help needed to add laptop to wireless network please

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I know i'm not very bright but i can't work out which files I need to put on a pen drive to load onto my new laptop to add it to our network. We have a belkin box thingy and already have a laptop and a desktop running wireless fine, but my dear bil set them up for us when he was here at christmas. When i switch laptop on the little green radio aerial thing symbol shows up fine but it just says pager unavailable for the 'net. presume i need to tell it about the belkin router (is it called a router - did i imaginhe that bit) but not sure where to find what iyswim
thanks

you need to work out whether the router is limiting access to just specific machines - if so - then you need to add your new laptops mac address (a windows bod will tell you how to work that out). It maybe that it has a password or something.

I would try right clicking on the "
little green radio aerial thing symbol " and see what options it offers you.

Time to ring BIL

a couple of things might be happening...

firstly, your wireless on the laptop might not be working properly - or at least might not be configured correctly... ...easy to check though :
Click on start/settings/control panel/network connections. The you can double click on the wireless connection and it should tell you whether you're connected or not. If not, there should be a button something along the lines of "View wireless networks", then you should be able to select the one you want having, possibly, to give it the access key.

...alternatively, as the good throckenholt said, the router might be in a proper secure mode (depends how paranoid your BIL is!). Routers can be told not to broadcast their SSID (name) and only to allow certain computers based on their MAC addresses. If this is the case you'll need to get your BIL to let you know the admin logon details for the router and add your laptops wireless MAC address. You'll have to do this from one of the computers that's already connected to the network.

think i need to ring BIl - it just says windows cannot configure this wireless connection, thanks

In which case there'll be a utility somewhere provided by the same people that provided the wireless device (belkin, linksys etc).

eer what a utility please - is that the file i need to look for??
dear bil out of the country atm - just when i need him too.

There should be a program (utility) stuck in your programs menu to manage the wireless. Start, Program Files, etc...