Wireless Network Help

djcj · 14 Feb 2006 at 22:44

My auntie has bought a laptop, a Toshiba L20

and a belkin router (she says its model number 125, but i doubt this).

What i want to know is, does she need to buy a wireless network card? As the laptop states it has "Built in Wireless LAN 802.11g 54Mbps". Can she just switch the router and laptop on and they will connect, or does it require a network card as well?

antc · 15 Feb 2006 at 00:01

djcj said:
My auntie has bought a laptop, a Toshiba L20

and a belkin router (she says its model number 125, but i doubt this).

What i want to know is, does she need to buy a wireless network card? As the laptop states it has "Built in Wireless LAN 802.11g 54Mbps". Can she just switch the router and laptop on and they will connect, or does it require a network card as well?

if the laptop states it has a built in 802.11g 54mbps wireless card you will not need another wireless card.

the 125 your auntie refers to is 125mbps that the router transmits at. but as the laptop only works at 54 g then she could have got away with purchasing a 54mbps router, and the connection between the 2 will only ever be 54mbps. as far as i am aware there is not much difference between 54 and 125mbps (others might want to correct me on that if im wrong)

as default the laptops wireless card should be set to gain its ip and dns addresses automatically which should meen that it will see the router and connect to it straight out of the box, although its not always that simple.

be aware though that you will have to connect the laptop to the router via an ethernet cable to enter all the broadband settings so it sees and connects to the broadband for you, things like your username and password and any other settings that you have to enter for your isp

hope this helps

djcj · 15 Feb 2006 at 00:17

Thanks.

My auntie has tried to set it up, everything seems to work fine and can access the internet on it. But when she disconnects the ethernet cable after setting it up, the connection drops. I'm going to go round tomorrow night to see if i can set it up for her. Got any tips? Or troubleshooting problems that i can check as to why connection drops after removing the cable.

Cheers

tolien · 15 Feb 2006 at 09:51

Connection drops where?

djcj · 15 Feb 2006 at 12:58

Basically, it works fine when setting it up with the ethernet cable attached, and as soon as she removed the cable it dies. Maybe she hasn't activated the actual wireless part of the laptop. Haven't a clue though

antc · 15 Feb 2006 at 18:10

yeah you need to turn wireless on. on the toshiba laptops there is a swithc either on the side of the laptop or at the top near the power button.

you then need to scan for available wireless networks and see what you can see.

if you then pick up your wireless network, will as default be labelled "belkin54g" then try connecting to it and see what happens from there.

tolien · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:40

On mine it was at the front, and there was some driver fun involved too. Fortunately, that particular laptop's now dead

Abooie · 16 Feb 2006 at 07:59

She shouldn't need to do anything with drivers. On my old toshiba laptop there's a switch on the front left; she'll know when it's on as a little orange led will come on.

If all she's doing is browsing t'internet she won't notice any difference between 54g or 125mbs, or even anything much lower. It's all dependant on her internet connection speed.

If it still doesn't work it she may need to access the router and ensure that wireless is enabled. She should also look at setting up some sort of security like WEP etc. (As it stands anyone driving past could access the network).

antc · 16 Feb 2006 at 11:23

smcshaw said:
She shouldn't need to do anything with drivers.If it still doesn't work it she may need to access the router and ensure that wireless is enabled. She should also look at setting up some sort of security like WEP etc. (As it stands anyone driving past could access the network).

first of all it can be necassary to uninstall/reinstall the driver if its not seing the network or possibly get an updated driver if there is one. on all the belkin routers i have used wireless comes turned on as default, you will see a green light labelled WLAN on the front of the router.

and if you are setting up some form of security go for WPA-PSK as wep really isnt that great. But, any security is better than leaving it unsecured.