Laptop / Connecting to Internet

Helen_from_yorkshire

My son has a Mesh laptop that hasn't been able to connect to the internet for some time (dial up), the message as far as we can remember is "the modem can't be found". My son has a friend who's had a look at it and said the modem is kapput!

Unsure what to do ... we have dial up at home / intending to get broadband soon. Son off to Uni in a few weeks, however he is reluctant to have an external modem as he understands they are quite fragile. Can he connect to the internet without buying another modem (the laptop has wireless on it but unsure what this does or how it works).

Would be glad of some help.

Thank you.

albertross_2

It sounds like the ideal time to move to broadband, with a wireless router..

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=2471408&postcount=37

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=2471410&postcount=38

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=121274


If he really wants to use dial-up, you can either get a pcmcia card, or an external modem (if you have a 9 pin serial port on the laptop).. but it's old hat nowadays.

Are you sure it's broken, it may be disabled in the bios, are you using the original phone lead that came with it?

Does the modem show up in start run devmgmt.msc

Wombat

Check with the university (maybe on their website). Some have wireless access on campus. The uni will be able to tell your son how to set up his PC in order to connect to it.

At home, he would either need another dial-up modem (internal card or external box), a wired (Ethernet cable) connection to another PC that is connected to the Internet, or a wireless router connected wirelessly to a modem which is connected to the Internet.

Helen_from_yorkshire

Many thanks for your advice - I've passed it on to my son. Although he doesn't particularly want to resort to a dial up connection, we were unsure what connection was avaialble in his Uni accommodation and poss needed to keep our options open.

Thanks

Wombat

Again, check with the university. If he's going into halls of residence they may even have an Ethernet network in the hall that he could plug into.

mclaren_2

has he tried to update the drivers or re install the drivers?