acer aspire 5720 laptop not connecting to router

[cofelmwood]

Hi, my son has an Acer Windows Vista laptop which used to connect to our Belkin wireless router. We are with Virgin, & he has IE 8. The icon on the taskbar shows as being connected for about 15 mins, (BUT the IE pages still don't work) and the 'red cross' appears on it eventually.. But when he opens IE - it just says diagnose connection problems. When we try to connect from there, it won't!
We have a Toshiba laptop & a desktop pc, so I have managed to check that I have the correct WPA etc. I wonder if I need to re-enter the virgin password, but I can't find the box where to re enter these details.
The Toshiba laptop connects fine nearby to the Acer, & I have tried right next to the router too. I have been round in circles! Any help would be great.
Also, I uninstalled Norton anti virus, and installed AVG on the Acer, in case that was causing probs, (I was able to get it connected using a borrowed cable) but now I can't connect with that either!
When I go to 'Device manager' (CTRL panel) The broadcom netlink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet is disabled. SO...I enabled it, but when i go back into it, it is disabled again. (Code 22).
When I bring up 'Connect to a Network,' I can see our wireless network connection in the list, & I can can click on it, & click 'Connect' but still no joy.
I'm exasperated...........
If you need any more info please ask.....I am here tonight, but out all day Sat, but will be back.....many thanks....Caroline

[mgmcc]

<font color="navy">" I wonder if I need to re-enter the virgin password, but I can't find the box where to re enter these details."</font>

Your problem is with connecting wirelessly to the Router, so it will be the WPA key that you may need to re-enter, not the Virgin details which are handled by the Router.

Go to "Control panel &gt; Network &amp; Sharing Center", then click the link at the left to "Manage Wireless Networks". Click the entry for your wireless network to highlight it and then click the "Remove" button. Close the window so that you're back in the "Network &amp; Sharing Center".

Click the link at the left to "Connect to a Network", highlight the entry for your wireless network, click the "Connect" button and you should be prompted to enter the WPA key again.

[cofelmwood]

Mike - thanks for that. Well I have just done all that, but it still says I can't connect to my network. When you said re enter the WPA key, do you mean my network password ?
I have just had a look at network connections, and the Local Area Connection says it is disabled. The Wireless network Connection has full strength, but not connected.
Thanks again, Caroline

[mgmcc]

If your router is pre-configured with WEP or WPA encryption, you may be provided with a "Network Password", although that is a rather misleading description. However, that will be what you need to enter.

If you are still unable to "Connect" successfully, open a Command Prompt window ("Start &gt; Run", type cmd and click OK) then, at the prompt, type...

ipconfig /all

...and press Enter. This will show details of all network adapters installed in the PC. Right click in the Command Prompt window, "Select All" and press Enter to copy the details to the clipboard. Paste the details into a forum reply here.

If you are unable to paste the details directly from the computer, because it cannot get online, paste them instead into a blank "Notepad" file, transfer the file to a working PC and copy/paste the details from there. It might just give an indication as to what the problem is.

[cofelmwood]

Hi Mike, I'm not sure if it has collected all the info you need, but here goes....
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Paul&gt;ipconfig / all

Error: unrecognized or incomplete command line.

USAGE:
ipconfig [/allcompartments] [/? | /all |
/renew [adapter] | /release [adapter] |
/renew6 [adapter] | /release6 [adapter] |
/flushdns | /displaydns | /registerdns |
/showclassid adapter |
/setclassid adapter [classid] ]

where
adapter Connection name
(wildcard characters * and ? allowed, see examples)

Options:
/? Display this help message
/all Display full configuration information.
/allcompartments Display information for all compartments.
/release Release the IPv4 address for the specified adapter.
/release6 Release the IPv6 address for the specified adapter.
/renew Renew the IPv4 address for the specified adapter.
/renew6 Renew the IPv6 address for the specified adapter.
/flushdns Purges the DNS Resolver cache.
/registerdns Refreshes all DHCP leases and re-registers DNS names
/displaydns Display the contents of the DNS Resolver Cache.
/showclassid Displays all the dhcp class IDs allowed for adapter.
/setclassid Modifies the dhcp class id.

The default is to display only the IP address, subnet mask and
default gateway for each adapter bound to TCP/IP.

For Release and Renew, if no adapter name is specified, then the IP address
leases for all adapters bound to TCP/IP will be released or renewed.

For Setclassid, if no ClassId is specified, then the ClassId is removed.

Examples:
&gt; ipconfig ... Show information
&gt; ipconfig /all ... Show detailed information
&gt; ipconfig /renew ... renew all adapters
&gt; ipconfig /renew EL* ... renew any connection that has its
name starting with EL
&gt; ipconfig /release *Con* ... release all matching connections,
eg. "Local Area Connection 1" or
"Local Area Connection 2"
&gt; ipconfig /allcompartments ... Show information about all
compartments
&gt; ipconfig /allcompartments /all ... Show detailed information about all

Cheers Caroline

[mgmcc]

<font color="navy">"Error: unrecognized or incomplete command line"</font>

As per the first line of the response, there is an error in the command you typed in. It should be:

ipconfig /all

<font color="red">with only a single space between </font>ipconfig<font color="red"> and</font> /all <font color="red">- there is no space between the forward slash and "all". </font>

[cofelmwood]

Hi

Sorry, but couldn't get back here sooner.
Here is what you asked for.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Paul&gt;ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Paul-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1F-E2-AE-86-A6
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{08727D68-3934-4D02-AF77-CA86B252F
58C}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\Paul&gt;
Thanks very much for your time!
Regards

[mgmcc]

The details only show that the Wireless Network Adapter isn't connected to the network. You could try changing the Channel number that the Router uses for the wireless network.

Connect a computer (any computer) to the Router by ethernet cable, not wirelessly, and type its IP address (192.168.2.1 for a Belkin Router) into a web browser. This should open its configuration pages and, within the "wireless" settings, there will be an option to change the Channel number. The default value for most Routers is either "6" or "11", so try one of these or, if already using one of them, change to the other. Your other computers connecting wirelessly will automatically adjust to the new Channel number.

If that doesn't let you get connected, you could try changing any WEP or WPA encryption key that is in use. After doing this it would be necessary to remove the existing 'profiles' for all computers which connect wirelessly to the Router and then go through the procedure to "Connect" again and enter the new key

[cofelmwood]

Hi

I changed the channel number to '6', exactly as you said, but I'm afraid there is still no connection. I will try changing the WEP key when my friend can come in to do it with me. Sorry that I can't get back here too often, I have family in hosp at the moment, so I'm a bit busy, but will be back!

Cheers