No internet

[Ben Stevenson]

I am posting from my PC at home which is doing fine on the internet. But on
my laptop there is suddenly no internet when starting up today. Done the
spyware and virus checks, but no improvement. What can I do about it?
TIA

 

[RobertVA]

I am posting from my PC at home which is doing fine on the internet. But on
my laptop there is suddenly no internet when starting up today. Done the
spyware and virus checks, but no improvement. What can I do about it?
TIA

Hard for anyone to answer without knowing if you're using dial up or
broadband, connected directly to the broadband modem or through a
router, Ethernet cables or wireless, any software or hardware changes,
any other Mhz frequency devices like cordless phones or baby monitors in
the area, any new metal furniture or new electronics near the router or
laptop, results from running winipconfig or ipconfig.

 

[Ben Stevenson]

I am running broadband thru a modem and router for wireless at home. There
has always been a cordless phone at home, no baby monitors, and no changes
at home to anything.

 

[LVTravel]

I am running broadband thru a modem and router for wireless at home. There
has always been a cordless phone at home, no baby monitors, and no changes
at home to anything.

Restart the wireless access point. There are some makes that if there is
any type of power interruption at all will cause the wireless portion of the
router to shut down. If this happens at my house (Linksys WRT54G), all I
have to do is unplug it for about 5 seconds and then plug it back in.

If this doesn't solve the problem post back with make and model of the WAP
router.

 

[Gerry]

Ben

Connect a phone to the jack point and see if you get a dial tone.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[RobertVA]

Ben

Connect a phone to the jack point and see if you get a dial tone.

I doubt he's attaching that router to a dial up "modem". Why should he
expect a dial tone? Even on DSL the telephone capabilities might be
working when the DSL Internet capabilities aren't. Also most people
would fairly quickly notice if their phone service went dead.

The results of "ipconfig /all" in a command prompt window may be
indicative of how far up the chain his computer is actually being able
to reach.

Comparison of the router's settings (things like DNS server address and
static vs dynamic IP address) to those recommended by the ISP may be
helpful. Check the provider's web site for customer support pages.
Directions for checking or changing the router settings AND
configuration instructions for the connected computer(s) should be in
the router's user manual (sometimes on an included CD). Others with
similar equipment might be in the best position to identify the
necessary settings. As usual, the more information the person asking
about a problem can provide the better chance respondents have in
narrowing down what the cause of the problem is. Where available the cut
and paste functions of Windows can be very useful for copying error
messages and system reports to news/forum posts.

 

[Ben Stevenson]

I'm on broadband. No dialup. My daughter's laptop is also running well,
which means the home wireless is running well. So what should I do next?
Nothing has changed in the house. No new installations or changes of any
kind. My PC is also fine on the internet. There's just this one laptop that
is down for the internet.

 

[RobertVA]

I'm on broadband. No dialup. My daughter's laptop is also running well,
which means the home wireless is running well. So what should I do next?
Nothing has changed in the house. No new installations or changes of any
kind. My PC is also fine on the internet. There's just this one laptop that
is down for the internet.

Depending on the router's Wireless Access Point (WAP) security settings
the problem could be different service ID settings or password between
the problem laptop and the router, a wireless network setting got
changed on the problem laptop or the list of authorized WAP client
computers lost the problem laptop's ID.

There's even a possibility the wireless networking components of the
problem laptop have failed.

Does the problem laptop connect to other WAPs like those offered in some
coffee shops, book stores, web cafes and even fast food outlets? Does it
show any WAPs operated by your neighbors?

Linksys has some free informative tutorials on their web site if you
need some familiarization with basic wireless networking. I suspect some
other router manufacturers have similar tutorials.

 

[Gerry]

Robert

My connection is Broadband. Router and telephone connect to the same
jack so your comments on dial up are not necessarily relevant.


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry]

Ben

My son-in-law encountered a problem, which I do not fully understand.

On several occasions the wireless connection to his laptop failed to
work temporaily. The computer, an Acer, came with software from which it
was apparent that there were two other networks nearby in addition to
the one he wanted to use. His computer was either linking to one of the
other networks and was unable to provide the correct passwords or was
being locked out by the other computer. The point being you should check
your computer to see if it is detecting another network.

