Internet Difficulties

[Fender]

Well, yesterday I went over to my friends house, and when his mom got home she was all "Hey Eric! Today the office got getting new laptops and I brought one of the old ones home for you" and I was all "Oh my, Mrs. DeLong I love you!!" and she is all "No problem Eric." Anyways I've been loading it up and upgrading it so now its like a brand new computer, and I just finished loading on Windows XP, and I think it has a Wireless Internet card in it, but I'm not sure how to make a connection to my house's wireless router.
Then when I unplug any of my computers' intenet cables and plug one into the laptop I still don't get any, I've tried using the Windows Help Guide, but it isnt very helpful, if anyone can help me, please do.

[Joey]

Help. Forum.

Also, I'm no computer expert, but I don't think you can just plug the internet into your laptop and make it work. And wireless routers are usually for laptops that can share internet access with a desktop computer, meaning the router is hooked up to your computer and modem while your laptop, with wireless card, has to be configured to use that internet signal. I think plugging a modem into your laptop works just about the same way. You need to configure your laptop to use the internet connection. And since we don't know your specs, or other specific computer info, I think you're better off calling your tech support, or GeekSquad (even though they're sometimes more expensive than needed).

This post has been edited by Joey on Feb 6 2006, 05:03 PM

[Mindstorm]

If your router has access control on it you might need to add your MAC address to it. The MAC address is usually on a sticker on the wireless card. Just make sure you aren't adding the serial code by accident

[Fender]

Alright, well I know what to do, all I need to do is configure the router to work with the laptop, which I don't know how to do, also can a mod or admin move this to the Help forum?

[Retriever II]

For the wired connection, make sure the device manager shows the internal network card's driver as installed and working correctly. Make sure your router is set to deliver DHCP. After plugging it in, if the connection isn't automatic, you can try going to start->run, typing "CMD", then typing "ipconfig /renew"

If it still doesn't work, something else is going on. As for wireless, it's a little trickier. But I'd start with wired first.

[BubbleMan]

If your laptop isn't detecting the wireless, it might be because the wireless card isnt activated. To activate it:
A) look for a wireless button on your laptop somewhere. It might have a picture of an antenna or something
B) Try pressing F2
C) Try pressing Fn