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Another WiFi ?

17 years ago

My niece got a Msi Wind U100 series for Christmas. It has XP and is supposed to be WiFi enabled. I took it to my friends house, who has WiFi, he is able to get on the Internet anywhere in his home but I was not able to get the Wind to hook up to the net? What should I be doing?

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Comments (6)

zep516
17 years ago
In the task bar down by the clock, do you see the 2 computers with an x over them. if so right click and see what options are present.

Also look here click Start>Control panel click the network connections icon see what's in there..

These would be some of the places to look first.
bpgreen
17 years ago
If I understand you correctly, it worked at your friend's house, but isn't working at your house. Is that correct?

If so, do you have a wireless router installed in your house? If you don't, you'll need to get a wireless router, connect it to your internet connection (cable/dsl/etc) and configure it and the Msi Wind to communicate. I'm assuming that you've got an existing PC connected, and are trying to connect the new one wirelessly. Make sure you get a wireless router that also has some wired connections (nearly all do these days) so you can connect your existing computer as well.
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mare_wbpa
Original Author
17 years ago
To answer everyone's questions. It would not connect at my friend's house. I set up a router at niece's house but it won't connect there either(don't know if I connected everything properly) I tried clicking on the icons near clock but a message came up telling me I wasn't connected to a wifi network(or some such message, don't have the computer with me here). How do I configure it to communicate. I thought it was only a matter of getting into wifi range as in restaurants and such that have wi fi. My son and his wife go to breakfast at a restaurant with wifi all the time, they take their computer and surf while having coffee.
traceys
17 years ago
I have the MSI Wind U100 and a wireless router.

As soon as I got it I expected to turn it on and go. Well that didn't really happen.

I did some research and found I first needed to update some drivers. Go to the MSI website to see what wireless card you have and if the drivers need to be updated. It's only certain ones. I plugged it in and downloaded from their site.

You need to turn the wireless card on by hitting the fn and f11 keys. I also had to use my encryption key before I could use the wireless connection here.

I did have to play with it to set it up right.

I think there is a FAQ on the MSI website.
mare_wbpa
Original Author
17 years ago
Good news and so-so news. I was finally able to get on the internet by using fn f11 at the same time. Read that on the Wind forum, but I got a message saying that the connection was insecure. Having no experience with WiFi, I don't know what this means other than it doesn't sound good. How can I secure the connection? Thanks to everyone who has tried to help and any others who would like to. Happy New Year to one and all!!!
bpgreen
17 years ago
To secure the connection, you need to set up both the router and the computer to use some sort of security. The two main types of wireless security are WEP and WPA. WEP is older and less secure, so if both router and computer support WPA, you should go that route. The router should have some instructions with it to tell how to secure it and that should include step by step instructions for setting up the computer, also.

If it's not secure, what that means is that anybody within range of the router can connect to the router and share your internet connection (and possibly get access to your computer depending on how yo've got everything set up).

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