I purchased a used laptop for my son and granddaughter that has a 802.11b Wireless card installed.  What exactly does that mean?  I have tried to go wireless with the machine and all it did was sit there and look at me.  Add a network cable at it was very happy.  Could this be a driver problem or is there something I am missing?

Quoted from pakama I purchased a used laptop for my son and granddaughter that has a 802.11b Wireless card installed.  What exactly does that mean?

802.11b is not the newest or the fastest protocol for home Wi-Fi networks, but IMHO it is the least problematic.  Count your blessings.

Quoted from pakama I have tried to go wireless with the machine and all it did was sit there and look at me.  Add a network cable at it was very happy.  Could this be a driver problem or is there something I am missing?

You haven't told us anything about your system, or what you've already done, so we can hardly answer.  One thing which you should know in advance is that most card manufacturers also supply a configuration utility which you may or may not have installed.  It is not absolutely necessary, but it is a lot easier to configure and debug a system if you've got one.  You may have one on the same CD with the drivers.

That being said, for a tolerably secure and easy-to-configure system, you will need a router capable and configured for 802.11b, you will need to configure your router and card for the same 802.11b network (which means giving them the same name, channel, and security settings, which can also be the defaults or "automatic", at least temporarily.)  Once all of that is done, your configuration utility (or the Windows gadget you're using instead of one) should say that your laptop is "associated" with the network or simply give you the name of the associated network, and should detect a good signal.  If you have a good signal and the machine still sits and stares at you, there are two possibilities:
1.  The problem is in TCP/IP or some higher level protocol which you are trying to use to communicate.
2.  The machine is in silently in love with you, and just wants to sit and stare.  This is a problem especially with teenage computers.

As to its being a driver problem, that is probably very easy to check.  Right click on My Computer, go into Properties, Hardware, Device Manager, Network Adapters.  Your wireless card should appear there with some reasonable name - not Unidentified, or any such nonsense.  If the symbol for the card has no question marks, Xs, exclamation points, or other unsightly blemishes on it, the drivers are probably installed correctly.

Another tip, although this one will cost some money:  When I set up my first Wi-Fi system, I paid a techie to come and set it up for me, explain to me what he was doing, and explain to me the principles of wireless security, even though I already had a (worthless) certificate saying that I was qualified to be a network administrator, and he didn't.  There was a strange problem with the firmware on the router, it took him 2-1/2 hours to find a solution which I wouldn't have thought of (which involved updating the firmware from the manufacturer's site), and the gentleman was worth every penny I paid him.

If you do decide to go the do-it yourself route, at least tell us what OS you're using, whether the Device Manager says that the card is working, and what you see when you put your mouse pointer over the networking icon in your systray, if you have such an icon, what applications you're using to try to connect to the network, and what you've already done.

Good luck.
C.

Sorry for the delay in getting back, I have been buried under a massive tax return.  Ask me about capitals tax and I will be able to give you fairly accurate answer, but wireless networking is justtoo much for this old brain to handle.

The machine came with Windows XP Pro and no I do not have the disk, which could be a problem down the road.  I have manually entered the WEP key which did allow the problem machine to see my existing wireless network to the point of claiming an excellent connection, but that is where it ends.

I suspected there was some sharing problems, but that does not appear to be the case.  Checking the device manager does not show any red X's or yellow ?'s so a hardware problem does not seem to be the issue and all drivers do say they are current.

You may be right that the machine simply has a teen age crush but it had better get over it.  As soon as I get this thing working I am shipping it off to my son and 5 year old Granddaughter in Florida and they know even less about this stuff than I do.  You are probably right I just need to call Tom the techie and pay him to fix this the way he did my other machines.  I just hate to spend the money if I can do it may self, which of course I can't.

Any helpful ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Paul

My system is not 801 but iit may work the same as mine.
Go to the router configuration and see if it is saying something like 168. xxx xxx.xxx
wants to connect to the network.  If it does just let it in.

   wilson

Thank you for the idea.  I tied the router configuration and really got nowhere.  I can ping with a hard cable, but as soon as I unplug it there is no communication.

This may be nothing more than my current wireless security blocking what it thinks is an intruder.  I took the laptop to a local wi-fi location and it did work, although it was slow to connect.  I also just tried installing the wireless adapter I have for my other laptop (which does work on my network) and that also could not connect.  This kind of confirms my belief in the security blocking the access.  

Maybe I am just being too concerned, but if this machine gets to my son in Florida and doesn't work smoothly then I don't have anyway to help him fix it from my home in Tennessee.  Add to that the fact that he knows almost nothing about computers except how to turn them on and you see the potential problem.  Also, he doesn't have Tom the techie to fall back on.

Enough of my whining.  I will try it one more time at a wi-fi location and if it works, I will package up the laptop and send it off.  Unless, of course someone has some magic solution to my lack of wireless networking knowledge.

Thanks,
Paul

If you're seeing the network, the problem is 90% solved.  The problem is probably in TCP/IP or DNS configuration.

First of all, if you have a software firewall on your laptop, disable it until you get verything configured.  This is not at all dangerous, since the NAT router itself will act to a great extent like a firewall.  On the later versions of XP, the built-in firewall is enabled by default.  Disable it.  If you have any third-party firewall, disable that also.  (If you have ZoneAlarm, disable the service as well.)

Ping 127.0.0.1.  This will just make sure that there is no dire installation or configuration problem in your TCP/IP stack.  I assume that there isn't.

Next access your router from some other machine - I assume that you can't access it at all from the laptop - and disable ALL security gadgets.  You're right that they are a likely source of problems, and as I said, the router itself is good enough to use as a frewall for an hour or so.  Enable the router's DHCP server, and note the router's IP and subnet mask, since you MAY need the latter later.  Go back to your laptop, set TCP/IP to get both its own IP and the DNS information from the router's DHCP server.

Now reboot both the router and the laptop.  (There are faster ways to do this stage, but this is the best.)  While they're rebooting, go have a few stiff drinks:  home routers can take a LONG time to reboot, even 10 minutes, and it will not EXPLICITLY tell you when it's finished.

Now ping your router from your laptop.  If you're lucky, you will have a working TCP/IP connection.  If you don't, tell us what error messages you're getting.  (Not all 100% losses are created equal.)  If you do, and you still can't establish a USEFUL connection between the laptop and the real world, tell us what application you're using to try to do so.  I have found that the automatic configuration gadget which IE on XP uses, for example, never works.

Good luck.
C.

Thanks to all for their help.  I think that the ulimate problem was my network security.  That now seems to be solved and I have shipped the computer to my son, who is now calling me his questions.  A father's work is never done.