[ecurbbruce]

I have this old Dell Inspiron laptop, and from time to time it decides to cause problems with connecting to our wireless network. The last time it happened was a couple of years ago and it was a fairly simple matter to get it to connect....I think I had to go to Settings and frig around with the Dell Lan settings but its been a couple of years and I don't recall exactly what I did.

This computer has been "down" for a while, and we have since switched over to a different wirelss setup, through comcast. We already have two laptops connected to it and I am using one of them to access this forum. When I try to connect the old Dell to it I get a couple of standard messages:

1. Something to the effect that Windows cannot configure the wireless network;

2. Then after setting up the network, and entering the security key, I'll get a message that say the computer cannot be connected, and that I should make sure the wireless switch is turned on, whatever that means.

I am pretty sure I had this same problem before and was able (with some guidance) to reconfigure the settings so everything worked. I hope someone can walk me through that once again.

Thanks for your help!

[LincolnSpector]

Hi, Bruce, and welcome to the forums.

A couple of thoughts:

1) Could this be a reception problem? Have you tried the old Dell in the same room as your router?

2) Since the Dell is old and the wireless system is new, could there be an incompatibility with the security system. To find out, turn off the router's security (temporarily, of course), and see if the old Dell can access it that way.

Lincoln