My Dad Went To Prague, Now He's Back, he Can't Connect

[Guest]

My Dad's laptop is a Toshiba Qosimo F20

He went to Prague in Czech republic for 6 months with his laptop, and he's
come back to the UK, he cannot connect wirelessly to my BT Hub at home. My
laptop can connect fine, and so can my Sisters, so why is my Dad's having
problems? It's really confusing, as the BT software can see the BT Hub, but
it just can't connect. Any ideas?

Cheers

 

[Tim]

My Dad's laptop is a Toshiba Qosimo F20

He went to Prague in Czech republic for 6 months with his laptop, and he's
come back to the UK, he cannot connect wirelessly to my BT Hub at home. My
laptop can connect fine, and so can my Sisters, so why is my Dad's having
problems? It's really confusing, as the BT software can see the BT Hub, but
it just can't connect. Any ideas?

Cheers

Did you go through the wireless configuration on his laptop to ensure
the security information (SSID, key, etc.) are correct? Maybe he
connected to a wireless network while in Prague and needs to have the
settings changed back.

Tim

 

[Guest]

Okay, thanks for the reply. Can you go through a step by step method of how
he'd beable to change these settings back?

Thanks

 

[Tim]

Okay, thanks for the reply. Can you go through a step by step method of how
he'd beable to change these settings back?

Thanks

Unfortunately, I can't. Each manufacturer has a slightly different
interface for configuring these things so I can't tell you by name what
to click on (and I'm not familiar with Toshiba or BT). And sometimes
those settings are modified through Windows and sometimes through the
wireless vendor's utility. So there are too many variables to try and be
specific. But all of them have the core security settings in common. I
suggest going to the vendor's web site. Good ones will have pages (or
downloadable manuals) on how to setup the wireless card.

Of course, you will need to know what your SSID, encryption protocol,
and security key is. If you don't know, log into your wireless router
(hub) and look at the configuration pages. Or you could look at the
settings for your laptop and configure the Toshiba similarly.

Good luck.

Tim

 

[Guest]

Right, i tried to connect to MSN, and it said i have no IP? So i went to Run,
and typed in cmd /k; ipconfig /all and there is no information. It just says
Windows IP Configuration and then C:\Documents and settings\nigel gray>

So how do i get my Dad's ip back?

 

[Tim]

Right, i tried to connect to MSN, and it said i have no IP? So i went to Run,
and typed in cmd /k; ipconfig /all and there is no information. It just says
Windows IP Configuration and then C:\Documents and settings\nigel gray>

So how do i get my Dad's ip back?

It's time to get back to the basics. You need to make sure TCP/IP is
installed and the NIC is functioning properly.

1) Go to Device Manager and see first if there is a NIC (i.e. network
card) installed. If one is, make sure there isn't a yellow caution
symbol next to it. If there isn't a NIC, you have found your problem. If
there is a caution symbol, a good thing to try first is to remove the
device driver (right-click on it and choose "Remove" or maybe it's
Delete), reboot, and let Windows find it and re-install the driver for it.

2) Right-click on the Network icon and choose properties. Make sure
TCP/IP is installed. If it is not...you have found your problem. You
will have to run Windows setup (I think it's Add/Remove components or
perhaps Windows setup...I'm on a Vista machine right now so I might have
it wrong...have a look in Control Panel) to add TCP/IP. If it is
installed, have a look at the TCP/IP properties to ensure it's set to
automatically be assigned an IP address and DNS server (those are the
default settings).

It would help if you were able to find out what was done to his PC
during his stay in Prague. Maybe the network he was on was running some
other protocol like IPX (Novell) and someone removed TCP/IP.

Please post back with an update. This is a tough one to troubleshoot via
a NG as there are so many possible variables and causes...especially if
you don't know what was done to the PC while it was in Prague. If it
gets too frustrating you might want to seek out some local
help...someone who can be there physically to have a good look at the
situation. I would be happy to stop by if you send me a plane ticket
(round-trip preferable) ;-)

Tim