Mac Geek I may be, but I need help with a Windows XP problem!

[retiredgoth2]

.....I don't really understand Windows computers, being something of a Mac Anorak.

However I have bought an aging but respectable XP laptop for my twins' birthday.

I cannot get it to connect to my WiFi network. I have managed to connect Windows computers to the network before, so am bemused by my difficulty.

The network is detected on the 'Wireless Network Connection 2' page. However when I click 'connect' an error message appears saying 'Windows is unable to connect to the selected network' and inviting me to refresh and start again. I am not even invited to enter the WPA password...

...any tips?

My first thought is that there's a clash of wireless managers.

Windows XP has its own management utility for connecting to wireless networks. You get to this through the Network Connections option in Control Panel. It works fine for the vast majority of cases.

Buuuut a lot of laptop manufacturers, for reasons best known to themselves, then add on their own (usually crap) wireless network management utility. Which then usually only works half as well as the Windows one but also means that the Windows one is disabled.

Have a look on the Control Panel to see if there are any wireless management utilities with your laptop manufacturer's name on. If so, choose Network Connections from the Control Panel, choose your wireless network connection, then on the Properties box select the "Wireless Networks" tab and make sure the box at the top marked "Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings" is ticked. I'd also suggest removing the manufacturer-specific utility (Add/Remove programs should list it).

The other thought that occurs is that you're saying "Wireless Network Connection 2". The 2 is odd. Do you have more than one wireless adaptor in it?

...thanks for the reply.

I've not added any wireless adaptors, there is only the integral one..

I will have a look for any additional utilities now, thanks!

....I've managed to connect to my neighbour's unsecured network, just not mine!

Will continue to try....

Wireless isn't my thing, but can you connect with a cable for now to get any updates. We had a thing once where the router was using a later level of security that the computer didn't understand. It didn't say it didn't understand, it just sulked.

Your wireless router - what is it? It's not set up to only talk to computers that it knows, is it?

Onagar's got a point, too, about the type of security that's set up. There are lots of different types and they're not always automatically detected.

.....my wireless router is a new Apple Time Capsule.

I've connected to the interweb (via my neighbour's wireless. Ahem) and downloaded Apple Airport Utility, but that says it can't find any devices at all!

...I will connect again and update XP to see if that helps, thanks for the advice.

Check the encryption type on the router (WEP or WPA are the most likely) and make sure the PC's set to the same. Also, have a look to see if the router's set to only allow certain MAC addresses to connect to it.

Finally, there are a number of different types of wireless - 802.11a, b, g and n. Most routers and PCs these days will support at least a couple of those but it's worth making sure that one or other isn't setup to only work with one of them.

If all that doesn't work, send me the Time Capsule and I'll send you a cheap known-good wireless router instead. I'll even sellotape a USB memory stick to it for backups

Thanks for the tips, Snorbs and Onager.

....sorted the problem. It was an old XP laptop, which, though it claimed to have the ability to cope with WEP encryption, was plainly not up to date!

I connected by un-encrypting my Time Capsule, updating XP through that connection, then re-encrypting.

...feel a bit daft for not thinking of this before, to be honest!