Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with laptop and wifi

What's causing erratic wifi behaviour?

thoughtless — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:51:24 -0800

What would make my laptop sporadically lose visibility of all wireless networks? I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 2515 laptop, running Vista Home Premium, which is behaving erratically wifi-wise. Very frequently it will stop detecting that there are any wireless networks around, and disconnect me if I'm connected at the time. It may then detect them again a minute or two later but then will usually lose them again shortly afterwards, and then the cycle continues. When connected it works perfectly, and it has no other problems. Even when not detecting the networks it will believe that everything is fine - it just can't find any networks.

This behaviour isn't predictable; sometimes it can stay in one state for an hour or so before changing. There doesn't seem to be any way to make it change - moving etc. doesn't really seem to do anything. Upgrading the drivers has had no effect, and I also tried booting from an Ubuntu live cd, which showed exactly the same symptoms.

What could be causing this inordinately frustrating weirdness? The only explanations I can think of are that either there's some loose connection internally (maybe to an antenna? do they have them?) or that the wireless component itself (an Intel 3945abg) is borked. As it's out of warranty both of these sound pretty expensive to fix; might I be best off just buying a wireless card to plug in to the expresscard slot? I'd like to be confident that it will work before spending that money.

Blogspot blogs won't display on one computer only

nanojath — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:50:27 -0800

Weird glitch in Internet Explorer: certain blogspot blogs won't display on one computer only (post wifi browsing session?) Asking for someone I know. They were on free wireless at a (supposedly secure, free corporate type) wifi hotspot and browsed their own blogs and several others they regularly visit. Later they discovered that they cannot view these blogs on their laptop any more: Internet Explorer appears to open the pages, but they are totally blank. Here's the extra weirdness:

1. There is NOTHING to view on the pages as they come up. You can't highlight anything, there are not objects. BUT if you look at the source it just looks like a normal blogspot blog page setup. Again, view source brings up just what you'd expect (well, I haven't gone over it line for line but it certainly looks right, having looked at more than a couple of blogspot pages in source) - yet what you see in the browser window is nada, just a blank black page!
2. On other computers these blogs come up fine so it is the computer, not the blogs themselves.
3. One of their own blogs is affected - but they can still log in to their account, make posts etc. The posts show up fine.

Complications:

1. This showed up after they did the wireless browsing and they are convinced the free wifi "did this" to their computer but I just don't get how that would be. They think only the blogs they browsed there were affected but under questioning couldn't be totally sure about that.
2. An alternate browser is not an option, they cannot install outside software on their computer.
3. Did the standard clearing of cache, cookies, history, offline web content, restart. No change. I haven't personally used IE for a long long time but I can't think of anything else basic to do about it.

Any bright ideas? I'm completely flummoxed.

I am looking for a signal booster that will play nicely on my laptop which has Vista.

cheero — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:45:18 -0800

I am looking for a signal booster that will play nicely on my laptop which has Vista. People recommended EnGenius USB Device but from what I gathered on Amazon, it does not work past XP. I basically need something that I can take with my on the go. Intel GMA 4500MHD / Intel Wi-Fi / 10/100 Eth is what came with my laptop. Is there a signal booster compatible with Vista?

Help me find and fix my wifi card problem.

philomathoholic — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:05:46 -0800

I've replaced my wireless card, but my laptop still intermittently locks up. The problem occurs whether I'm running XP or Ubuntu, and disappears when I disable the wifi in bios. * I assume the freezes are related to when the card is transmitting.
* Ubuntu will work fine until it connects to an AP. Then it immediately has problems.
* XP has problems on the login screen, but works great (immediately) after disabling the wifi (via the wifi-radio button).
* Both XP and Ubuntu are fully up to date.

* My laptop is an HP Pavilion dv5000 (custom build), with a Broadcom mini-pci a/b/g wlan card.
* I thought the old card was the culprit, so I replaced it with an identical one from HP, but the problem remains.
* Ethernet works fine.

Should I suspect the motherboard? Do people replace the motherboard on laptops? Isn't that expensive? Don't people just replace the laptop instead?

