Router/Wireless problem?

I've just formatted and reinstalled XP HE SP3 on an Acer laptop, and Vista
Basic SP1 on a Packard Bell machine, for two friends. Neither laptop could
detect my wireless network, despite being only a couple of feet from my
router, a 3Com (US Robotics) OfficeConnect ADSL Firewall Router. And yet, on
returning the laptops to their owners, both detected networks in range and
connected quickly and easily to their respective ones.

I've checked my router's settings, and none have changed. It's still
working okay, connecting one PC and two laptops in the house on an existing
network, without a hitch.

Is there a setting I can check? I did check firewall settings, SSID, and
both wireless switches on the laptops were on...

Thanks for any advice.

Sam

In article <49ad2dbd$0$2521$(E-Mail Removed)>, Sam says...
>
> I've just formatted and reinstalled XP HE SP3 on an Acer laptop, and Vista
> Basic SP1 on a Packard Bell machine, for two friends. Neither laptop could
> detect my wireless network, despite being only a couple of feet from my
> router, a 3Com (US Robotics) OfficeConnect ADSL Firewall Router. And yet, on
> returning the laptops to their owners, both detected networks in range and
> connected quickly and easily to their respective ones.
>
> I've checked my router's settings, and none have changed. It's still
> working okay, connecting one PC and two laptops in the house on an existing
> network, without a hitch.
>
> Is there a setting I can check? I did check firewall settings, SSID, and
> both wireless switches on the laptops were on...
>
If your routers wifi is on channel 12 or 13, you need to make sure that
the drivers for the wifi devices have their region set to UK as some
default to US and in the USA, they only go up to channel 11. You can do
that in Device Manager, network devices, right clicking on the wifi
card, selecting Properties, clicking on the Advanced tab then scrolling
down the list to the appropriate entry.



--
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
looking good either. - Scott Adams

On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 13:16:04 -0000
"Sam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
> I've just formatted and reinstalled XP HE SP3 on an Acer laptop, and
> Vista Basic SP1 on a Packard Bell machine, for two friends. Neither
> laptop could detect my wireless network, despite being only a couple
> of feet from my router, a 3Com (US Robotics) OfficeConnect ADSL
> Firewall Router. And yet, on returning the laptops to their owners,
> both detected networks in range and connected quickly and easily to
> their respective ones.
>
> I've checked my router's settings, and none have changed. It's still
> working okay, connecting one PC and two laptops in the house on an
> existing network, without a hitch.
>
> Is there a setting I can check? I did check firewall settings, SSID,
> and both wireless switches on the laptops were on...
>
Have you disabled SSID broadcast on your router? It's a good thing to
do WRT security, but one more configuration setting needed on the client
machines.

"Conor" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In article <49ad2dbd$0$2521$(E-Mail Removed)>, Sam says...
>>
>> I've just formatted and reinstalled XP HE SP3 on an Acer laptop, and
>> Vista
>> Basic SP1 on a Packard Bell machine, for two friends. Neither laptop
>> could
>> detect my wireless network, despite being only a couple of feet from my
>> router, a 3Com (US Robotics) OfficeConnect ADSL Firewall Router. And yet,
>> on
>> returning the laptops to their owners, both detected networks in range
>> and
>> connected quickly and easily to their respective ones.
>>
>> I've checked my router's settings, and none have changed. It's still
>> working okay, connecting one PC and two laptops in the house on an
>> existing
>> network, without a hitch.
>>
>> Is there a setting I can check? I did check firewall settings, SSID, and
>> both wireless switches on the laptops were on...
>>
> If your routers wifi is on channel 12 or 13, you need to make sure that
> the drivers for the wifi devices have their region set to UK as some
> default to US and in the USA, they only go up to channel 11. You can do
> that in Device Manager, network devices, right clicking on the wifi
> card, selecting Properties, clicking on the Advanced tab then scrolling
> down the list to the appropriate entry.
>
>
>
> --
> Conor
>
> I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
> looking good either. - Scott Adams


HI Conor, My router is on channel 12 - I did as you said above, and in the
list under the advanced tab, I couldn't see anything which suggested it was
a driver version... what exactly am I looking for, please? Funny thing is,
no sooner had I said that the existing network works okay, than on one of
the networked laptops, the wireless connection had disappeared completely,
not even showing up in 'network connections', until I rebooted.

