[RoxShox]

Hello!

Am in a bit of a pickle at the moment with my laptop and was hoping that you may be able to help me out. Currently i have a laptop which is only a year old and has no problems to date, recently i moved into a new place and began to use a wireless internet connection with an external wireless adapter that i plug into my laptop, recently it all went wrong but in a very bizarre manner. My laptop shows that i am connected to the internet, ie the rate signal strength etc, however, when i go to use anything connected to the internet it reacts as if there is no connection whatsoever. In the meantime i have reformatted my laptop and i am fairly sure there is no virus or spyware.

Do you have any advice on this issue at all?

Kind Regards
Tom.

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Since you are running XP and it appears that it was working correctly for you previously (I presume), then you may want to try the XP-SP2 wireless repair functionality:

If you are not running SP2, then by all means upgrade to it promptly (via direct Ethernet connection if needed or by DVD, etc.) for other features, security enhancements, and a potential fix to your problem:

New Win-XP Wireless Repair functionality: The Wireless Repair capability has been enhanced and modified in Windows XP SP2 for 802.11-based wireless local area networks and your wireless connections. You can access the Wireless Repair capability through the Repair context menu option of a connection or from the Repair button on the Support tab of the Status dialog box of a given connection. When you repair a wireless connection, it is first disabled and then re-enabled, which clears many common error conditions on wireless network adapters.

Also try moving physically to another location/room (maybe some new interference effects from a new "nasty" network neighbor ) and test your location from there.

Try changing channels; this sometimes avoids new local interference or local noise-related problems, which sometimes corrects a problem by switching to another channel/frequency.

Be sure the cable modem or DSL cable(s) is(are) working correctly and that all cables are still intact and that your hamster has not chewed through that cable. Or something odd happened like your wife or girlfriend disconnecting it to clean around that dusty table space and forgetting to connect it back; these type things actually happen and we often try "every" fix in the book, but we forget to check the obvious ones sometimes, like plugging it in )

Try a manual Ethernet connection to your router to be sure it is routing via normal means if it has any switched ports. An electrical surge or something may have damaged some ports or channels that are causing problems elsewhere, so check it out too (divide and conquer is good to win wars, but is also a good strategy for diagnostics to track down a problem more systematically... ).

Try going directly and manually to your DSL or cable-modem Ethernet connection (rebooting all after you do it).

If you have an old or spare PCMCIA adapter, then try it too and in different slots. Or borrow one temporarily from your girlfriend to test with a different adapter. This would test your router access point, etc.

There is a nice new USB stick wireless device that has a new digital display and it shows the access hot spots in your area (apartments, hotels, airports, etc.) and serves as a wireless 802.11abg connection too. That is to say that you can scan the area and perimeter for hot spots without cranking up your laptop, etc., and would server as a diagnostic also...

Good Luck!

Edited by cyberCrank, 10 September 2005 - 08:55 AM.

[cyberCrank]

Since you are running XP and it appears that it was working correctly for you previously (I presume), then you may want to try the XP-SP2 wireless repair functionality:

If you are not running SP2, then by all means upgrade to it promptly (via direct Ethernet connection if needed or by DVD, etc.) for other features, security enhancements, and a potential fix to your problem:

New Win-XP Wireless Repair functionality: The Wireless Repair capability has been enhanced and modified in Windows XP SP2 for 802.11-based wireless local area networks and your wireless connections. You can access the Wireless Repair capability through the Repair context menu option of a connection or from the Repair button on the Support tab of the Status dialog box of a given connection. When you repair a wireless connection, it is first disabled and then re-enabled, which clears many common error conditions on wireless network adapters.

Also try moving physically to another location/room (maybe some new interference effects from a new "nasty" network neighbor ) and test your location from there.

Try changing channels; this sometimes avoids new local interference or local noise-related problems, which sometimes corrects a problem by switching to another channel/frequency.

Be sure the cable modem or DSL cable(s) is(are) working correctly and that all cables are still intact and that your hamster has not chewed through that cable. Or something odd happened like your wife or girlfriend disconnecting it to clean around that dusty table space and forgetting to connect it back; these type things actually happen and we often try "every" fix in the book, but we forget to check the obvious ones sometimes, like plugging it in )

Try a manual Ethernet connection to your router to be sure it is routing via normal means if it has any switched ports. An electrical surge or something may have damaged some ports or channels that are causing problems elsewhere, so check it out too (divide and conquer is good to win wars, but is also a good strategy for diagnostics to track down a problem more systematically... ).

Try going directly and manually to your DSL or cable-modem Ethernet connection (rebooting all after you do it).

If you have an old or spare PCMCIA adapter, then try it too and in different slots. Or borrow one temporarily from your girlfriend to test with a different adapter. This would test your router access point, etc.

There is a nice new USB stick wireless device that has a new digital display and it shows the access hot spots in your area (apartments, hotels, airports, etc.) and serves as a wireless 802.11abg connection too. That is to say that you can scan the area and perimeter for hot spots without cranking up your laptop, etc., and would server as a diagnostic also...

Good Luck!

Edited by cyberCrank, 10 September 2005 - 08:55 AM.

[RoxShox]

Ah thanks very much for the advice, it is all fixed now.

A slightly smaller problem which is fairly insignificant in comparison, is that msn messenger manages to crash everytime i try to sign in, do you have any suggestions as to why this might be? It is the new 7.5 version.