meNOname said:
well, my laptop connects fine to my schoosl wireless network.....
while at someones house with wireless internet they were messing around wioth somethign because it woudl not connect.......
before all thsi happened it connected fine to another friends house but now it connects no where except the schools network.....
is there anyway to restore everything to default?? so i can at least connect to my other friends house like before???
- thank you
Hi
I think we had better start at basics.
A WIFI Network device (router or similar) has what is called a SSID, this is the name of the network as given at setup, the WIFI device may broadcast this SSID or it may not.
It also has a Network key, again this is given during its setup by the owner.
It wont have a network key if the security is set to OFF.
TO connect to the Router (WIFI device) you need the network key if the security is set to on, and if the Router is set to not broadcast its SSID, you will need this as well.
Your PC will need to be set to give a network key if it is needed, and you will need to search for the SSID if the router is set NOT to broadcast it.
For instance at my house, my router is not set to broadcast its SSID, this means anyone sat outside can see I have a WIFI system, but does not know what it is called, this is the first security level.
If that person then finds the SSID name, they then need a network key in order to connect, this is the second security level.
The only way to find out the SSID/network key is to physically connect to the WIFI device via a LAN cable and enter the administration page of the router.
I think in your case you did have all these setup, but they have been removed.
One more thing, with the WIFI Nic in my laptop I can create what is called profiles, this means I can choose a different profile for each WIFI network I connect to, so I have one for home, one for the office, one for the local library, each time I change connections I just change the profile on my NIC setup, this means I dont need to keep setting up the SSID and key.
If you use the Windows Zero administration wizard for the WIFI NIc under windows XP I found it failed to find a network that didn't broadcast its SSID, but you can run it and set it up manually.
I think that just about covers basic WIFI networking.
Regards