What else could/should I be checking, to narrow down the problem?

What do I need to get this laptop online?

Frasermoo — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:16:53 -0800

Help me get a laptop online please. I have been given an old laptop, Dell Latitude CPx 650. It needs a battery, and CD drive which I'm ok with, but what card do I need to get it online?

Ideally I'd like the option to go wifi and cable.

Ta.

Getting Started With Wireless Internet?

Danila — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:17:22 -0800

I have a laptop. I have wireless internet in Philadelphia through the city-wide wifi program that will be ending very soon. Please help if you can. I know NOTHING. I don't know anything about wifi. All I know is that when I got the laptop I followed the instructions to find a network, there was "Wireless Philadelphia", I connected and followed instructions to sign up for Earthlink. Now I need to find a replacement.

Apparently I need some sort of connection card thing that sticks in the side of the laptop? Plus a modem? AND a router? I have a useless modem I rented from Earthlink which I shall be returning. It never seemed to improve the signal at all.

What companies offer wireless service? All I know is Earthlink, and when I google, I get confused between wireless cell phone services and wireless internet. I know there will be a monthly fee and it will surely be higher than what I've paid Earthlink, but will I need to buy other things in order to get it to work? How can I make this as simple as possible? Thank you.

Need help with Internet access with a laptop.

valleys — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:48:17 -0800

I have a couple of questions about accessing the internet when travelling with a laptop for the first time. Questions about travelling with a laptop which I've been given for work:

1) I assume wi-fi is available in most airports? I also assume it is not free. (Feel free to correct my assumptions!) How much will I typically pay for internet access? How does it work? Have laptop search for available networks, select one, follow the instructions, feed in credit card number? I assume this is relatively safe?

(I'll be in Toronto Pearson, Heathrow, Dhaka, various airports in India.)

2) In Bangladesh and India, if I don't get internet where I'm staying, can I take the laptop to an internet cafe and connect, or is it necessary to use their PCs? I'll have a power adaptor and network cable with me. Any security concerns? I've read about various means to thwart keyloggers if I'm using cafe computers, but enough to know that they're not perfect. What about if I'm using my own laptop ... any network concerns?

Any other advice? (Dell laptop running XP)

WiFi behavior question.

nivekraz — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:53:37 -0800

We have a wireless LAN with rogue detection. The rougue detection picks up some laptops as rogue access points. It looks like the laptops are looking for the last access point connection they had. We see standard SSIDs like "linksys" and "Free Public WiFi". Why would the laptops be broadcasting the SSID of the previous access point it was connected to?

Why, why, wi-fi?

sprocket87 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:50:18 -0800

Why does my laptop's wireless network fail to work after resuming from standby, requiring a reboot? The laptop in question is a Dell Vostro 1400 laptop, integrated Dell 802.11g adapter, Windows XP SP2. The adapter works fine and can detect and connect to the networks with no issue, normally. But it freaks out sometimes.

I'll give you a typical scenario:

I open the laptop on my lunch break at work and connect to my office WiFi network (802.11g, WPA, static IP). Works fine, stays connected through lunch. Shut the lid and take the laptop home after work.

Get home, open the laptop. It resumes from standby and I set the IP to DHCP. It sees my home network (802.11g, WPA, DHCP) and tries to connect to it, but fails. I've tried repairing/disable/re-enabling manually, hard-disabling the adapter from the laptop's front switch and re-enabling, and stopping the WZC service (which refuses to restart). When I do a repair, it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to disable/enable the adapter, and stalls at "Connecting" for several minutes, before it finally bails and errors out. No matter what, it won't reconnect until I reboot.

When I reboot it works fine (though the network services seem to take a long time to start). Even if I reboot with the IP still set to my work's static IP, I can change it to DHCP and it connects fine. (Point being that it requires a reboot for the interface to even work, and doesn't appear to be related to static IP vs DHCP)

Even stranger: If I reboot, it works fine until I shut the lid and go to standby again. If I resume, there's a 50/50 chance of it working again. It might work, it might not. It might work for 30 mins and then flake out, and nothing works but a reboot. Last night, for instance, I put the laptop in standby at home, then brought it to work today. I started it from standby during lunch and changed my IP and it connected fine. It died an hour later and wouldn't come back until I rebooted. Eh!??

