How change laptop from wired to wireless?

chris057

With the help of Talk Talk technician, I connected my new Acer Aspire 5738Z laptop to D-Link DSL-924, G54, G ADSL2/2+ Router - bought 2nd hand.

The laptop is ‘wired’ to the router with blue cable.

However, the adaptor (DWL-G122 ) & CD are missing from above kit.

As my laptop is ‘wireless enabled’ do I still need the above adaptor to make my laptop ‘wireless‘?

Can someone please help a non-techie with this basic info and how to change it from wired to wireless - so I can use my laptop all over the house.
Thanks in advance

custardy

well if your laptoip has wifi and your new router has wifi you are nearly there
what operating system does your laptop run?

FireFox

Donnie wrote: »

... click on this address: http://192.168.0.1 to get within the innards of your router....

If http://192.168.0.1 doesn't work try - http://192.168.1.1

And I believe the wireless button on the Acer is just below the big blue power button

Donnie

No, you don't need the adaptor and/or CD. Your laptop has a built in adaptor.

Make sure that the Laptop Wireless 'Radio' is switched on. As this stage there should be some indication as to whether there is a wireless network to which you can connect(yours or someone else's) If not, click on this address: http://192.168.1.1 to get within the innards of your router. Username and password are both admin (change the password when you have completed your tasks)

Just dealing with a troublesome mosquito...

Mosquito taking an extremely extended rest.

Quick Start

Manual

Edited to show correct address. I blame the mosquito.

-TangleFoot-

Has the wireless transceiver within the laptop been switched on? There should be a group of buttons immediately below the power switch relating to networking functions. It's hard to tell from the pictures I've found, but I think it's the one on the left.

chris057

Thank you for all your helpful replies - much appreciated.

The wireless button was/is 'on' because it keeps flashing every few seconds....

I clicked on the http address and ran the wizard - using admin for user name and p/word - and kept clicking next until I got to page with 2 boxes: 'none' was ticked and 'wep' was unticked - this is where I chickened out - just in case I did something stupid and lost my current internet connection.....because a couple of people have mentioned something about having to have a wep number....?

just to clarify - I am connected to internet via Dlink router by blue ethernet cable - but I would like to use it elsewhere in the house without my laptop being 'wired' to the router.

OS = Vista Home Premium - but just sent off for 'free' - £12.87 - windows 7 upgrade........

Any advice please? Thanks in advance.

closed

Setting up encryption won't affect your wired connection, and you should be using wpa not wep, wpa-psk is more secure.

Donnie

Is there an icon in the system tray that looks like two monitors diagonal to each other? Click once on that and choose 'Connect to a network'. Find yours and double click on it.

chris057

Thanks Donnie, I did what you recommended and found one with my username on it - so that must be mine - but it says 'unsecured network' - which doesn't sound good - so I didn't go any further - as I am quite paranoid about online security.... what should I do next? Thanks for taking the trouble to help me - much appreciated....

macman

You can't be that paranoid about online security if you are already running an open wireless network...
Log into the router's web interface as detailed above, go to the wireless security section and select WPA-PSK encryption if available. Then enter the same encryption key from your laptop to connect.
You can't 'break' your ethernet connection by doing anything with your wireless connection.

chris057

Thanks macman - but I am not a techie and this is way beyond my knowledge/expertise - can you (or someone else) please break it down into simple steps....do I click on the icon in bottom right hand tray? and then .... what's the next step...?