Have you tried moving the laptop to different locations, restarting to
see if the position of the computer makes any difference? Have you tried
an ethernet cable connection?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Ben Stevenson]

I have restarted but there is no improvement. My PC and my daughter's laptop
continue to work fine. I don't think it is a wireless problem. I think the
laptop has a internet problem of its own and I hope somebody can nail that
for me and offer a solution. My router is a Linksys and it isn't showing any
problem in terms of its blinking lights and offering good wireless to my PC
and my daughter's laptop. I do certainly feel that it is a problem with the
laptop itself.

There's the icon in the Systems Tray to repair the connection, but it is
unable to repair. After running thru the repair routine it says it is unable
to repair and to get help.

 

[Malke]

I have restarted but there is no improvement. My PC and my daughter's
laptop continue to work fine. I don't think it is a wireless problem. I
think the laptop has a internet problem of its own and I hope somebody can
nail that for me and offer a solution. My router is a Linksys and it isn't
showing any problem in terms of its blinking lights and offering good
wireless to my PC and my daughter's laptop. I do certainly feel that it is
a problem with the laptop itself.

Looking through this long thread, I don't see where you've mentioned what
antivirus you're using. If by chance you have AVG 8, a recent update to
this program caused Internet connectivity to be lost. I believe the fix is
to apply the latest update to AVG. If you do have AVG, then check on their
support site.

Although I might have missed it, I don't see where you tried:

1. Connecting to the router by ethernet;
2. Connecting to someone else's wireless network (like a friend's).

These last troubleshooting steps will help determine if the issue is with
general Internet connectivity or if your laptop's wireless adapter has
failed. Just saying that you think there is nothing wrong with the wireless
without testing it on another network isn't enough.

Malke

 

[Ben Stevenson]

The antivirus is Avast. Cannot check for virus now as cannot receive updates
due to no internet. The other two things I don't know how to do, as I am not
that good on computers.

 

[Ben Stevenson]

Brought the laptop right close to the router but no improvement.

"Have you tried an ethernet cable connection?"

I don't know how to do that and neither do I have any other cable or device.

 

[Malke]

The antivirus is Avast. Cannot check for virus now as cannot receive
updates due to no internet. The other two things I don't know how to do,
as I am not that good on computers.

1. Check with an ethernet cable: Look at your wireless router. There is a
cable (ethernet) running from:

a. One ethernet cable going to your cable/DSL modem;
b. One ethernet cable going to your desktop computer.

Unplug the cable going to your desktop computer from the computer. Leave it
connected to the router. Now plug that ethernet cable into the correct port
on your laptop. There is only one place it will fit. Now, can you get to
the Internet? Open Internet Explorer and see.

If you can get to the Internet, you will know that the issue is with your
laptop's wireless. If you can't get to the Internet, something is wrong on
the laptop.

2. Check the wireless adapter - Take the laptop to a friend's house where
the friend has a wireless router. Your laptop should show that new wireless
connection. Have the friend connect you to his/her network.

If the laptop doesn't see the friend's wireless connection:

a. Check to make sure the wireless is ON. Quite a few laptops have a button
or switch to enable/disable the wireles.

b. If wireless is on, check in Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager
to make sure the wireless network adapter is enabled.

At this point you really need to enlist the help of someone who knows how to
troubleshoot and set up a wireless connection. This could be the
aforementioned friend or relation or a professional computer repair person.
No one reading your posts can set up your wireless or test your router from
here. I don't recommend using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place.

Malke

 

[Gerry]

Ben

What is your router make and model?

Ethernet cabling is inexpensive and readily available from any computer
repair shop. An ethernet connection is arguably better than wireless and
both are better than USB. The advantage of wireless is where the
location of the two ends of the cable are on opposite sides of an open
area and you do not want to run a cable across it. Make sure you know
the length of the cable you need before you go to buy it as it comes in
a various standard lengths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Olórin]

Ben

What is your router make and model?

Ethernet cabling is inexpensive and readily available from any computer
repair shop. An ethernet connection is arguably better than wireless and
both are better than USB. The advantage of wireless is where the location
of the two ends of the cable are on opposite sides of an open area and you
do not want to run a cable across it. Make sure you know the length of the
cable you need before you go to buy it as it comes in a various standard
lengths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

--

Just to add, Ben - check the box the router came in. They usually come with
a short-ish ethernet cable, which would do for your testing purposes.