Wish I knew what was going on :-)

Thanks,
Sam

"Rob Morley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:20090303133419.48b4d003@bluemoon...
> On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 13:16:04 -0000
> "Sam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>
>> I've just formatted and reinstalled XP HE SP3 on an Acer laptop, and
>> Vista Basic SP1 on a Packard Bell machine, for two friends. Neither
>> laptop could detect my wireless network, despite being only a couple
>> of feet from my router, a 3Com (US Robotics) OfficeConnect ADSL
>> Firewall Router. And yet, on returning the laptops to their owners,
>> both detected networks in range and connected quickly and easily to
>> their respective ones.
>>
>> I've checked my router's settings, and none have changed. It's still
>> working okay, connecting one PC and two laptops in the house on an
>> existing network, without a hitch.
>>
>> Is there a setting I can check? I did check firewall settings, SSID,
>> and both wireless switches on the laptops were on...
>>
> Have you disabled SSID broadcast on your router? It's a good thing to
> do WRT security, but one more configuration setting needed on the client
> machines.
>

No Rob, I hadn't disabled the SSID, I double checked to make sure it was
enabled.

In article <49ad6c8c$0$16171$(E-Mail Removed)>, Sam says...


> HI Conor, My router is on channel 12 - I did as you said above, and in the
> list under the advanced tab, I couldn't see anything which suggested it was
> a driver version... what exactly am I looking for, please?

You're looking for the entries under Advanced and one of them should
say "Region" or similar. Depends on what the drivers include.




--
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
looking good either. - Scott Adams

"Clive" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:gok0l5$u9h$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Sam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:49ad2dbd$0$2521$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> I've just formatted and reinstalled XP HE SP3 on an Acer laptop, and
>> Vista Basic SP1 on a Packard Bell machine, for two friends. Neither
>> laptop could detect my wireless network, despite being only a couple of
>> feet from my router, a 3Com (US Robotics) OfficeConnect ADSL Firewall
>> Router. And yet, on returning the laptops to their owners, both detected
>> networks in range and connected quickly and easily to their respective
>> ones.
>>
>> I've checked my router's settings, and none have changed. It's still
>> working okay, connecting one PC and two laptops in the house on an
>> existing network, without a hitch.
>>
>> Is there a setting I can check? I did check firewall settings, SSID, and
>> both wireless switches on the laptops were on...
>>
>> Thanks for any advice.
>>
>> Sam
>>
> Your router is faulty.
>
>

I think you might be right!

"Conor" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In article <49ad6c8c$0$16171$(E-Mail Removed)>, Sam says...
>
>
>> HI Conor, My router is on channel 12 - I did as you said above, and in
>> the
>> list under the advanced tab, I couldn't see anything which suggested it
>> was
>> a driver version... what exactly am I looking for, please?
>
> You're looking for the entries under Advanced and one of them should
> say "Region" or similar. Depends on what the drivers include.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Conor
>
> I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
> looking good either. - Scott Adams

Didn't see that listed, Conor. The router must be knackered, yet another
laptop couldn't see my network, but easily found three others at a friends
house.

Thanks for your help, anyway.

Sam

"LR" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 03/03/2009 22:28, Conor wrote:
>> In article<49ad6c8c$0$16171$(E-Mail Removed)>, Sam says...
>>
>>
>>> HI Conor, My router is on channel 12 - I did as you said above, and in
>>> the
>>> list under the advanced tab, I couldn't see anything which suggested it
>>> was
>>> a driver version... what exactly am I looking for, please?
>>
>> You're looking for the entries under Advanced and one of them should
>> say "Region" or similar. Depends on what the drivers include.
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Depends on the make of laptop as well. One of my neighbours has a company
> "Toshiba" laptop and the wireless card is a "World-card" and not of the
> "ets" variety.
> http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/FAQ35002P0001R01.htm

Thanks for that info.

Sam

After serious thinking Sam wrote :
> "Clive" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:gok0l5$u9h$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> "Sam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:49ad2dbd$0$2521$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>
>>> I've just formatted and reinstalled XP HE SP3 on an Acer laptop, and Vista
>>> Basic SP1 on a Packard Bell machine, for two friends. Neither laptop
>>> could detect my wireless network, despite being only a couple of feet from
>>> my router, a 3Com (US Robotics) OfficeConnect ADSL Firewall Router. And
>>> yet, on returning the laptops to their owners, both detected networks in
>>> range and connected quickly and easily to their respective ones.
>>>
>>> I've checked my router's settings, and none have changed. It's still
>>> working okay, connecting one PC and two laptops in the house on an
>>> existing network, without a hitch.
>>>
>>> Is there a setting I can check? I did check firewall settings, SSID, and
>>> both wireless switches on the laptops were on...
>>>
>>> Thanks for any advice.
>>>
>>> Sam
>>>
>> Your router is faulty.
>>
>>
>
> I think you might be right!

I cannot see anywhere where you say you have turned the wifi on or
enabled it in the router.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk