Wireless laptop won't connect

I'm trying to help a friend whose laptop has stopped connecting to his
wireless network. It used to work, and a second laptop at his house
connects fine. It connects fine using Ethernet.

I have the non-working one at my house at the moment. I've tried to get it
to connect to my (working) wireless network, also without success.

The laptop is an Advent 7109B running XP SP2; it uses a Ralink 802.11g Mini
Card wireless adaptor.

The system tray icon for the card shows "Raylink Wireless Lan Card
Disconnected". If I close the Ralink program and use the Windows wireless
connection utility, no wireless networks are found.

I've checked all that I can think of WRT settings. I booted a live Linux
distribution, and ran the wireless configuration utility in that. It
reported that no wireless device was available.

This led me to consider hardware failure. However, looking at the adaptor in
Device Manager shows "This device is working properly". Not conclusive I
realise!

Can anyone point me in the direction of something else to try please?

Chris

--
Remove prejudice to reply.

On 23/03/2007 in message <%UVMh.8368$(E-Mail Removed)> Chris
Whelan wrote:

>Can anyone point me in the direction of something else to try please?

Netstumbler is good for picking up WLANs - I use it to kick my connection
into life when it goes to sleep.

--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
There are 10 types of people in the world, those who do binary and those
who don't.

In message <%UVMh.8368$(E-Mail Removed)>, Chris Whelan
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes

>The laptop is an Advent 7109B running XP SP2; it uses a Ralink 802.11g Mini
>Card wireless adaptor.
>
>The system tray icon for the card shows "Raylink Wireless Lan Card
>Disconnected". If I close the Ralink program and use the Windows wireless
>connection utility, no wireless networks are found.

In Start > Control Panel > Admin Tools > Services

Start the Windows Wireless Zero service.

Then do Start > CP > Network Connections

find the wireless network and right click and select View Wireless
Networks. Select your network, enter key and you should be good to go.
--
Tony

Tony Wright wrote:

> In message <%UVMh.8368$(E-Mail Removed)>, Chris Whelan
> <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>
>>The laptop is an Advent 7109B running XP SP2; it uses a Ralink 802.11g
>>Mini Card wireless adaptor.
>>
>>The system tray icon for the card shows "Raylink Wireless Lan Card
>>Disconnected". If I close the Ralink program and use the Windows wireless
>>connection utility, no wireless networks are found.
>
> In Start > Control Panel > Admin Tools > Services
>
> Start the Windows Wireless Zero service.
>
> Then do Start > CP > Network Connections
>
> find the wireless network and right click and select View Wireless
> Networks. Select your network, enter key and you should be good to go.

Thanks, but the same result:

"No wireless networks were found in range."

Chris

--
Remove prejudice to reply.

Jeff Gaines wrote:

> On 23/03/2007 in message <%UVMh.8368$(E-Mail Removed)> Chris
> Whelan wrote:
>
>>Can anyone point me in the direction of something else to try please?
>
> Netstumbler is good for picking up WLANs - I use it to kick my connection
> into life when it goes to sleep.
>

Thanks, but shows "No APs" when sat on the desk next to my own laptop with a
54Mbps connection.

Chris

--
Remove prejudice to reply.

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:30:03 GMT, Chris Whelan
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'm trying to help a friend whose laptop has stopped connecting to his
>wireless network. It used to work, and a second laptop at his house
>connects fine. It connects fine using Ethernet.
>
>I have the non-working one at my house at the moment. I've tried to get it
>to connect to my (working) wireless network, also without success.
>
>The laptop is an Advent 7109B running XP SP2; it uses a Ralink 802.11g Mini
>Card wireless adaptor.
>
>The system tray icon for the card shows "Raylink Wireless Lan Card
>Disconnected". If I close the Ralink program and use the Windows wireless
>connection utility, no wireless networks are found.
>
>I've checked all that I can think of WRT settings. I booted a live Linux
>distribution, and ran the wireless configuration utility in that. It
>reported that no wireless device was available.
>
>This led me to consider hardware failure. However, looking at the adaptor in
>Device Manager shows "This device is working properly". Not conclusive I
>realise!
>
>Can anyone point me in the direction of something else to try please?
>
>Chris
Might be a stupid question but it happened to my daughter's laptop -
there isn't a switch to turn the wifi on and off is there? Hers is
right at the front right hand side and is easily switched!! Spent ages
trying to figure out why it had stopped working!!



cheers,
Len

Len Cuff wrote:

[...]

> Might be a stupid question but it happened to my daughter's laptop -
> there isn't a switch to turn the wifi on and off is there? Hers is
> right at the front right hand side and is easily switched!! Spent ages
> trying to figure out why it had stopped working!!
>
>
>
> cheers,
> Len

Not a stupid question at all; I got caught out by the very same thing on
this laptop before!

That wasn't the problem this time. I've got it working at the owner's house
OK now, but I'm not absolutely sure how :-(. I tried every setting I could,
took it back to him and it connected fine.

Only problem is, he was so impressed he has given me another laptop to look
at. This one has been used by two teenagers, it has no anti-spyware
software on it. It has anti-virus software on it but it's Norton. It hasn't
had the definitions updated since 2004!

It has a 2.8GHz Celeron in it, but it is running so slowly I didn't believe
it was actually working! Goodness only knows what is running on it.

Still, he gave me a couple of bottles of half-decent red wine as a thank
you!

Chris

--
Remove prejudice to reply.

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:53:24 GMT, Chris Whelan
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Len Cuff wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>> Might be a stupid question but it happened to my daughter's laptop -
>> there isn't a switch to turn the wifi on and off is there? Hers is
>> right at the front right hand side and is easily switched!! Spent ages
>> trying to figure out why it had stopped working!!
>>
>>
>>
>> cheers,
>> Len
>
>Not a stupid question at all; I got caught out by the very same thing on
>this laptop before!
>
>That wasn't the problem this time. I've got it working at the owner's house
>OK now, but I'm not absolutely sure how :-(. I tried every setting I could,
>took it back to him and it connected fine.
>
>Only problem is, he was so impressed he has given me another laptop to look
>at. This one has been used by two teenagers, it has no anti-spyware
>software on it. It has anti-virus software on it but it's Norton. It hasn't
>had the definitions updated since 2004!
>
>It has a 2.8GHz Celeron in it, but it is running so slowly I didn't believe
>it was actually working! Goodness only knows what is running on it.
>
>Still, he gave me a couple of bottles of half-decent red wine as a thank
>you!
>
>Chris
Had these 'handed' to me in the past! Right nightmare!! Good luck!

cheers,
Len