I think it's a "bigger" network adapter issue. I also have a bluetooth module in the laptop and it works fine all the time, but if the WiFi drops then the Bluetooth doesn't work either. That's not even the same adapter! Is there a service that's flipping out or something?

Please throw any suggestions my way. It's not specifically related to one or even two wifi networks; it happens on whatever network I'm connecting too. It seems like it has to be an adapter issue!

Note that this system was originally Vista but I replaced it with a fresh XP install. Dell does have up-to-date XP drivers though, which I'm running.

Thanks!!

Is it required that you need a print server to print over a wifi connection?

zooropa — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:46:26 -0800

Is there any way to emulate a print server? This may sound like a weird idea, but I'll ask anyway ...

At home, we have a laptop and a printer. We have a wireless network (802.11b) for our broadband Internet connection. Right now, anytime someone wants to print, you have to physically take the laptop over to the printer, plug in the USB cable, wait for it to come up, and then print.

I'd like to be able to print remotely without having to get up and go to the other room. I understand that you can do this with a print server, but I'd rather not shell out the cash for this at the moment. I'm curious if there is a way you can do this via software emulation. I thought I had heard you can print over a wireless network via software, but i wasn't sure.

Any ideas?

How to run script when you connect to network?

mrgreyisyelling — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:56:25 -0800

How to run a program/script automatically when laptop connects to Home wireless network? I'm not sure if its necessary - but is it possible to setup something that when it connects to a specific network, it runs a script?

An example would be: I come home with my laptop, and when my laptop connects to Home Network its starts my sync program to copy files to my backup drive on the network.

Problems with routers, Xbox360s, and UPnP.

CliffDiving44 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:09:18 -0800

My cable connection keeps losing connection when UPnP is enabled, but I need it enabled to keep my Xbox360s connected. Why is this happening? First of all, my house has 6 TVs, 2 laptops, and Vonage VoIP on our Comcast cable connection. I bought the linksys wrtg54g router when the linksys befw11s4's wireless stopped working, but I've since switched back to the befw11s4, and it works pretty good now.

Now on to the question.. my routers have always lost their connection every couple days, but would connect again if I manually reset the router. It has happened with both my linksys befw11s4 router (the one I'm using now), and with my newer linksys wrtg54g. This wasn't such a problem for me, until my friends and I wanted to use more than one Xbox360 on my connection. We hooked them all up to the same router, and the Xbox360s all lost connection about 10 minutes after connecting. The connection was only lost on the Xbox360s, not on any TVs or laptops. Comcast told us that we didn't have enough bandwidth to run the Xbox360s all at once, but we used to use 4 PS2s all at the same time with no problems whatsoever. I finally solved this problem of the Xbox360s cutting out by updating my router's firmware and enabling UPnP, but now the laptops and the VoIP both lose connection very frequently with UPnP enabled. It seems that the connection is fine with UPnP enabled until a second or third laptop connects. I've been switching UPnP on when I use the 360s, and off when I'm done, but that's a hassle, and I'm sure this problem is not normal. I don't think it's the router because it happens with both of them, but I'm not sure. Also, Comcast hasn't been much of a help with this situation. Even the routers cutting out every couple days and needing a hard reset to connect again is weird to me, so this issue with the 360s and the UPnP further frustrates and confuses me.

Anyone have any ideas on what could be the problem here? Thanks.

Restrictions on using laptop in coffee shop or library?

CliffDiving44 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:32:23 -0800

Hello, I was wondering what are the standard rules for taking a laptop to a coffee shop or library. My laptop battery only lasts about 45 minutes, so do they allow you to plug in? And also, what are the normal costs of wifi access, if any? Thank you.

