cant connect to wireless

[lupebizzle]

i've just moved to uni and the house has a shared wireless router. I have tried to connect to it with my laptop with windows xp and a wireless internet card. When i click on view available networks, the network shows up with full strength. However when i click connect a pop up comes up saying windows is unable to connect to the selected network. The network may longer be in range. Please refresh the list of available networks, and try to connect again. I've tried this and still have full strength connection so dont think this is the problem!
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, luke

[clyde123]

Turn off any firewalls you have running and try again. At least eliminate that possibility.
Make sure you don't go surfing without protection though ...

[johnwill]

Can you connect to other wireless networks with this laptop?

[lupebizzle]

i tried without the firewall still no luck. Yes i used to be able to connect to my wireless router at home. Could it be the type of card im using, even though it is picking up that there is wireless?

[johnwill]

Could be a lot of things. Can you connect with a wired connection?

[zyonchaos]

It will pick up the wireless signal no probs.

What you may need to do though is "Pair" your laptop to the router. Just like bluetooth you have to tell your phone to allow the incoming file!
So chances are there may be a button on the router that says "Connect" or something like that, if so press it (lights may flash at this point, dont panic) then search again for the network, and try connecting then.

Had this problem with Orange wireless router (maybe if I had been less man like and read the instructions I would not of had this problem lol)

Good Luck

[lupebizzle]

for some reason its now not showing that message but getting to the point where i can type in the network key. Unfortunately another problem! The network key that the guys are using for the wireless is 8 characters long, but when i type it in a message says the network password needs to be 40bits or 104bits depending on your network configuration. This can be entered as 5 or 13 ascii characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters. Any help with this would be brilliant! Thanks again, luke

[Bukey]

Look in your Services in the Administrative tools and make sure the Wireless Zero Configuration service is started.

[lupebizzle]

yep its started

[Bukey]

Is your antenna enabled? It will still see the avaiable networks but not connect if its not enabled.

[johnwill]

Originally Posted by lupebizzle

for some reason its now not showing that message but getting to the point where i can type in the network key. Unfortunately another problem! The network key that the guys are using for the wireless is 8 characters long, but when i type it in a message says the network password needs to be 40bits or 104bits depending on your network configuration. This can be entered as 5 or 13 ascii characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters. Any help with this would be brilliant! Thanks again, luke

Sounds like they're using WPA and you're trying to connect using WEP. That won't work. How old is the computer you're using? Have you upgraded the wireless drivers to the latest available? What version and patch level of Windows are you running?

[lupebizzle]

i think that sounds right about the wep and the wpa. One of the guys in the house said he could get me a wpa usb stick so i'll see how it gets on with that? Cheers for all the help guys!

[johnwill]

You may be able to update your drivers to get WPA using the internal wireless, I'd check that first.