# Trouble connecting to our WiFi network with Vista laptop

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 29, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630 "2011-05-29T02:29:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630/1 "2011-05-29T02:29:26Z")

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My girlfriend’s HP laptop (with Windows Vista Home Premium 6.0) won’t connect to our home WiFi network after entering the ID and password…pretty much all it says is “Windows could not connect”, “You can try to connect again”, and suggests restarting the “router or access point” (which does not help).

She can connect to WiFi in coffee shops etc; and at home there are no problems connecting with my Macs, her iPhone, or my Kindle.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

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**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630/2 "2011-05-29T03:04:55Z")

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To add/clarify, her computer “sees” the network, but will not connect after entering the password.

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**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630/3 "2011-05-29T03:39:14Z")

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First thing I’d try is disabling security on the network, including passwords and MAC access control. The router may not store your password so you’ll have to re-enter it when restoring security.

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630/4 "2011-05-29T08:38:56Z")

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In “Network & Sharing Center”, click on “Manage Wireless Networks” and delete the profile for the network you are trying to connect to. Then click on “Connect to a network” and make a new profile for the desired network. Sometimes profiles get bad information in them and it works to just delete them and start over.

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**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630/5 "2011-05-29T09:39:36Z")

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I had this problem when our cable company updated the router. Vista just would not get an internet connection, although the router was seeing it perfectly and my other (newer) laptops had no problem connecting. It turned out that I’d overlooked a Windows update for my wireless card which brought it into line with new routers on the market (damn thing was marked Optional, which is why I didn’t install it).

Now everything works fine.

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**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630/6 "2011-05-29T16:41:39Z")

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Thanks all for the replies…after experimenting with everything suggested it seems that the problem was an incompatibility between her wireless card and WPA-2, I changed the router security to WEP and it is now connecting.

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**Author:** ![Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_N.Cheese)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-connecting-to-our-wifi-network-with-vista-laptop/583630/7 "2011-05-29T19:40:32Z")

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Check for updated wireless card drivers, you should find one that supports wpa-2.  
You’ll want that rather than downgrading your wap to wep. wut?