Ask The Computer Lady » wireless http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions If you have computer questions, this is the place for you Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:42:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Wireless Stopped http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2011/02/wireless-stopped/ http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2011/02/wireless-stopped/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:46:34 +0000 Computer Lady http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/?p=3620 Dear Computer Lady,

My husband has a problem with his wireless on his laptop. It just stopped working. We can’t seem to figure out why. It worked the night before and when he got up in the morning, it would not connect to the internet. Could it be burned out, or another problem? It seems to of disappeared out of his laptop. It used to be in the same place as the bluetooth, now it’s gone. We need a solution.

Any help would be a blessing. Pat

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Dear Pat,

I have seen this happen to quite a few customers, and 99% of the time, it is a very simple problem. You have inadvertently turned off the wireless on your laptop.

All you have to do is figure out how to turn it back on…

It sounds easy, but there is no universal way to turn wireless on and off on your laptop. On some laptops, the wireless is a physical switch located somewhere along the front or one of the side edges. There will often be a wireless symbol right next to the switch.

Note: the wireless symbol looks like a tower with sound waves coming from the top of the tower.

Many laptops don’t have a physical switch, but instead work with a keyboard combination. If you can’t find a physical switch on your laptop, take a close look at the keyboard. Get out your magnifying glass if you need it to see all the symbols on the keys, and look for a symbol that might represent wireless.

If you find a key with the wireless symbol on it, take note of its color. Often a laptop has a function key that might have the letters a different color, or perhaps in a small box. If you hold down that function key, and press the key with the wireless symbol, you can turn the wireless on and off.

It can take a few seconds for the wireless to get turned back on, so give it a few seconds before you press the same keys again, or try a different key combination.

Elizabeth.

]]> http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2011/02/wireless-stopped/feed/ 0 Wireless Advantages and Disadvantages http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2010/02/wireless-advantages-and-disadvantages/ http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2010/02/wireless-advantages-and-disadvantages/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:50:27 +0000 Computer Lady http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/?p=2514 Dear Computer Lady,

I have been with you for many years, and this is my first question. I just purchased a HP PC and it has a wirless lan. Besides losing some of the wires is there any other advantage for having this feature and will it low my computer down if I do utilize this feature. Thanks for all the help thru the years and I hope one day you will give lessons for Windows 7.

Cindy

Dear Cindy,

First, in order for the wireless on your computer to work, you must have a wireless router to send out a signal for the PC to receive.

If your new PC is a desktop, I would just stick with the wires. They are more reliable, and faster than wireless.

If your new PC is a laptop, the wireless will give you the freedom to move around and use the internet anywhere in your house. When I had surgery last year, I used my wireless a lot more. I would sit up in bed and use a small laptop to answer my mail, surf the web, watch Netflix movies, and I even found the time to join Facebook. In the summer, I use my laptop outside on the porch.

Using the wireless will not slow your computer down, and you probably won’t see much of a difference when using it to surf the internet. Downloading or uploading files will take a bit longer though, so I would suggest that you connect using your Ethernet cable when you want to transfer large files.

I am working on lessons for Windows 7, they should be starting up sometime in April.

Elizabeth

]]> http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2010/02/wireless-advantages-and-disadvantages/feed/ 0 Forgot network key http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2009/08/forgot-network-key/ http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/2009/08/forgot-network-key/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:29:37 +0000 Computer Lady http://askthecomputerlady.com/questions/?p=1814 Dear Computer Lady,

I would like to connect my laptop to a wireless network in my house. the “main” computer has a linksys. my brother has hooked up one laptop to it already, but has misplaced the security key necessary to have my computer connected. is it possible to connect to the wireless internet another way?

Vanessa

Dear Vanessa,

The nice thing about a secure wireless network is that it keeps other people out of your network unless they have the security key or password.

The first thing you will need to do, is find the manual for your Linksys router. If you don’t have the original paperwork, you should be able to find another manual on their website that you can download and print out. It will contain important information that you will need as you go along.

While I am on the subject of the manual, that is where I always write critical information like the password to access the router and the security key when I set up a router.

If you have the password to access the router from your main computer, you can use it to look up your security key. Your manual will have instructions for how to access the router along with the default password. Hopefully, you changed the password and wrote it down.

If you don’t have the password to access the router from your main computer, I have good news and bad news for your situation.

The good news is that you can reset the linksys router to its default settings, and then set it up again with a new router password and security key. (be sure to write them down)

The bad news is that your brother will have to reconfigure his laptop with the new security key once you have reset the router.

How do you reset the router? The manual will have directions, but every linksys router that I have seen has a small reset button, usually on the bottom. If you hold in that button for about 30 seconds the router will be reset back to the factory defaults and you can use the manual to reconfigure the router.

Elizabeth

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