Help...can't see router

[Mitch]

My wife's laptop is suddenly not connecting to our router.
All the other PC's work fine.

The laptop shows that she is connected wirelessly with excellent
signal strength, but the computer doesn't show up on the router status
(Netgear router, btw).

It can't even connect to the router (192.168.1.1).

It was working fine, then just stopped yesterday.
It's running XP.

Any ideas?

We are both consultants and work at home. I'm in serious crunch mode
this week and just don't have time to spin my wheels on it.

THANKS!

 

[Lem]

My wife's laptop is suddenly not connecting to our router.
All the other PC's work fine.

The laptop shows that she is connected wirelessly with excellent
signal strength, but the computer doesn't show up on the router status
(Netgear router, btw).

It can't even connect to the router (192.168.1.1).

It was working fine, then just stopped yesterday.
It's running XP.

Any ideas?

We are both consultants and work at home. I'm in serious crunch mode
this week and just don't have time to spin my wheels on it.

THANKS!

It sounds as if her laptop has "forgotten" the encryption key. Open the
Wireless Network Connection "properties" dialog and click on the
"Wireless Networks" tab (you should see this:
http://screenshots.modemhelp.net/sc...tion/Properties/Wireless_Networks/Index.shtml)

Select the SSID for your router and click on the "Properties" button.
Check for (or re-enter) the correct encryption key on the "Association"
tab; on the "Authentication" tab, ensure that the box to enable IEEE
802.1x is UNchecked; on the "Connection" tab, ensure that the box to
"Connect when this network is in range" is checked. OK your way out.

If you didn't change the default SSID for your router, and you see two
(or more) entries with the same name, either delete them all and then
add back one with the correct encryption info, or figure out which are
the incorrect ones (by looking at the "Association" tab) and delete those.

 

[Mitch]

If you didn't change the default SSID for your router, and you see two
(or more) entries with the same name, either delete them all and then
add back one

There were multiple instances of our router. We removed all but one,
and it works.

Thanks a ton!

 

[Lem]

There were multiple instances of our router. We removed all but one,
and it works.

Thanks a ton!

You're welcome.

Every time you successfully connect to a different wireless network,
Windows adds the SSID of that network to the top of the list of
preferred networks.

Suppose you didn't change the default SSID, and your network is named
NETGEAR and you configured an encryption key for it.

Now suppose that you are someplace else and connect to some other wifi
network that *also* uses the default name of NETGEAR. Only this NETGEAR
network either has no encryption or encryption with a different key than
yours. The list of preferred networks now has two entries, both with
the SSID NETGEAR. Each entry is associated with its own encryption info.

When you go back home, your computer "sees" your router broadcasting its
SSID of NETGEAR, matches that SSID to the top entry in the list, and
attempts to connect to your network using the encryption info related to
the other network. Not surprisingly, it doesn't work.

Moral: change the SSID on your router to something unique (but don't
use your last name or address).