Problems Connecting Laptop to Internet

booler

I have a PC with a wireless router that I also connect to with a laptop. I have been using it like this for more than a year and had no problems with it until last week when my cable broadband was down for a few days. Since then I can't access any websites from the laptop.

On the laptop the Windows 7 network and sharing centre recognises the wireless connection and reports that it is connected to it but it just does not work. It will not connect to the Internet.

Any ideas?

matttye

Try turning everything (modem, router, computer) off at the wall and then back on again.

Im_just_careful

Most likely to be an IP address problem.

On the laptop there is an option to "repair" the connection (or something similar - I'm using a desktop machine).

You can check this by

Start > Run > Type "CMD" in the box and return > Type ipconfig

you will then see a black box and some information.

You are looking for the Wireless adaptor.

The right sort of settings will be an IP address like 192.168.1.21 (last 2 groups of numbers can vary) and default gateway similar but the last number being typically 1 (so 192.168.1.1 in my example).

If that's not the case then the laptop network setup (which it should get from the router) is wrong. The IP address will then usually start 169.254 and you won't get to the Internet.

booler

Ipconfig reports that the wireless adaptor is "Media Disconnected".

booler

Incidentally I can connect wirelessly to the laptop from the PC on my home network. It just seems to be the Internet that is the problem.

matttye

Have you tried what I said in post #2?

I know networking, but that is always the first thing I try and it fixes most problems.

booler

Yes, I have tried this. The PC, laptop and Router have been turned off dozens of times in the last three days.

matttye

Can the PC connect to the internet wirelessly?

Can you connect to the internet if you use an ethernet cable?

What kind of router do you have?

booler

I seem to have got this going again. I had a problem when I got the Virgin Media superhub originally. I ended up connecting through an Ethernet cable to my PC and wirelessly from my laptop. It was fine with this for about the last year. Just now when I removed the Ethernet cable everything fell back into place.

booler

I just tried plugging the Ethernet cable back in and the laptop is still connected. Strange situation but removing the cable temporarily seems to have allowed the connection to be made.