Please help me connect my win 7 laptop wirelessly

[secretlife]

Hi there -I normally hang out in the Virtual Learning Environment forums but am desperately frustratedtonight I've come over here for some help -please. Son got new toshiba laptop (brand new) windows 7. Trying to connect it to our BT broadband hub - wirelessly. We've had this for several years and have had several changes of laptop xp and vista so now how to connect to the wifi -but this one just won't recognise the WEP key. It says the signal is excellent - it recognises the router by name and prompts us for the key -which we have entered correctly -but it keeps saying it won't connect. I have tried the usual switch on/off wifi/router/laptop/firewall - but as it's windows 7 which I have no experience of I wonder if there is anything else I might have missed out? Oddly enough - friend connected a win7 laptop a couple of weeks ago with no issues.

[speckytecky]

You sure there isn't a button that needs to be pressed (and has been overlooked) on the Router box to enable connection prior to entering the key? Happened to me!!

[pritchardavid]

1st step/try - update your wireless card driver see if that works

 

2nd step/try - update your firmware on you wireless routor

 

3rd step/try - reset your wireless routor and reconfigure it

 

 

Thats the steps in that order I would try

[Michael]

If you already have existing XP and Vista clients, I would eliminate the router being the problem. You also mentioned a friend successfully connected their Windows 7 machine which proves my point further.

 

Some routers like Orange are limited to 8 IPs and do require you to press a button to synchronise and register the machine with the router. You could try allocating a static IP configuration in case it's DHCP not handing out anymore IPs.

[joe90bass]

Seems othershave had problems with Windows 7 (and other versions) 64bit and wep. Hope the link helps, some had luck changing the driver

[Michael]

64bit and wep

 

Interesting, but logically it shouldn't make any difference or should it? The OS is 64bit, and so is the driver (for example) and WEP is just WEP.

[secretlife]

Thanks to all for your suggestions-Michael you might have a point -I recall years ago when I set this up it said it would handle 10 connections - maybe I have run out? I haven't deleted any of the older ones of laptops we no longer use - should that make a difference? I will check out the win7 laptop connection problems link thanks - it's quite demoralising really.

[glennda]

Some routers like Orange are limited to 8 IPs and do require you to press a button to synchronise and register the machine with the router. You could try allocating a static IP configuration in case it's DHCP not handing out anymore IPs.

 

if this is the case, you may find your dhcp on your router is set to a stupid amount of time for a lease, i know my one the leases are 6 months for some stupid reason, and if you are limited it could be that it will not dish out the addreses again!

[pritchardavid]

Aint routers internal addresses through? or is that different on ADSL?

 

I know that using a router is just internal addresses

 

internal address would be something like 192.168.0.2

 

Outside would be something like 212.134.564.32

 

So that shouldn't be limiting it, has your just using one

 

Or is this a limit with the firmware or router that orange use?

[Michael]

I would say (by the looks of things) joe90bass is probably right. I would connect the Windows 7 via a LAN cable and update the wireless driver this way.

 

Or is this a limit with the firmware or router that orange use?

 

Normally a Class C network allows upto 254 IPs or devices to connect to a single router, so some ISPs view this as a potential problem, so deliberately limit this to 8 IPs. However there's nothing stopping you buying a generic 'proper' router which would give you the full 254 IPs as well as other useful features such as firewalls, web filtering and VPN.

[ajbritton]

Check that the time configured on your router matches the time on your PC/laptop. If these are mismatched, it causes problems for the encryption protocols.

[sted]

I would say (by the looks of things) joe90bass is probably right. I would connect the Windows 7 via a LAN cable and update the wireless driver this way.

 

 

 

Normally a Class C network allows upto 254 IPs or devices to connect to a single router, so some ISPs view this as a potential problem, so deliberately limit this to 8 IPs. However there's nothing stopping you buying a generic 'proper' router which would give you the full 254 IPs as well as other useful features such as firewalls, web filtering and VPN.

 

or probably hard setting an ip rather than dhcp it

[sparkeh]

To be honest I wouldn't be using WEP anyway as it can be cracked so easily.

Have you tried configuring the router for WPA2 and trying to connect?

[secretlife]

(I did try WAP2 btw actually but still no joy) Turns out it WAS a fault somewhere with the laptop after all - took it back - their tech guy couldn't connect it totheir own wireless whatever he tried - swapped it for a different model - connected in 30 secs back home to exactly the same setup as all our other laptops - finally Thanks to everyone for your helpful suggestions

[glennda]

Normally a Class C network allows upto 254 IPs or devices to connect to a single router, so some ISPs view this as a potential problem, so deliberately limit this to 8 IPs. However there's nothing stopping you buying a generic 'proper' router which would give you the full 254 IPs as well as other useful features such as firewalls, web filtering and VPN.

 

 

yes but just becuase the subnet is 255.255.255.0 doesnt mean that the dhcp scope is set up to use all 254 addresses, if could be just set to only lease 192.168.0.2 to 10 or something like that not the full range of 2-254 (i have put 2 as assuming .1 is the router, but again some are different like that as i know mine is .254)