ethernet adapter?

macman

espresso wrote: »

How many more pages will this thread run to!

:rotfl:

Until the OP invests a tenner on a network card I fear.

prowla

My kids PCs use wireless dongles (a "dongle is a little plastic oblong on the end of a USB cable) for wireless access.
I deliberately use a variety of them (Belkin, Netgear, etc.) and they all attach happily to our Sky ADSL router box thingy.
Actually, the interoperability of wireless ethernet is great, as we use a variety of laptops and PCs/Apple Macs to connect.

If you want to go wired (ie. your PC is near to your router), then there are plenty of Ethernet PCI cards about, and they all have to work or they don't sell. 3-Com and Intel are common brands, but there are others too.
All models from the past decade use a standard UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cable, which has plugs similar to phone plug but a bit wider on each end.
The speeds are 10 Mbps (megabit per second), 100, or gigabit (1000). it's best to go for the fastest, but actually your internet connection may only give you 10 anyway.
In terms of what the speed means, 10 is good enough for email and web access, 100 will do music, and gigabit will do full-screen video.

The bottom line is that both wired and wireless capabilities are bread-and-butter these days, and it is virtually unheard of for a product to not work.

culpepper

I dont know if this is helpful to you but anyway...
I have had a few problems trying to repair the network connection on my comp a few times and I have found that going into cmd.exe...then typing ipconfig/release then waiting for the cursor to come back and typing ipconfig/renew has reset the ip address when repair would not do it.
We have just got wireless and I used an old adapter we had to connect my desktop(just to see if I could) and it will only work properly with the adapter program running ,you cant just connect with windows network icon as someone has already mentioned.

Nikiya

Thanks culpepper will try that. You did it from the PC you could not connect right? Now the news is that my problem PC now shows the wireless connection crossed out even when I turn it on or reboot it.
To all of you: I am extremely grateful for your patience and help. Please understand that what is obvious to you takes a lot of effort on my part. REgarding the card: It is not that I do not want to invest a tenner, but why would a hardware connection work when the wireless did not? And why should I change the network key when it is working for two laptops? I am also terrified of changing anything in case I end up disconnected....
Back in 1997, when you had to pay to have an email address (some of you might be too young to know or remember this) I cancelled my provider at the time to get a free email address as soon as they started to come up.... but alas, I could not connect to my IT provider anymore....
I tried everything under the sun and had an expert working for hours on end without results.... then I did a system restore and installed everything from scratch and things went back to normal. Obviously the software that had to be installed for my paid server left something behind (when uninstalled) that messed up my system. As you know my IT knowledge is more than limited but I can tell not everything is black and white nor crystal clear in this field....

macman

OP, you have been battling with the wireless connection for 3 weeks without solving it, but that is the nature of wireless-it is flakey and things do not always work consistently or logically. It could just be that the USB wireless adapter is faulty, the only way to check that would be to try another unit in it's place, or take it back to the shop and ask them to install it on their own system. You do not seem confident enough to try the things that have been suggested for fear of losing your laptop wireless connection. But you already have an ethernet connection and ethernet cable on your router, so even if you did lose your wireless connection, all you have to do is plug in the ethernet cable and you will have an immediate connection back.
You ask 'why would a hardware connection work when wireless would not?'. Well, why would it not? The two are entirely separate, the only problem you have is that you can't properly configure the USB adapter. If you don't believe me, plug in your ethernet cable to the laptop, switch off the wireless temporarily and you will still have a connection-I guarantee that.
Either you need to get someone in and pay them to configure your adapter, or do the logical thing and put in a network card. The instructions on how to fit this have been very clearly supplied in earlier posts and it will take you just a few minutes, but more advice can be given if required. I would also guarantee that within 30 mins of getting home with that card you will have a connection on your PC. You simply don't need wireless for this link, it just creates added complications.

culpepper

is your firewall allowing the connection Nikiya?
If the other machines are connecting then maybe it is not the connection but firewall software not allowing it to connect.
if it is a new wireless router, the ip address will most likely be different to the ethernet connection it previously had on .
Ours was ,the ipconfig will show the gateway address and the computers own address etc. Might just be worth having a look anyway. your firewall needs to allow the gateway address (use internet protocol if it has different choices like internet,trusted)as that will be the route it uses to get the web to your computer.

Nikiya

It says exactly that, only "home edition" instead of "professional"....

Nikiya

I thought I had said what my OS was, as for the network key, well that is what was used to connect this laptop and it worked.

Nikiya

Is service pack 2 something that came with the system or something you had to download later? I remember downloading an update that was probably called pack 2 which created havoc with my system and then uninstalling it. Never downloaded anything else.

macman

Nikiya wrote: »

Is service pack 2 something that came with the system or something you had to download later? I remember downloading an update that was probably called pack 2 which created havoc with my system and then uninstalling it. Never downloaded anything else.

It is an series of updates that you need to make Windows XP run properly. It was released some years back so it will depend on the age of your PC as to whether it came with it installed. If you have Windows Updates switched off then your whole system will be insecure and error prone.-you need to install all the critical updates it gives you. Without SP2 you probably cannot connect wirelessly as it is not suppported, however you have told us you have SP2 (though for some reason not SP3, which is the current verrsion).