Laptop with built in wireless question

F

fmonte

Member
Currently I have a laptop that I can use wireless in my house by sticking a pc card in my laptop. It is made by Netgear and I have to start that application before use. I just got a new laptop and the wireless is built in. My question is how do I get this working? I'm guessing I have to load the Netgear software on the new laptop and once I do that I should be able to follow the same steps as I have always done. Thank you. Frank
 
Wo, lets back track for one second.
Are you trying to install the external Netgear adapter in the new laptop or are you trying to get the internal card working on the new laptop?
 
Ah, ok.

You don't need to worry about the netgear adapter or software then.
This new laptop you got, if it had an OS & software installed, then the drivers for the card should already been installed.

Depending on what OS your running, you should just be able to browse for available networks and just connect to yours.

What is the exact issue you're having?
Also, what brand & model laptop is it?

Thanks
 
It is a compaq presario C500 laptop. When I click on the internet explorer icon, the text message comes up that I can't display the page. It is the standard page you get when you are not hooked up to the internet..
 
If you go to:
-Start- Control Panel- Network & Internet Connections- Network Connections- Veiw Network Connections (on the right)...
On that page do you see a wireless icon? If so right click it (make sure it's enabled first) and there should be an option that says find a network or something along those lines.
Just click that and it should allow you to search for networks.

Hope that helps,
Bob
 
I haven't been able to follow your directions because I can't find what you are directing me to because this new laptop is Vista and I am not familiar where everything is located. Could you please try one more time to direct me the Vista way.

Also I thought it might be helpful if I reported to you what it looks like under "network adapters" in device manger:

Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN-Deterministic Network Enhancer Miniport
Cisco System VPN Adapter
!Cisco System VPN Adapter
Realtek RTL8139/810xFamily Fast Ethernet Nic
!Realtek RTL8139/810xFamily Fast Ethernet Nic-Deterministic Network Enhancer Miniport
!WAN Miniport (IP)-Deterministic Network Enhancer Miniport
!WAN Miniport (IPv6)-Deterministic Networ Enhancer Miniport

Thank you,
Frank
 
if its already built on the laptop, look for an icon right side system tray. one of them should show all the network connections within range. i have bluetooth. i can just drag with the mouse to the network im connected too. then it locks in.
 
Next step would be to go back to device manager and under the first option (Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN) right click it and select update driver. If that doesn't work you can uninstall it and then reinstall it. If you uninstalled it you should be prompted to have Windows find the driver after reboot.

Is this a busines laptop by chance?

Hope that helps
Bob
 
It is for my son, first year college. I can't try what you are asking me to do. I am away for the weekend but i will take your suggestion on Monday and report back. The one thing I am confused about is I can do what you are asking me to do but I don't have any disks that came with the computer and obviously I can' t get on the internet to do the update. Besides my driver issue, do I have to add this laptop to my network and if so is it okay that this laptop is Vista and my other laptop and desktop that are both on the existing network are XP?
 
Ha, good point. I totally forgot about that.
Can you hard wire the laptop with a CAT5e cable?
If not, you can download the drivers from another computer and transfer them with a flash drive.
There is no need to uninstall the other listings under network adapter, unless they are causing a problem, which I doubt.
Yeah, Vista should have no problem joining the network, granted I haven't ever done it, but you shouldn't have an issue.

Hope that helps
Bob
 
OK, just finished my driver download. It said it was successful but I still can't log on to the internet. Please let me know if you have any other ideas. Thank you. Frank
 
Hmm, many somebody else has some more ideas.

The only other things I can think of would be:
- Have you rebooted since the driver install?
- Is there an on/off switch for the wireless card on the laptop some where?

Sorry we were unable to get it working. It sounds like something fairly simple, so if you have someone that you know that's into computer you could ask them to take a quick look.

Hope ya get it working,
Bob
 
How about starting over. Forget about "wireless". If I only wanted to use a hard wire connection to get on the internet. What would I do. I have a hard wire to my desktop that gets me online but when I use that same wire to get the laptop online it won't work. What do I have to do to get "only" the hard wire connection working? Thanks again.
 
Howdy,
Sorry for the late reply.
Are you sure the wireless and wired connections are both enabled under "Network Connections" (or however it's called in Vista)?
When you plug the cable in are you getting an icon in the bottom right hand of your screen? Something that might look like two computer screens with an X over them?
 
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