Hi all. I have very little experience with wireless / wi-fi internet connection. My friend just bought a Dell Laptop which came with wi-fi bluetooth software. He can't seem to connect to his wireless router at his home. I suggested a few obviouse things, such as re-booting or re-setting his router. He just can't seem to connect to the internet and I am not sure why. My current machine is hard wired and I don't own a laptop, so I am not exactly sure what to do or suggest to him. What are we doing wrong???

Cheers

Hello Ricardo

Does he know his SSID and Security Key? If not, I did a Tutorial in wireless connection and router setup here viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2470

If he does know them, does he receive an error message?

If not, is he running a third-party firewall, which is unnecessary if the router has a built-in firewall.

Is he running Norton?

Hey Ricardo. Two other quicky things to look at.
1) Does his wireless adapter show up and is reporting OK in Device Manager.
2) Some laptops (not sure about this one) have on/off buttons or switches for the wireless.

Thanks guys for your help and advice. It was like Bonzo said, there was this little button, on the side of his Laptop, which was turned OFF. That was the problem. I didn't notice it at first, after going thru all sorts of sheit. I found the button, turned it on and then his laptop connected. So much for my experience with wireless, which is a pain in the butt. I will NEVER ever own one.

Cheers

Wireless can be a pain but I couldn't do my job without it. With my laptop and wireless connection I can do my job anywhere. Most of my work involves remote access to customer's networks. I triple boot Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, and Fedora 11 Linux. Between those three, one of them will always connect, although not always the same one. There's a lot of flaky routers and access points out there.

I learned that one the hard way as well. Harder, actually. I had to have my son show me.

Funny you say that Bonzo. I bought my daughter, her very first computer and taught her how to use it. Now, my Micky is showing me things, that I overlook or don't think about. I love learning things about computers and it doesn't bother me where the lessons come from, as long as I learn.

Cheers