Tully Mars

Suddenly the wifi on my laptop has stopped receiving the internet. It gets a signal from my iphone and my netgear router but will not get the net via wifi. If I cable the iPhone to the laptop it works fine. I know this has to be some ipconfig or TCP/IP issue but I just can't remember where to start looking for a solution. Any ideas?

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Zweiblumen

It happened to me once that a switch on the side of the laptop that disables the WIFI got flipped without me noticing and I spent hours to figure out what was wrong.

Yours
ZB

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Sodomy non sapiens. : I'm buggered if I know

Tully Mars

Sadly my switch is on. I can get WiFi on my Iphone from the cable router in the house but the laptop will not connect sans cable. At first i just turned the Iphone "hotspot" on and it was working then suddenly it stopped and now the only connection I have is through he cable on the iPhone.

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I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

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Martian

I want to make sure I have everything straight:

Your laptop is unable to get internet via your wifi connection. Is it able to connect to the AP? In other words, are you connecting to wifi and then not able to browse, or is the wifi not connecting at all? Is it giving you an error?

The iPhone is able to connect. Are you using the wifi connection for it as well, or is this over a 3G cellular connection?

When you say 'cabling the phone to the laptop' do you mean with the white Apple USB cable? So you're able to tether?

What happens if you plug the laptop into the router directly via ethernet? Do you have an ethernet (cat 5 or 5e terminated with ends that look like an RJ11 phone jack, but wider) cable to test that?

What make/model is the laptop? Running Windows, I'm assuming, but what version? The router's a Netgear, but do you know what model it is?

There are a few different things that could be causing this. Step one is to narrow down the exact circumstances. Answer as many of these questions as you're able, and we'll go from there.

Fair warning: my Windows troubleshooting skills are a bit rusty, since I don't really work with it on a daily basis anymore. You may have to wait for LordEden or one of our other resident MS dudes to be more insightful.

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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Tully Mars

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Zweiblumen

From this description I guess the problem is actually the router, have you tried to turn it off wait 20 sec and turn it on again. It's not uncommon for access points (AP) to be rebooted once in a while.
In Win7 there is a network trouble shooter, it's not the greatest but it might help getting closer to solution.

Yours
Zweiblumen

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Sodomy non sapiens. : I'm buggered if I know

LordEden

If you can plug the laptop into the router and get internet, then that narrows it down to it being something wrong with your wireless signal. It could be something on the laptop end, but if your iphone won't connect to it, it points more to the router.

How old is the router? My linksys stopped taking new (or later all) connections to my wireless. Might be time to replace it after we run tests on it.

Does it actually connect to the router? Like it says in the corner of your screen that it is "connected to blahblahblah" wireless network?

You can try resetting the router or just powering it off for 30 seconds. That might fix it, but it would be better if you can get into the router settings.

Do you remember the username/password for your router? The default username/password is admin/admin, but you might have changed that when you setup the router.

You will need to plug your laptop up to your router and do this. I could describe how to do it or I could call you later and walk you through it. PM me later about it, I don't want to type out all the steps listed if it would be easier to talk on the phone.

*****

BTW, Thanks Martian for doing my level 1 support. It's guys like you that keep the IT world running.

/sarcasm
//pleasedon'tstophelpingmewithmyrandompcproblems
///don'ttasemebro

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Tully Mars

I've done all the steps LE mentioned to check the routerIt's not the router in my opinion. My iPhone can wifi hot spots and the laptop is not able to receive internet that way. The only way I'm able to get net is to tether with the Apple USB cable or with an Ethernet cable connected to the router.

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Zweiblumen

There is a remote chance that it's security in Win, if there is no security on the wireless it might not want to connect to it unless you specifically tell it to do so.
But it would help to narrow it down if you could tell us if you get a list of available wireless networks on your laptop.
Best of luck.
ZB

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Sodomy non sapiens. : I'm buggered if I know

Tully Mars

I really think my wifi card has been disabled somehow. When I do a ipconfig in CC I get a "media disconnected" on both wireless connections. I have the netgear router and my iPhone wifi hot spot available.

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I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

LordEden

Ok, open up control panel. Click on Network and Sharing Center. In that window, click on the "Tasks" list to the left of the screen. In the list you could see "Manage Network connections". Click on it. You should have two connections, a LAN and wireless connection. If the wireless is disabled, you should be able to right click on it and "enable" it.

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Tully Mars

KI can get into "network and sharing" But the only thing I see is-

I clicked on "map network" on the right side of the screen and get a message saying it could not map it because where is and incompatible routers on my system."

It's like the wifi card has been disabled and I can not enable it, maybe it's fried?

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

LordEden

Duh, I was looking at server 2008 instead of win7. My bad.

I'm pretty sure it's "change adapter settings". That should get you to the same screen I was talking about eariler.

Let me know if that works.

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Tully Mars

Nope, nope and nope.

It's like my wifi on my laptop will not receive anything but local access. Mi iPhone and my router can be hard cabled to it and i can see the wifi connections but the net only functions when tether via a cable. Either the USB Apple supplied or the Ethernet from the router.

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Tully Mars

Ok, made a copy of the wifi driver and loaded it unto a flash drive. Then went into the device manager and and "uninstalled" the the driver. Turned off the laptop, waited a few minutes and turned it back on. The minute it completed booting it said "new hardware" found would you like windows to locate the proper driver?" I tethered the iPhone to it and clicked "yes." Five minutes later it said "new driver installed" and the wifi was once again working.

Blah, I hate these things (you know when they don't work.) For looking at boobs and such there great.

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Zweiblumen

Great that you found a solution and thanks for sharing it with us.

ZB

__________________
Sodomy non sapiens. : I'm buggered if I know

Tully Mars

I really appreciate all the brain picking folks put up with here, especially you and Eden. I looked all over the net and lots of people had the same problem but no one seemed to have a solution. I took a nap a woke up thinking "re install the driver!". Sure am glad it worked.

Again thanks!

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I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

Lindy

I saw this and thought it would fit in with this thread about laptops and wireless...

Windows vs. Mac summed up in a McDonald’s flyer

ASU2003

That is great.

I do have some problems with wifi & Firefox on my Mac however.

I don't have any problems at the library or places where I know that they are paying for wireless and I am really close to the access point in the same house. Once it is connected it is fine, but trying to connect to a weak signal when there is a stronger one doesn't always happen the first time.