Help me stop sitting on the floor outside the Admiral's Club checking my email.

jessamyn — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:45:11 -0800

Starting in a few weeks I will be doing a lot of travelling with my laptop. Help me choose a wifi provider for airports and possibly other locations. I do not have a cell phone, so I can't add on to a cell phone plan. My home DSL ISP does not have any roaming plan. I would like to be able to access wifi primarily at airports, but hotels and/or other places would be good too. It would help if the plan were international so I could connect when I am in Australia, but other countries don't much matter. I have a MacBook so anything requiring a card is unlikely to serve my purposes, unless there is something I do not know about how they work.

Basically I would like a way to connect to multiple access points per day a small number of days a month [N=3-7 usually] in a fairly hassle-free manner.

I had a Boingo account briefly to try it out and thought it was pretty simple and just worked. Maybe that's the answer, but I'm wondering how the other providers work in terms of a) coverage and b) price, especially "Can I get the price down by paying for a year at a time?" since Boingo was $21.95/mo, no obvious discount for multiple months. Also if there are places to look for deals and/or sales on this sort of thing, please point me in that direction. I have already seen the Free Airport Wifi list. Thanks.

Wifi, come back!

shallowcenter — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:53:34 -0800

Why has my laptop started turning off its wireless radio randomly? Just this morning, after several months of flawless wireless computing, my laptop, a Lenovo, began inexplicably booting me offline. For no apparent reason, my wireless capability suddenty disappears, requiring me to manually turn the wireless radio back on. (it's not a router issue, as, once the wireless radio is on, I have no problem picking up a wireless signal and reconnecting.) Needless to say, this is an enormous pain in the posterior. I searched through the company's online support, but found no help, so before I call/e-mail, I thought I'd throw it out to you folks. Any suggestions? (As always, thanks in advance.)

Laptop can't see secure wireless network. Can you?

Milkman Dan — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:24:38 -0800

PC laptop wireless issues: Can’t connect to my secure in-house wireless network. Any smart people able to help? Hey Team Internet,

I’ve got a laptop, and I can’t make it connect to my wireless network.

The wireless connection requires users to be added manually by inputting their fixed and/or wireless MAC addresses. I have added those addresses, and they have certifiably been correctly inputted. The network is not password protected, but will only let pre-authorized computers connect.

My laptop is an Acer TravelMate 280 running Windows XP. The router is a Linksys. In the “Choose a wireless network” box, the network doesn’t even show up as an option. It’s not a matter of distance – the signal is being broadcast from within my house.

When in other locations, I can connect to other wireless networks without any trouble. I can connect fine via a direct plug-in via Ethernet cable. I have another PC laptop that connects fine to the same wireless network. There’s also a new Macbook Pro that can connect fine to the wireless.

Those are the clues to the puzzle! Any ideas how to make this work?

Coal-burning wifi

sonofsamiam — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 06:54:16 -0800

I have an old laptop and want wireless on it. Are there any wifi cards that fit the OLD pcmcia I/II slots? All the wifi cards I can find are Cardbus-era, which won't even fit in the slot. I don't have USB on this thing either, so that's not an option.

Can I "stream" video files from a WinXP desktop to a Linux laptop?

skryche — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 09:44:12 -0800

Can I "stream" video files from a WinXP desktop to a Linux laptop? My computer has many video files. I don't really like to sit in my office chair to watch them. I'm thinking of buying a wireless router and a laptop and watching the files over a wireless connection in another room in the house.
1. Is this feasible?
2. What's the general range of WiFi(g)? Do I need direct line-of-sight to the router?
3. What router should I get? It is a router that I need, right?
4. How much more difficult would this project be if I decided to put Linux on the laptop? I really want to play with Ubuntu.

What else do I need to consider?

WIFI PCI??

gergtreble — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 02:46:27 -0800

Wififilter: I want a miniPCI card for my laptop. Hi. I recently purchased a Toshiba satellite A30-514. It has a space for a mini PCI wifi LAN card. Im currently on a 802.11b network and have no plans to upgrade yet. I have a PCI card slot card at the moment but I wish to upgrade and free up this slot. My question is this, ive seen a lot of mini PCI's on ebay. Will any of them do? Or do I have to get one specific to my laptop? Ive noticed that some need "workarounds" to work with certain laptop brands. How do I know if I need to do this? And would that be a big job? Thanks in advance.

