New Wireless Network Problem

[hendricksz123]

I just moved into a new house, and the owner's wireless network is giving my laptop some problems. I am running Windows XP SP2 and the reception of the wireless network is strong but when I try connecting, it tells me I am not connected, yet I can still browse the web, for a short amount of time. Despite the good reception, it will frequently pop up at the bottom telling me that Windows was "unable to connect to the wireless network" and I will not be able to browse anymore.

The network connection icon always shows the red x as if I am never connected.

This problem is really weird and I've never had it with this laptop and any other wireless network. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Zach

[Paul Komski]

Could there be any source of radio interference or something physically getting in the way now and again?

How close are you to the router?

[zeacron]

I would advise you to try 1 of 2 things.

1. Right-click on your wireless network - go to properties and hit repair which will only take a few seconds. That will reset your end. Then ask your landlord to reset his router or modem by switching if off or unplugging it and waiting 30 seconds. Once he does that, have him plug it back in and the wifi should be re-registered on his end. By doing this you can fully reset your wifi - this can sometimes help but doesn't always prove to be the key to the situation.

2 The second thing you can do- actually helped me. I was always connected with a great signal wirelessly to my own router. Then randomly one day it started to never load the internet correctly , or it would simply get cut off (similar to yours) - I couldn't figure out why I was getting so network deprived until I ran a Safe mode virus scan. The scan proved i had a W32.spybot.worm in which i had 7 of them. In normal mode scan they are undetectable and near impossible to delete if you do happen to find them. After reading up on these worms - i found one of their defects was providing network deprivation towards its hosts. So I did a safe mode scan, deleted the 7 intruders , cleared my registry and problem solved. Wireless internet crisis was solved, at least for me - this will help if you happen to have malware, spyware, worms etc on your labtop - just check to be sure with a safe mode scan.

- anyways its not much but I would try both things above seeing if that fixes the situation.

[Paul Komski]

By coincidence, I was asked to look at a WinXP laptop yesterday with very similar symptoms. It would go on line OK but the software would show it as not connected even though it obviously was. The reason was that it was an employer's laptop and the user did not have full control; the user account was a limited account and even things like getting to a command prompt had been disabled by the employer.

zeacron is certainly correct that malware can cause such symptoms as well.