Cant connect wirelessly to the router...what have I done!

[LEMONAIDE]

We have a new laptop - it connected beautifully and easily to the router last week - hubby has subseqently fired up and fiddled with the children's netbook and the router has disappeared from my choice of connections.

It says I am connected to a wireless network Router is working as I am currently connected by cable. Networks showing are not the the one I set up for this and it is not recognising my password.

Did a system restore as I hadnt done much on this machine but it didnt help!!

I need to install the router software on this machine as I am phasing out the one it is currently on so am getting in touch with my ISP to see what settings I need.

What HAS happened here as it was working really well - i know its probably something really dumb that has been altered by mistake.

Have you accidentally turned off your laptop's wireless connectivity usually a button with an icon that looks like on the side somewhere or as a function key?

• looks like a cable receiver

No it is still lit up as wireless at the front

Maybe when your DH connected the netbook he assigned a different name to the wireless network to the one your laptop had last week - that happened when I connected my son's laptop to ours it suddenly showed as a different name?

So worth refreshing network list to see if any of the names look as though this could be the case - our was "sons name PC" instead of Home Network HTH

That was my gut feeling as I do have a similar name which has appeared - but did yours also change the password as its not recognising the one I assigned?

No same password but your DH may have assigned a password for the netbook which effectively changes it for the whole network
Good Luck off on the school run now

tried every password I thought it could be with no luck!

Think you need to go into the router's settings to see what the settings are.

Which ISP are you with and what sort of router is it?

Hi

Its a netgear and i'm with plusnet

I do need to install the router software on this machine but its asking for static ip and authentication which I thought I had requested from Plusnet...not appearing on my questions so I dont know what happened to that LOL...its my first laptop and I really do need to learn how to drive it!!

ok....it's a lot easier when you are in front of it than trying to explain over the Internet.

But try this.

In your internet browser, type 192.168.1.1 If that doesn't bring anything up, try 192.168.0.1

Hopefully you should get prompted for a username/password. Usually the username is 'admin' and the default password is 'password'. You can also try '1234' or 'admin' if that doesn't work.

If it accepts one of the above combinations, then you should be able to see a webpage now with Netgear logo on it.

On the left click on Wireless Settings and it should show you in the middle what your wireless network name is under 'SSID'. You should also be able to change the password here as well. Oh and check "Enable SSID Broadcast" is ticked as well.

Good luck

Great thanks - its all sorted out now. Ideally I would like to change the name of the network from the childrens names to something a bit more obscure but perhaps I should quit while i'm ahead today and attempt that tomorrow!!