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Wireless connection problem

14 years ago

My Granddaughter's laptop - HP Windows 7 home premium - will not connect to her wifi at home. It connects with a wired connection. Her husband brought home a laptop from work and it connected fine. They flew down for a visit over last weekend and she brought the laptop. It connected to my wifi on the first trial. When she got home it would not connect. She has Comcast internet (as I do) but couldn't remember the make of her router. While she was here we ran the usual scans (Malwarebytes, etc) used ccleaner to clean out the temp files, etc and used Secunia to update everything.

Any suggestions that might help her connect?

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Comments (13)

bob414
Original Author
14 years ago
I forgot to mention that the troubleshooter on her laptop can't find anything wrong.
zep516
14 years ago
I'd reset her router to factory defaults and redo the settings. If it works as you indicated at your home then everything is in place on the Laptop as far as network stuff, and is able to connect, including wireless driver, dns, ip configuration. There's no Anti Virus blocking it or it would not have connected at your house. It obtains an IP address automatically. Wireless "0" configuration is on. So everything is working. That's maybe why the trouble shooter didn't see anything. Even though her husbands connects I'd still consider redoing the router.

You could boot to Safe Mode with networking and see if it connects there if it did connect there that tells us an Anti Virus or Firewall is causing an issue, but that should have been a problem at your home as well and it wasn't...
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If you find yourself still having issues after reinstalling the adapter at the Library on Monday. Always use the next choice. That's to boot the computer to Safe Mode with / Networking. Then try a connection to www.Google.com. Don't surf the Internet in this mode. If you can connect in this mode that tells us if a program is causing an issue such as a Firewall or Anti Virus. Restart the computer, keep tapping the F8 Key, wait for the Windows Advanced options Menu to appear. Using the arrow keys, select Safe Mode w/Networking. Then just see if you can establish a connection with www.Google.com
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bob414
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks Zep. I will relay your thoughts to her.
zep516
14 years ago
Let us know what is found,and if resetting the router does not work.
bob414
Original Author
14 years ago
I will post back as soon as she has a chance to follow through. She has a hard time finding time to spend much time on it - mainly because of my two lively great granddaughters.
sofaspud
14 years ago
She could also try bringing up the Network and Sharing center from Control Panel. Go to Manage wireless networks. Delete her home network, then go to the previous screen and Connect to a network and reconnect to her home network. While I have seen router issues numerous times, especially on older routers that are "getting tired", it doesn't explain she can connect to her router with the other laptop.
bob414
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the suggestion. I will forward it and let you know.
bob414
Original Author
14 years ago
The safe mode with networking didn't work and deleting and reestablishing the network didn't help.
sofaspud
14 years ago
Did you bounce the router, too?
bob414
Original Author
14 years ago
I'm not familiar with the term 'bounce the router'. I just told her to delete the network then go back to the previous page and connect to a network.
mike_kaiser_gw
14 years ago
Since you're daughter can connect to other networks, it doesn't appear to be a hardware problem with her laptop. And since hubby's laptop works, it doesn't appear to be a problem with the router (or wireless access point).

She needs to be using the correct SSID and password. Remember that passwords are case sensitive. PASSWORD is not the same as password.

I might also suggest temporarily disabling any security on the router and seeing if she can connect. If so, re-enable the security and go from there.
sofaspud
14 years ago
Sorry. Bouncing a.k.a. powering it off, waiting 20 seconds, and then turning it back on again.
bob414
Original Author
14 years ago
She did that and also tried the hard reset. Left everything off for 10 minutes before restarting and setting up the router again. No luck so she has decided to buy a new router. I hope that works.

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