Help me select a laptop. (Be gentle, its my first time...)

anastasiav — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 05:29:25 -0800

Help me select a laptop. (Be gentle, its my first time...) I'm gearing up to buy my first laptop. We currently have a quite powerful desktop PC that my boyfriend's brother built for us, so we've never purchased a "whole" computer before. I have to confess that all the lingo and such on the sales pages is making my eyes glaze over.

I really just need it to do the regular computer things -- run Photoshop (which I already have), run Office (which I already have), do Wireless Networking, enable me to play a few games (but nothing huge and cutting edge), maybe play a little music. Also, we travel quite a bit and I'd like very much to be able to watch DVD movies in the car when we're on the road.

Tell me what I want to buy (including brand and model suggestions). Budget is $1400 at the very most.

Note to Macheads: I already have a lot of existing PC software that I'd prefer not to rebuy for a Powerbook, so as much as I'd love to be an Apple girl I don't think that's the right choice for me. Also, there's the price thing.

Laptop WiFi adapter is humming.

stopgap — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 11:55:16 -0800

My laptop makes an audible, high-pitched hum when the WiFi adapter is turned on. Is there anything I can do to make it shut up? I have a Dell Latitude X1. It has no fans, and it's silent except for this noise, which makes it very noticeable and very annoying.

Also, the noise seems to stop when there is a high load on the processor, no matter what causes the load.

WiFi connection problemon open networks

timnyc — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 10:18:47 -0800

Wi-fi woes. My XP laptop connects to the Web on my open home network, but I've had problems connecting to other open networks elsewhere. [MORE INSIDE] I'll get green bars, but no connection. This has happened in a local coffee shop w/ an open network. And a public library where I followed their directions on changing my settings. Both places had many other people happily surfing. I've also tried NetStumbler while driving in a car, finding an amazing density of open networks (this was suburban Chicago). While it's fun to see the names of the networks ("Alien Fast Food" was my favorite), I wanted to connect. (Not sure if this is legal... not that I really care.) Sadly the only time I (almost) had wifi connection outside the home was at the airport, where I connected to a Web page asking me to pay. No thanks. I'm looking for any good pointers or a good resource on connecting to open access points.

PCMCIA 802.11b (or g) WiFi adapter for a PC laptop that doesn't protrude beyond the PC card slot?

mrbill — Sun, 12 Dec 2004 20:18:32 -0800

One of the things I like most about my iBook is that the wireless adapter is internal and doesn't protrude from the system. Does anyone know of a PCMCIA 802.11b (or g) WiFi adapter for a PC laptop that doesn't protrude beyond the PC card slot?

TV on a lap through router?

PigAlien — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 11:05:46 -0800

I want to watch TV on my laptop via wifi. Does anyone know how I can do this? For example, Toshiba's new Qosmio laptops come with a 'Wifi TV Router'. Does anyone else make a WiFi TV router? Or, alternatively, I have another computer with a TV card in it. What software could I install to stream the live TV signal from my server? I know there are streaming video products, but I don't know if any of them can also handle changing channels on a live TV stream. Any helpful suggestions appreciated. Thanks! I have been doing research, and I see some of the software, such as shoutcast's server, will accept live video feeds, but they won't let you change the channel. The same is true of Microsoft's Media Encoder. I am thinking perhaps of using something like PCAnywhere to change the channel and using the server to stream the video. Also, most of the streaming software is not free. Are there any free or OSS streaming alternatives?

Wireless transfers are interfering with my cursor

clockwork — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 20:53:00 -0800

I have put a wireless card in my old ibm laptop. now the cursor jumps up the screen every time the transfer light blinks. this makes internet navigation rather difficult. [more] I have tried two different brands of wireless card with similar results. All drivers are up to date and win2k tells me there are no shared resources. Also, an ethernet card in the same slot gave me no such nonsense. I have noticed if the transfer is very slow, no jumping occurs.