Cant connect new laptop to wireless internet

daleigha

Hello kind techie people!!

I was wondering if you could help me with a problem. I have a netgear wireless router, only about a year old, and it works fine with my laptop. my OH was given a laptop by his mum, when she got a new one, and last night i tried to connect it to the wireless router, but it isnt connecting. OH's parents have the same router as me, and as its an older laptop it has one of those cards in the side to connect to the internet, and was working fine in their house. i brought up a list of all available networks, and mine was there, so i clicked on connect and it asked for the password - i entered it, but it wouldnt connect - it just kept saying 'acquiring network address'. does anyone have any idea what i should do to get it to connect to the internet?

also, i am getting rid of BT when my contract is up in November, and i am going to get one of those 'dongle' thingies - is there any way that one dongle can be used at the same time for both laptops, and what do you think is the best deal? i dont download anything, i surf the web for probably a couple of hours a day, and i also live near the Belfast City Airport in NI, which is one of the hotspots apparently, so im really looking for the cheapest deal with a reasonably fast connection!!

thank you!!!

xxx

daleigha

shameless bump!!

A:I

You say yo uhave anetgear router, if you bought that seperately your shoudl be abel to use that with any ISP. Do you have mac address filtering on your router? If so, that may stop your lappy from connecting. IF not i have no idea. Maybe a wrong password?

Simon_Pugsley

The dongle will go into your USB in your laptop, therefore im pretty sure that you can only use 1 at a time. Also just be careful the dongles can work out to be pretty expensive..

As for the internet, are you sure that you have entered your password in correctly, have you tried turning the router off and then back on again.

Let me know

daleigha

thanks for your replies guys!!

its definitely the right password - i have tried repairing it as the small computer icon in the right hand lower corner is showing it searching for the connection - when i had a look in the connection status it is saying that the IP address is invalid, but when i repair this it doesnt work!!

A:I - im not quite sure what MAC address filtering is, or where i would go on the laptop to find out if its enabled or disabled - sorry, im not the most literate at these sorts of things lol!!

A:I

daleigha wrote: »

thanks for your replies guys!!

its definitely the right password - i have tried repairing it as the small computer icon in the right hand lower corner is showing it searching for the connection - when i had a look in the connection status it is saying that the IP address is invalid, but when i repair this it doesnt work!!

A:I - im not quite sure what MAC address filtering is, or where i would go on the laptop to find out if its enabled or disabled - sorry, im not the most literate at these sorts of things lol!!

Umm, it should be around in your router configuration. But its all turn off by defualt, so that isnt it.
Try goign to 192.168.1.1 in your internet browser on the working pc. Then turn off all WEP & WPA encryption temperarily. Then try connecting, if that still doesnt work turn your encryption back on.

old_codger1

daleigha wrote: »

thanks for your replies guys!!

its definitely the right password - i have tried repairing it as the small computer icon in the right hand lower corner is showing it searching for the connection - when i had a look in the connection status it is saying that the IP address is invalid, but when i repair this it doesnt work!!

A:I - im not quite sure what MAC address filtering is, or where i would go on the laptop to find out if its enabled or disabled - sorry, im not the most literate at these sorts of things lol!!

Every network card has what's called a mac number which is given to that specific network card. What happens is that the router gets a request from your network card, (be it an ethernet one, a dongle or a pcmcia one), and then assigns it an IP address, (something like 192.168.1.10).

If, at some point, you've set your router to only allow connections from certain network cards as defined by their mac address, (sometimes called 'registering'), then it won't allow another card to connect.

However, it's more likely that...

a), you typed the password in incorrectly, or,
b) you're using the wrong encryption, i.e. WEP or WPA with a 64, 128 or 256 bit key.

Connect to your router using the appropriate IP address, (it's often 192.168.1.1 but can be 192.168.2.1, 192.168.1.254 or whatever, check your router documentation to be sure), and see what your settings are.

Oh! BTW, when asking for advice it's usually a good idea to tell us what hardware you've got, the router in this case

flatmouse

You may want to check whether your netgear is set to "10.g" or "10.g and 10.b", and what is supported by wireless network card on the laptop.
To check netgear look in settings (as mentioned above). To check network card, look at it's properties.

daleigha

thanks all!! im at work at the minute, so will try out the suggestions when i get home!!

when i was setting up my router i had some problems and my work computer support company sorted it out, as i was going to be using my laptop for work things - im not sure if they did something to it which has maybe prevented the new laptop from connecting, but i will definitely give it a go!!

if it is that im putting in the wrong password, is there a way that i can change it? i had written it down, and checked the number of digits on my laptop, and they both correspond, but just to rule that out maybe i should change it so i am 100% i am inputting the correct password into the second laptop!! im too scared to re-input it into my laptop as if it is the wrong password, i wont have clue what the correct password is and will be completly internetless!!

thanks again!!

xx

flatmouse

You want to be connected with cable as opposed to wirelessly when changing password - can you connect 2nd laptop to router with cable, go into router config, change pwd for wireless, test on existing laptop then unplug 2nd laptop and try wirelessly.

old_codger1

It really would be a lot easier if you could tell us what make and model of router you've got.