Wireless/Vista/Netgear DG845G

Jonah1156

Sorry if there's an answer lurking around the forums but am at the end of my tether at the moment!

I just bought an Ei Systems 1201 laptop and according to the sales blurb it has a wireless connection built in. I am trying to hook up the laptop to my partner's wired broadband but am not having much luck.

Obviously the laptop has Vista whilst the main PC is XP. I cannot work out where I am going wrong and have evn followed the forum's sticky guide regarding the initial set up using Netgear's wizard. After the bit where it says 'apply', I cannot get the wireless to work

Press apply.

The router will update.

I then went to my laptop (with the ethernet lead attached) and then tried to find out how on earth I would be able to set it up for wireless. I spent over an hour to no avail.

It brings me to ask whether my other half's pc needs to be wireless as well or not?

I have managed to set up my partner's mother's laptop without any problems as well as her sister's when she came to visit her mother recently but with my own it's a no-go! :doh:

Any help/tips/advice/pointers would be gratefully appreciated. It would only need someone locally to show me show to do this without having the need to go to a PC shop. I can supply the location if someone is willing to show me this.

Many thanks

Jonah

john_s_2

A couple of possible causes:

Does the router show up when you search for available networks? If not then I'll wager the wireless isn't switched on. My Netgear allows me to turn this off. If the router hasn't been used for wireless before then it would be quite sensible to have this turned off.

Assuming it's turned on (and it's showing in available networks) then the router should be using some sort of security to stop anyone hooking their wireless computer to it. Were you prompted to enter a password at any point? If so you need to find out this password from the owner of the router. If they cannot remember it then it can be changed from the router's admin pages (use WPA or WPA2 if available - not WEP) In fact, I think the password might be visible once you're logged into the Router's admin page. It is on mine.

Assuming this is all good then lastly it might be that the router is using "MAC filtering". Each computer has its own MAC address (whatever that stands for) and this can be used by the router to offer another small hurdle for anyone determined to use it without permission. If so then the MAC address of your laptop needs to be added to the router's allowed list. The easiest way I've found of doing this is to attempt to connect, then check the router's settings where it will show a list of MAC addresses that are within range and not allowed. You can simply press an ADD button from there (although if it still doesn't work delete it from the allowed list just in case you've allowed the neighbour in! You need to press APPLY after adding the MAC address. I remembered this the other night when I was trying to add a (Vista) laptop to mine!

Hopefully this might help. I've assumed you know how to log in to the router's admin pages, and where to go from there. If not then a quick Google for the Router model (preferably on the Netgear site) should help.

gaming_guy

john_s wrote: »

Hopefully this might help. I've assumed you know how to log in to the router's admin pages, and where to go from there. If not then a quick Google for the Router model (preferably on the Netgear site) should help.

its either https://www.routerlogin.com or 192.168.0.1 and the default username is admin and the password is password

Jonah1156

It brings me to ask whether my other half's pc needs to be wireless as well or not?

Is this a fact that the host PC(s) need to be enabled to be used as a wireless host in the first place so that I can then tap in to that?

Its no problem accessing the Netgear setup method but its just the wireless bit i am stuck with.

However, I am going to see my OH's mother today and see if i can get my own laptop be enabled to be wireless. Will keep you all informed of how I get on.

Thxs

espresso

Jonah1156 wrote: »

Sorry if there's an answer lurking around the forums but am at the end of my tether at the moment!

I just bought an Ei Systems 1201 laptop and according to the sales blurb it has a wireless connection built in. I am trying to hook up the laptop to my partner's wired broadband but am not having much luck.

Obviously the laptop has Vista whilst the main PC is XP. I cannot work out where I am going wrong and have evn followed the forum's sticky guide regarding the initial set up using Netgear's wizard. After the bit where it says 'apply', I cannot get the wireless to work


I then went to my laptop (with the ethernet lead attached) and then tried to find out how on earth I would be able to set it up for wireless. I spent over an hour to no avail.

It brings me to ask whether my other half's pc needs to be wireless as well or not?

No

I have managed to set up my partner's mother's laptop without any problems as well as her sister's when she came to visit her mother recently but with my own it's a no-go! :doh:

You have not answered any questions that you have been asked and therefore I can't decide from your posts if you actually know what you are doing or not but if you have successfully connected other non Vista PC's to a wireless router, this may be what you need to do here

Any help/tips/advice/pointers would be gratefully appreciated. It would only need someone locally to show me show to do this without having the need to go to a PC shop. I can supply the location if someone is willing to show me this.

Many thanks

Jonah

....................

Jonah1156

Thanks do far for your responses.

I went to my local Currys even though i bought it from Dixons (DSG blah blah) and have now found out why I could not detect any wireless activity. I was not aware that one had to press the FUNC and F10 to activate this facility!!!!

The shop had it connected up to their own ISP and it was working great so its just a case of hooking it up to others now and hopefully away I'll go for happy surfing!

Thanks once again to all thise who replies to my query.

Jonah

Jonah1156

Latest update:

I have now managed to connect to my OH's pc and thus in turn have made her PC wireless. Now for some serious surfing indeed.

Once again thanks to you all out there who have helped me in this.

Jonah