Fustrated Newbie Idiot Question

Hi gang, sorry in advance for my ineptitude but I'm at a point of smashing
my Desktop / Laptop / Gateway to bits.
OK, I have an actiontec 'Wireless Ready DSL Gateway' which I hooked up my
broadband relatively easily and it works a treat on my desktop with my DSL
connection. I also have a 'Wireless PC Card' which came with the gateway
and says "To turn your gateway into a wireless access point, please insert
this card into the top slot of the dsl gateway"

Now for my laptop I got an actiontec 'Wireless USB adapter'

I followed all the instructions to the letter which basically comprised of
inserting cd roms to the laptop (but never entering any ip's ??) And my
laptop can indeed see a wireless connection but I cant do anything with it
!! How the hell do I get the laptop to connect to the web using my DSL ?? It
just keeps bringing my dial up box up and when I disable dial up it just
says there are no internet connections ??
When I unplug the PC Card from the gateway my Laptop shows the wireless
connection going off as it should so how do I get it to work ?? And how can
the laptop use my DSL without asking me for any details i.e username,
password, IP addy ???
Thanks in advance

"Tubbs®" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4017d575$0$216$(E-Mail Removed)...

> Hi gang, sorry in advance for my ineptitude but I'm at a point of smashing
> my Desktop / Laptop / Gateway to bits.
> OK, I have an actiontec 'Wireless Ready DSL Gateway' which I hooked up my
> broadband relatively easily and it works a treat on my desktop with my DSL
> connection. I also have a 'Wireless PC Card' which came with the gateway
> and says "To turn your gateway into a wireless access point, please insert
> this card into the top slot of the dsl gateway"
>
> Now for my laptop I got an actiontec 'Wireless USB adapter'
>
> I followed all the instructions to the letter which basically comprised of
> inserting cd roms to the laptop (but never entering any ip's ??) And my
> laptop can indeed see a wireless connection but I cant do anything with it
> !! How the hell do I get the laptop to connect to the web using my DSL ??

Don't you need to enter your ip & subnet mask (eg if you have 8 ip's it's
255.255.255.248 for example) in your actiontec connection properties box - at
least that's
what I have to do with my setup to get it working.

Please don't smash the daisies...

It just sounds like the machine is trying to call up your default dialer
network settings. First go to settings / control panel / internet
options and click on the connections tab at the top. There's probably at
least one entry in the dialup dialogue box. It also probably has always
dial, or dial if no network is detected. Change that to never dial my
default connection. (Wording could be slightly different - depending on
your operating system. This could be true throughout.)

Then cruise down to the LAN settings tab on the bottom - middle right
and select it. Click and put a check mark on automatically detect
network settings and click ok. (That should be the only box that's got a
check mark on that screen.)

Then close all that and go back to your start menu, (Or go to my
computer on the desktop and double click on that.) and open up control
panel. Select Network connections. There should be an icon, or menu
item for your wireless network card. Right click on that icon and select
properties. On the first screen, on the bottom, it should have a little
box that says something like show connections when active and select
that to put a check mark in there. That way when you're connected, (Or
not.) you can easily see that activity. Close that box and go back to
control panel and find the system menu icon, or system menu item and
open it. Find the network identification tab, ( I think it's the top
second one.) and select the properties button. There you should find the
computer name and the workgroup settings. Make sure both computers are
on the same workgroup and make sure both are using the same capitol
letters, etc. Save by clicking on okay and close all boxes / programs
after that. Then reboot both computers and probably will be connected.
If not, give us more info, like OS, etc.

Tubbs® wrote:

>Hi gang, sorry in advance for my ineptitude but I'm at a point of smashing
>my Desktop / Laptop / Gateway to bits.
>OK, I have an actiontec 'Wireless Ready DSL Gateway' which I hooked up my
>broadband relatively easily and it works a treat on my desktop with my DSL
>connection. I also have a 'Wireless PC Card' which came with the gateway
>and says "To turn your gateway into a wireless access point, please insert
>this card into the top slot of the dsl gateway"
>
>Now for my laptop I got an actiontec 'Wireless USB adapter'
>
>I followed all the instructions to the letter which basically comprised of
>inserting cd roms to the laptop (but never entering any ip's ??) And my
>laptop can indeed see a wireless connection but I cant do anything with it
>!! How the hell do I get the laptop to connect to the web using my DSL ?? It
>just keeps bringing my dial up box up and when I disable dial up it just
>says there are no internet connections ??
>When I unplug the PC Card from the gateway my Laptop shows the wireless
>connection going off as it should so how do I get it to work ?? And how can
>the laptop use my DSL without asking me for any details i.e username,
>password, IP addy ???
>Thanks in advance
>
>
>
>