Does your laptop keep dropping or losing it’s wireless connection for no reason? Or maybe your laptop can see the wireless access point, but won’t connect unless you restart the entire computer? These are some of the problems that I’ve had myself and so here’s a quick and dirty guide to troubleshooting your wireless network without having to go out and buy a new router!
Firstly, the more common wireless issue is the fact that your computer will continuously drop the wireless connection and then suddenly reconnect for no apparent reason. The main culprits behind this type of problem is usually software, not hardware. By software, I don’t mean your Windows operating system, but instead am referring to the device drivers for your wireless network card and your wireless router.
You’ll need to visit the web site’s for the hardware manufactures and download the latest drivers. So if you have a Dell, go to support.dell.com, find your model and download the driver for the wireless card. Same thing applies to your router, go to Dlink, Netgear, or Linksys’s web site and install the latest firmware for the router. You can read a previous article I had written about updating drivers for your wireless card if the connection is dropping.
That will usually fix any problems with the connection being dropped! If you’re having problems connecting in the first place, you might want to try resetting the current configuration in Windows and then try to connect. You can do this by first going to the Control Panel and clicking on Network Connections.
You’ll get a list of all the current connections on your computer, such as Bluetooth, wireless, etc. Go ahead and right-click on your wireless network connection and choose Properties.
Click on the Wireless Networks tab and click on the name of the network in the list of Preferred networks. Now you want to click Remove so that Windows will erase any of the current settings for that network and will start freshly again. A lot of times when you refresh the list of networks again, Windows will automatically connect. Go ahead and click OK and then click on the wireless network icon in your Taskbar and try to connect again.
If that does not work, you can also try to Repair the wireless connection. The Repair option tries a few other things, such as disabling and re-enabling the wireless card, clearing out the DNS cache of old records, and then connecting to the wireless network. You can do a repair by going to Network Connections as shown above and right-clicking the wireless connection and choosing Repair.
So if the three methods so far, driver, resetting, and repairing don’t work, then try to unplug the wireless router and plugging it back in after about a minute. It’s best to turn off the cable modem too, then turn on the cable modem first and then turn on the router.
Unless there is something physically wrong with the router, one of those methods should work! You can also try restarting your computer, but that’s not really any help since everything has to be closed down. Any other methods, post a comment!
Resource: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-troubleshoot-your-windows-xp-wireless-network-connection-problems/
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