I am not super tech savy, but I know enough to know that the tech support guys from Dell were running me around in circles trying to figure out what was going on, so I am putting out the call for help from the SDMB.
Here is the situation. My wife has a newish Dell laptop running Windows 7 that this morning, for no reason anyone can figure out, decided it didn’t want to connect to the internet anymore. It connects wirelessly, and no we don’t have a spare cable at the moment to connect it with a wired connection, but we will get one if we need to. The thing that is freaking me out is that nothing seems to have triggered it. The computer was working fine for my wife for a couple of hours this morning, and then just stopped. She was browsing Amazon at the time.
Here is what is happening:
Prior to this morning it was connecting fine. The last update was done several days ago nothing new other than that was downloaded recently. When I click on the network icon at the bottom right of the screen it loops through the network connection process sometimes showing that I am connected, sometimes showing that I am connecting, sometime showing local access only, sometimes showing no connection.
I have rebooted the computer and the modem. Rebooting the modem got the internet to work for about 20 minutes the first time we did it. It only stayed connected for about 5 the second time. Our internet is by FiOS and no other device is having trouble connecting to the net. I have re-installed the drivers on the wireless card. I have removed any firewall software that is not part of Windows. I have disabled both the virtual WiFi miniports.
Windows network diagnostics tells me to investigate router or access point issues and their troubleshooting tells me that it has detected a “problem with wireless adapter or access point” and tells me to reboot the router.
I called Dell and they said that it sounded like the wireless card to them but the wanted me to run some diagnostics. After running the diagnostic tests (mostly reloading the drivers and reading them what the network connection messages say) they said it’s a software issue, but they can’t fix it unless they can network into my system which they can’t do because I don’t have internet.
At that point the guy suggested I go find a way to get wired internet and call back.
Can anyone here help me? I feel like if it’s not a hardware issue I should be able to fix it with some help. If it is a hardware issue I am still under warranty and maybe you can give me advice on how to convince Dell that it’s not a software problem.
Have you tried it on another wireless network? It will help determine if the laptop isn’t connecting, or the router/modem (sounds like it’s a combo modem and wireless router supplied by FiOS?) isn’t letting it connect.
From another PC, log into the modem/router when the laptop is connecting or connected and see if it shows up at all in the list of connected devices.
This. My WAG just based on the OP is that the laptop is connecting to the wireless network, but the access point or whatever the OP is using is probably only intermittently connecting to the internet. I’ve seen this a lot, where the DSL or whatever connection is in and out. You’ll see the icon that you are attached to the network (wireless) but you’ll get a yellow exclamation point, which in Windows 7 means that you are only locally connected, and windows doesn’t detect or can’t find the internet. Try another wireless device. If that gives the same result call the ISP vendor and tell them there is a problem.
No Dell handy, but sometimes it is on a function key, IIRC often on F4. You’d push that key in conjunction with the Fn key, down by Ctrl and such.
My other thought: maybe the ISP is down (sounds like a long outage though). Do other computers work on the same wireless? Or phones? Also, ethernet cables are cheap, cheap, so you should have one anyway as a backup.
And of course, do the Ultimate Internet Panacea: Unplug your router. Wait 10 seconds. Plug it back in.
Routers do go bad. We had one do that awhile back. Call the ISP, spend 5 hours on the phone with them, and then meet them from the hours of 9-6, and they will come right when you’re in the shower.
Can you try:
Go to Start, type command, click on Command Prompt.
Type ipconfig
Look for the line Default Gateway… and a bunch of numbers. Note them. They should be something like 192.168.1.1
Type ping (those numbers) -t e.g. ping 192.168.1.1 -t
If the connection to your router is fine, it’ll say Reply from 192.168.1.1 something. Take note of this. If you can’t access websites when it’s still saying this, the problem is between your router and the outside. If it says no reply or something similar, the problem is between your computer and the router.
Alternative: if your router has an “Internet” light, observe if it’s different when you can and cannot connect to the Internet.
I took a look at the ipconfig. I ran it on both my desktop (which is working just fine and also connects with WiFi) and the laptop which isn’t working so I would have a basis for comparison. When I run it on the desktop I get the default gateway information. When I run it on the laptop all I get under the LAN/wireless connection setting is:
Media State: media disconnected
Connection Specific DNS Suffix:
Description: The name of my wireless card
Physical Address: a string of numbers, let me know if they are important
DHCP Enabled: Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled: Yes
This means it *is *actually a hardware issue right?
Yes it’s a hardware issue, specifically your laptop is not connecting to the router. Personally I think it’s a security issue (MAC address).
I would type the ip address into your browser to access the router (like http://192.168.1.1, using a computer that can connect to it). To see if it’s security causing the problem, I’d disable all security (specifically WEP,WPA,WPA2 and MAC address control). Other dopers may say this is a security risk, maybe they have better ideas.
If it IS a MAC address problem, you have to add the “Physical Address” - yes here’s where they’re important - to the allowed addresses in the router. Or just disable MAC security, some people say it’s not a good form of security anyway.
Based on your latest post I’m going to guess your WiFi was inadvertently turned off. How the antenna is toggled will depend on your computer model, usually it’s a physical button or slider switch somewhere on the keyboard or on the side of the computer.
I’m puzzled by the fact that you could even look up your neighbors’ networks, however. Maybe you were looking at a cache of the last refresh before the WiFi on/off switch got switched… Did you try refreshing the list (should have failed)?
I have consistently been able to detect networks, which is why the dell people decided it wasn’t a hardware issue. They said if the wireless card was going I wouldn’t be able to do that so it had to be software. But the software guys wouldn’t even try working on it unless they could network into the laptop so I am on my own for now.
I am willing to give this a shot temporarily, but I am not 100% sure what I would be doing or if I could reverse the process if I needed to.
If you really want to be safe, log in, look for the MAC access list, if MAC access control is on, add your physical address to it. This won’t change anything important.