Help with wireless connection to internet

[hackneylady]

Hello. Please keep in mind that I am no computer tech and I may not use the correct terms but I will try to explain what my problem is. First I have a new laptop, Compaq and running XP pro. At home I only have dial-up which is slow but heck it is better then nothing. Computer is also able to connect through Ethernet and Wireless. I wanted to try out the wireless so was told to go to the pubic library as you can use their network. I have tried this a couple of times but I am having problems of the computer not connecting. The library network comes up in the network search and I click on it and hit the connect. Get the box up that says connecting to network. After wait a while the box just disappears without connecting and the search networks automatically starts again and the library network is once again shown. So now I don't know if it is something I am not doing correctly or if it is the computer itself. I tried taking the firewall off for the library connection and that doesn't help either. Maybe it is another firewall that I don't know is there. So I hope I have explained enough and someone can help. Thanks ahead of time. hackneylady

 

[Tmagic650]

Make sure the new laptop is fully updated using the Windows Update feature. Many new laptops are far from current when you buy them. XP is now up to Service Pack 3. Installing all these updates plus installing any hardware updates may help with the wireless issue

 

[hackneylady]

Make sure the new laptop is fully updated using the Windows Update feature. Many new laptops are far from current when you buy them. XP is now up to Service Pack 3. Installing all these updates plus installing any hardware updates may help with the wireless issue

Yes I did all the updates. Took forever too. Someone at work mentioned it maybe the LAN card. Can you upgrade drivers for it? It is a Wireless LAN PC Card 802.11b Compliant 11 Mbps Data Transfer Rate (FCC ID PQP-WP288P)

 

[Tmagic650]

Go to HP Support and see if there are drivers for the integraded LAN card listed for your rmodel laptop

 

[DelJo63]

802.11b; hmm; not the most popular technique. most hotspots (ie places where a laptop can get a connection) have gone to 802.11g

If you're lucky, your WiFi card will run both, but it has to be told to do so.

Please report the make/model of the WiFi adapter;

use this (run->devmgmt.msc) and click on Device Mgr
expand [+] Network Adapters
​

it should be self-evident which is the Wireless

 

[k.jacko]

Jobeard beat me to it, no new laptop would be using solely 802.11b. It should be b/g or above, possibly even 'draft n'.
'b' offers the slowest speed of all the wireless technologies and nowhere near the range of 'g'. So even though you'd expect to be well in range of your library's wireless access point, you're not using the same wireless protocol, because your library will undoubtedly be using 'g'.

If you made a mistake and your card is a 'b/g' then set it to both and try it again.

 

[hackneylady]

802.11b; hmm; not the most popular technique. most hotspots (ie places where a laptop can get a connection) have gone to 802.11g

If you're lucky, your WiFi card will run both, but it has to be told to do so.

Please report the make/model of the WiFi adapter;

use this (run->devmgmt.msc) and click on Device Mgr
expand [+] Network Adapters
​

it should be self-evident which is the Wireless

Thanks for the info. I being a person who doesn't know much about these things didn't know that I should have asked about the type of card it was. I just assumed it would work. Anyways, I was given another card by a friend which was a 802.11g and it solved the problem. I don't know why I was given the other card as they must of know it would not work. Again thanks for the help. hackneylady

 

[DelJo63]

thanks for the feedback.