with negative results. We tried a wired connection plugged into the router which worked fine. We have also tried diagnosing the problem in windows, and tried all the options it gives, all not working.

The laptop runs windows Vista.

Any suggestions?

I came back to this forum cos i know ur a genius with these sorts of problems

Thanks

[Shane]

I have seen this before

The wireless key isnt working right, so it doesn't make a good connection. Vista has a problem of choosing the right key some times.

Here is something to try first.

Right click on the network icon and go to the network and sharing center. On the left you will see manage wireless connections.

You should see the saved network info for your wireless network. Delete it.

Have it try to connect again. if it still doesn't work we may need to change a few things.

Oh and make sure she has service pack 2 installed on her vista. They fixed a lot of bugs

Shane

[Mexxy]

Ok we tried deleting the network info from the list. Reconnected, entered the network key again, but the same problem is occuring. Hovering over the wireless icon gives "Unidentified Network". The signal bar is excellent.

Service pack 2 is installed.

[Shane]

OK now go to the same spot you removed the saved network info, this time click edit.

Is it set to use TKIP or AES? Then we need to log into your router and see which the router is setup to use

Normally in newer routers you have the option of doing both TKIP & AES which is the better way to do it

Shane

[Mexxy]

It is set to use AES. We tried changing it to TKIP but didnt work, so reverted to what it was before, AES.

Logged into my router, i think it is a D-Link DSL-2640S or similar. I went through all the tabs in the router page looking for TKIP, AES things, but could not find anything.

Under Maintenance > Attached Devices i can see both mine and her PCs. They are 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3 respectively.

[Shane]

Ah, then make sure her laptop isnt set to use a static IP

Shane

[Mexxy]

How do i go about doing that?

[Shane]

Open a command window and put in
ipconfig /all

Scroll and find the wireless connection, you will see "DHCP Enabled" does it say yes or no?

Shane

[Shane]

Better yet, do this.

Open the network and file sharing. Go to change adapter settings on the left.

Go to the properties of the wireless, in that window go to the properties of the TCP/IP v4. In here make sure both areas are set to automatic

Shane

[Mexxy]

It says Yes. DCHP Enabled

And we went into TCP/IP v4 properties. Both areas are set to automatic.

[Shane]

OK on the laptop, and connected to the wireless do a ipconfig and tell me the IP infor for the wireless.

Shane

[Mexxy]

Physical Address: 00-16-44-DF-54-3A

DCHP EN = YES
AUTOCONFIG = YES

Link-local IPv6 Address: fe80: :44ad: 172c: 4776: 9c61%11 (Preferred)

IPv4 Address: 192.168.0.3 (Preferred)
Subnetmask: 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway { 192.168.0.1
DCHP Server      {

DCHPv6 IAID = 285218372

DCHPv6 Client IAID = 00-01-00-01-11-4F-5C-07-00-1E-33-09-12-D0

Hope this is what u need lol

[Shane]

It is. The fact that it is getting a IP from the router means that the wireless password is working.

Open a command dinwo and put in

ipconifg /flushdns

Then try to get on the net

Shane

[Mexxy]

Edit: Flushed the DNS successfully, but no luck connecting to the internet.

[Shane]

Very odd.

If it was a bad wireless connection then it wouldn't be able to get an IP from the router.
You flushed the DNS, and her laptop works fine at her house.

Only thing left I can think of is if you have wireless mac filtering on in your router so it wont let hers on.

Can you check that?

Shane