Acer Aspire One - Can't connect wirelessly. Can anyone help please?

jacx_2

Hi. I've just got an Acer Aspire One - XP - 1GB RAM, 160 GB HDD. My problem is that I can't connect it to the internet wirelessly although it works fine with an ethernet cable.

I also have a Toshiba laptop which works fine wirelessly. I'm with Sky and I have a Sagem router. Security is enabled (WPA).

When I go into network connections, it can see various network connections, including my own. I put in my network key, and it tries to connect but nothing happens. I get a box saying "Please wait whilie Windows connects to the Sky...network" and "Waiting for network to be ready". It looks like it's trying to connect but after a while the box just disappears - no error message or anything - and no connection.

I've been looking on the internet, various forums etc for a solution but had no joy yet - another problem being that when some people suggest possible solutions they use jargon which I'm not familiar with - I'm not very I.T minded! For instance I came across someone who had the same problem and solved it as follows -
"I finally figured the problem out. The MAC address function was enabled in the software. With MAC enabled your wireless devices that are trying to connect to the router, can't, unless you've specificed there address in the MAC list. I've already setup a WEP key, so I disabled the MAC function and my laptop was able to connect to the router."
I don't know if this would work for me as I don't know what a MAC function is let alone how to disable it and googling it hasn't really helped.
If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get connected - in the simplest terms possible (!) - I'd be very grateful.

Thanks in anticipation.

4743hudsonj

oh, haha this will be fun


right easy way first

look around your router, is there any sort of reset button on it

it may be recessed into the router itself

if so press it and hold for 20 seconds

NOTE: this will remove customised settings you have made as it returns the router to factory settings.


see if it connects then, if not message back.

good luck

posted_2

DON'T reset the router!!

If you do, your internet will stop working on all laptops. You will then have to reconfigure everything using a wired connection.



Is the password you are entering correct?
Is the encryption type wpa-psk/tkip?
Do you know how to get to the router config screen?

a mac address is a unique number allocated to all network cards, mac address filtering is a way of telling the router to only let card x, y or z to connect to your router. It is not on by default, so if you (or whoever setup the router) didn't configure it, you can discard that cause. But you can check for sure by going into the router config screen in your web browser.

4743hudsonj

theres nothing wrong with resetting the router, you said it yourself you just have to set the connection up again wired. much like you do when you get a new router, this seems the easiest option for the op is all, the rest involve hassle and tech terms that the op probably wont understand.

posted_2

It's unnecessary, and you are assuming the OP knows how to set it up from scratch and has all the login details to hand - they said they weren't IT minded.

Money_Grabber13579

NO, DON'T RESET THE ROUTER!!! I tried this once since my laptop decided to stop connecting but when it reset, it changed one of the settings (can't remember which now) but it meant that the wireless capability wouldn't ever set up until it was fixed. Spent an entire day trying to sort it!

espresso

4743hudsonj wrote: »

oh, haha this will be fun


right easy way first

look around your router, is there any sort of reset button on it

it may be recessed into the router itself

if so press it and hold for 20 seconds

NOTE: this will remove customised settings you have made as it returns the router to factory settings.


see if it connects then, if not message back.

good luck

Only an idiot would follow your advice!

:rolleyes:

johncolescarr

Re-setting your router is one of the most common troubleshooting techniques. Okay, this resets your router to the original factory setting but surely this will be the same as when you bought it (PS dont throw the box or instructions away when you get new stuff!!)

Even if you need to log in to your router to change anything, this is quite straight forward and the instruction manual will tell you how to do this.

Stop giving this guy a hard time for perfectly sound advise.

posted_2

Well, the op has vanished without trace, so maybe they are currently in pcworld or on the phone to sky after an unnecessary reset.

Router resets are a last resort, not common at all if you know what you are doing.

PlutoinCapricorn

I have an AA1, and the first thing that I did with it when I bought it was to take it out and see whether I could connect to an unsecured, free WiFi service. It worked fine! MacDonalds are one place where you could try this. That will give you some confidence.

I have not got a WiFi router at home, so am not sure how you connect to that.

4743hudsonj

johncolescarr wrote: »

Re-setting your router is one of the most common troubleshooting techniques. Okay, this resets your router to the original factory setting but surely this will be the same as when you bought it (PS dont throw the box or instructions away when you get new stuff!!)

Even if you need to log in to your router to change anything, this is quite straight forward and the instruction manual will tell you how to do this.

Stop giving this guy a hard time for perfectly sound advise.

thankyou

exactly my point

if the op has a connection in the first place, then someone must of set it up?

ok i should of mentioned that this is only advisable with the box and install disc but what other methods are there that arent even more complicated.

This is by far the quickest, easiest and most common, i could tell the op many other ways but all involve more complicated methods.