How to easily enable/disable wireless device? Script?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Allie
  • Start date Start date
A

Allie

Hi Folks,

Everytime I want to turn my wireless card on or off in my Thinkpad T43,
I have to go to My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device
Manager, then right-click on my wireless device and click enable or
disable. Is there a way to make this quicker, and have it associated
with an icon on my desktop, for example? Perhaps a way to script it?
Thanks very much!

Best,
Allie
 
Allie said:
Hi Folks,

Everytime I want to turn my wireless card on or off in my Thinkpad
T43, I have to go to My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device
Manager, then right-click on my wireless device and click enable or
disable. Is there a way to make this quicker, and have it associated
with an icon on my desktop, for example? Perhaps a way to script it?
Thanks very much!
Click to expand...

Why don't you just turn off the wireless with the FN/keypress
combination? According to this website, it's FN + F5:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-50023

Malke
 
Hi Malke,

Thanks for the reply. I've uninstalled the ThinkVantage wireless
manager - it bites. The Fn+F5 key was sweet, but the manager was so
bad with connection problems, etc. Even the tech I spoke with at
Lenovo had done the same thing.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Allie
 
Allie said:
Hi Folks,

Everytime I want to turn my wireless card on or off in my Thinkpad
T43,
I have to go to My Computer - Properties - Hardware - Device
Manager, then right-click on my wireless device and click enable or
disable. Is there a way to make this quicker, and have it associated
with an icon on my desktop, for example? Perhaps a way to script it?
Thanks very much!

Best,
Allie
Click to expand...

You should be able to disable the wireless card in the bios. Press F1
when you power on the laptop and it will bring you into the system
bios.
 
Thanks George,

Perhaps I didn't quite explain myself well enough. I want to be able
to enable/disable this device from a desktop icon or something
equivalently convenient while the computer is up and running.

Thanks,
Allie
 
Allie said:
Thanks George,

Perhaps I didn't quite explain myself well enough. I want to be able
to enable/disable this device from a desktop icon or something
equivalently convenient while the computer is up and running.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that FN + F5 doesn't work when you have the ThinkVantage
software uninstalled? FN + F5 works perfectly on my Thinkpad X31 and it
isn't running Windows and so it isn't running any IBM software. I would
think the FN + F* would be controlled by hardware like the sound and
brightness, but maybe it isn't on your model.

I'm afraid I don't know the Windows equivalent to ifup/down. If one of
the regulars who are scripting wizards in this group doesn't come
along, you might try posting your question in one of the MS scripting
groups. Here's a list of all the MS newsgroups:

http://aumha.org/nntp.htm

Malke
 
You may be able to do it using 'devcon' - downloadable from here (halfway
down page)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311272

Basic syntax......
devcon status * (status of all devices)
devcon status particulardevice (status of a particular device)
devcon enable particulardevice
devcon disable particulardevice

If you pop the extracted devcon.exe in C:\windows, or the folder containing
your script, then you will be able to execute the above commands from the
command prompt, or create shortcuts to a script containing them.

--
Jon

Circumstances alter cases

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that "Allie" <[email protected]>
wrote the following in
news:[email protected]...
 
If you have the show icon in the System Tray enabled for the wireless
connection, all you have to do to disable it is to Right Click on it and
then left click on disable. To re-enable repeat the process. Most of the
time for the wireless connection, the connection will re-establish itself
without problems. Once in a great while, I have to "Repair" the connection
after re-enabling. I do this regularly with both my wireless and wired
network connections at work when I don't want anyone to access my computer
across the network (other administrators who like to snoop.)
 
Thanks LVTravel,

Devcon worked like a charm. The right/left click on the icon doesn't
seem to work for me - windows gives me errors.

Thanks,
Allie
 
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