help - cant get notebook to connect to home wireless

[drloves8]

its dd2`s. bro in law cant get down (he usually does all this stuff) and dd2 is sitting in tears because her dongles ran out of credit. ive tried 3 times to get it 2 connect but i must be doing something wrong.
can anyone hlep?
please am at the mery of a hormonal teenager here ! aaaargh

Hi drlove. Questions:

• what have you tried?

- is the wifi password protected?

• do you have the password?

I have the wifi key and entered it . its the same one for my big laptop. That works ok . the notebook accepts the key.
The notebook aquires the ip ,then it drops it ,then accuires it again. its like an intermittant signal.
i dont understand whats up with the thing.
its like its not finishing the configuration or something .

Sorry I had to attend to DS! Did you sort it?

Could it be a range thing, have you tried the laptop right next to the wireless point?

Does the machine usually connect to wireless networks?

Does the wireless network have MAC based security set too? I can't recall at what part of the process that will cause a connection to fail but it basically only allows certain known devices to connect to the wireless point.

Do you know enough about the router to be able to log in and look at DHCP user list? You may find an option to Flush the DHCP list (renew it all), which may help. Also if you can see the list, you will be able to check that each machine connected is being assigned it's own address. MAC address security is also a possible as BagagersPaws says.

Ummm. The idea that it normally connects through the dongle (to a mobile phone?) might have something to do with it.

I don't know - have to be honest - but I would check the Network connections and make sure that only the wireless connector is enabled....

If you can 'see' the router and it is trying to connect and then dropping the link, it suggests a bit to me that either something else is getting in the way (like a default connection taking over), or perhaps it's connecting using a different authentication (WEP vs WPA?) But I guess you have the right auth method set up?

B