See this thread

Here is a link that might be useful: wireless-adaptor-firewall-problem

Lynne, on both HP laptops I've had, there is a light to indicate when the wireless is on or off. There is also a little slider switch to turn the wireless on or off. Does your Thinkpad possibly have such a switch?

I have sometimes found that by turning off the router via the power strip and then turning it on again does something to sort of reset things, and sometimes that helps. Sorry I don't have any other suggestions for you. Hope you get this solved. Thank goodness my taxes are done.

Hi, Zep. I'm afraid I'm struggling with that link. I don't think it all applies to me - and the parts that might are too difficult for me to understand - or not possible to implement since I have no internet connection and can't download anything new (actually - I suppose I could take my laptop to the loft and plug it in via ethernet to the router).

But I"m still a bit unsure what applies to me. There is no button on my thinkpad to turn the wireless connection on or off. I am not having a firewall problem (I did check the instructions from the thread you linked and all seems fine).

I am also not having the exact same problem as that poster. When I try to repair the network adapter, it does seem to disable it (that poster was told it couldn't be disabled) - but it can no longer proceed and find a wireless connection. So this seems to be a different issue.

The last post there suggested this:
Just in case the driver got a little corrupted, and because it can't hurt, get the latest driver for the wireless adapter from your laptop manufacturer's web site. Use Device Manager to uninstall the wireless adapter, restart the PC, and install with the newly downloaded driver.

Should I take my laptop and get a wired connection and try changing the driver? I think I've recently tested for updated drivers and there were none - and I don't think I've made any changes to this. I could imagine the need for uninstalling the network adapter - but I don't know what to do next to reinstall - and don't want to mess myself up with having gotten rid of something I need. Should I uninstall? If so, how do I reinstall?

Thank you.
Lynn.

I don't know the answer, I only Goggled

"windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following action cannot be completed: connecting to the wireless network."

You could try it too and see if any other thing comes up.

Between this thread and grandms' post I think I should uninstall the network adaper - but I am not clear from pkponder's suggestion - but I am not sure if rebooting will automatically reinstall the network adapter - or if there's something else I need to do - either prior to uninstalling the network adapter or afterwards.

Thanks.
Lynn.

lynn what antivirus are you running on that pc? Since we have been seeing AVG causing so many strange problems lately want to know if AVG might be involved.

I'm using Avast. But I just discovered the latest problem. Apparently there is a wireless off/on switch on my thinkpad. I never noticed it before - it's just under the front lip of the computer. But my daughter must have wedged it a bit toward the middle when she used it last night (she never uses my laptop but her desktop is also disconnected and packed away during our renovations in that room. So I slid it back. And now I"m connected.

But I still have the original problem - that frequently I have to repair the network adapter to get a connection. Not always - maybe half the time - and sometimes in the middle of being connected. So perhaps I still shoujld deal with this network adapter issue so I don't have to spend so much time getting on-line (and staying online) by constantly repairing the network adapter. How would I do this?
Thanks.
Lynn.

Click Start>Run type this into the runbox devmgmt.msc

That will open the Device Manager. Once open look for Network to the left of network click the (+) to expand the list, in the list look for the full name of the wireless Adapter. Should look something like this below, that's how mine is listed in Device Manager...

Realtek RTL8187B Wireless 802.11B/G 54mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter.

Once you find it go the manufactures site. In the case above Realtek site and look for the latest driver available.

Usually when I start the search I type "Realtec RTL8187B" DRIVER" into google, then look for the realtek link.

Let us know the name of it we can help.

Zep - I have 3 devices in my network list:

1) 1394 net adapter

2)intel 82566mm gigabit network connection (this one I was able to get an updated driver - but on my network connections, it still shows as local area connection - "network cable unplugged,fire..." and I'm not able to click that and get the rest of the sentence. if I click it it just gives me the name of the adapter.

3) intel wireless wifi link 4965AGN

The first and third ones say they are connected and firewalled. I believe that this last wireless 4965AGN is the one that has problems and gets repaired. I could be wrong about that. The LAN one I think has always been unconnected/unplugged. I don't know what that's for or if I need it. Is that my wired internet connection?

Thanks.
Lynn.

PS - if I go through network devices and select update drivers, it only offered updated drivers for the intel 82566mm gigabit network connection. Is there any point in googling for updated driver if this route indicate no new drives exist?

intel wireless wifi link 4965AGN

That's the 1 we need for now, that's the one used for wireless connection. The other(intel 82566mm) is used for if you connect directly with a cable, since there is no cable connected you might see the 2 computers by the clock showing a red x

1384 Adapter not sure I would need to Google it.

The only thing I know to do is go to intell and see what's available for intel wireless wifi link 4965AGN

So I will Goggle intel wireless wifi link 4965AGN driver xp and see what happens. It's worth a shot to see if there is an up-dated driver from Intell.

Intel provides generic versions of software and drivers. Your computer manufacturer may have altered the features, incorporated customizations, or made other changes. Please contact your computer manufacturer for the latest updates and technical support information.

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/4965agn/

That's what they tell me, so should we Google Thinkpad along with the wireless adapter maybe. Lets see what happens there.

Here is Thinkpad site, I might Download and install from here. See link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thinkpad 4965 driver

Thank you Zep. I was working on your prior suggestion to google drivers for my network adapter - and I found version 12.45. I came back here to report back and thank you - and I noticed you'd added a couple of posts.

Pretty interesting. Your last link turned up an even later driver :
Version: 13.01.1000

So I just went ahead and downloaded it. I'm going to install it now. I may not know until later whether this keeps me connected.

Thanks for explaining LAN to me. Now I know why it usually has a red X through it. I'musually on wireless - but occasionally if travelling will use a wired conneciton.

Thank you again. Hopefully this takes care of it. Not sure why going from within my network devices didn't reveal any later drivers (and I had verison 11.1.1 something from 2007).

Lynn.

Not sure how you made out, but we have 3 laptops in use in my home, one running Windows 7 Ultimate, one running Vista Home, and the last running XP Pro. The XP Pro one never has this problem. The other 2 have the problem sometimes. Connection repair usually solves it. When it doesn't, rebooting sometimes works. Failing that, we restart the wireless router. We've never (knock on wood) been totally stymied.

Just to report back, that since installing the latest driver for the wireless network adapter, it's been connected to the wireless network without interruption.

So far, so good.
Nice to be done with that hassle of constantly repairing the network adapter.

Thank you.
Lynn.