Latitude Not Accessing Free Internet But Ipod Is
December 7, 2014 3:17 AM   Subscribe

and so is iPad. So why can't my Dell Latitude access the free WiFi services? It's showing a list of wifi connections but not the free wifi that both my ipad and ipod can access - in this case it's Free Bezeq.
posted by watercarrier to Computers & Internet (10 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Which wireless standards does your Latitude's wireless network card support? Got a model number for the laptop? How old is it?
posted by devnull at 3:23 AM on December 7, 2014


Response by poster: D430 I have no idea which wireless network card is supports. Just to clarify a bit, it does manage to connect to wifi - just not the FREE wifi my other devices can. Thank you for any help with this. I can tweak the system if needed.
posted by watercarrier at 4:46 AM on December 7, 2014


Have you tried manually entering the SSID and WPA/etc key? If you run a program like this does it still not show up?

On preview, that model of dell shipped in some configurations without wireless N. This may be your issue.

As an additional question though, does this network show up as a separate SSID? Like is there "foobar wireless" and "foobar free wireless" and it's not seeing the second one? or are you just saying that once you connect, you don't get the "please login" captive portal screen where you can select free wifi.
posted by emptythought at 4:49 AM on December 7, 2014


Response by poster: ahhhhhhhh oh dude im just a poor ole lady here - please give it to me in baby talk - what should i do first? the free wifi doesnt even SHOW on the connection panel of choices. It's just not there. All of the wifi connections are on a list - i tried connecting to one seemingly free one but it then asked for a password - so that was a no go. What is a SSID and WPA and how do I get into that with this particular laptop and should i in fact run that program? What will it do?
posted by watercarrier at 5:04 AM on December 7, 2014


Best answer: The SSID is the name of the network and the WPA key is the password (for some networks); emptythought is asking what happens if you manually enter in the name of the network instead of just looking for it in the list. Is there an option to manually set up the network?

To me, it just sounds like the wireless card in your laptop may not be new/powerful/fancy enough to see the same networks -- and it just so happens that those missing networks don't have a password. It could be that the wifi spots are just a little too far away or the wifi router and your laptop wifi card just don't work together. Wifi cards and routers have different standards, of which wireless-N and ac are the newer ones. Apple products tend to have the nicest hardware. Dells, sometimes, do not.

I guess it could be that something is going wrong with your laptop that makes the card work poorly. Have you been able to connect to other public wifi spots with your laptop before today?
posted by bluefly at 6:25 AM on December 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: So to summarize what other people said and according to what I could find online, free bezeq uses what's called "wireless n" to do internet connections. This is a somewhat newer, better technology for Wi-Fi, which is great, but it looks like your laptop might not have the technology needed to support it. Your Apple devices do.

You can check if your computer supports wireless n - there's a set of instructions here that might work - if not Google for like "check wireless n [windows version]" obviously replacing that last part with whatever version of windows you have. If you don't support n then that's definitely the problem and there is likely no solution. If you do then come back and post and there may be some options.
posted by brainmouse at 7:38 AM on December 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: bluefly - i never tried to enter the info manually - i just assumed it would pick up the signal and source like my apple products. now i should just put out there that all this transpired when my electricity was down - no router. but still apple could connect no problem. the dell was struggling. eventually i did get a signal but not from the *free* wifi - another bezeq signal. very weak though.

if i wanted to venture and try to set it up manually - how would i go about doing that? i actually have all the set up numbers and stuff from the original installation the tech guy put in when he installed the router/internet. so maybe i could use those. but how? where? the os is windows 7.

when the router is on - no problem whatsoever. it connects - we ride into the stratosphere. apple works with or without the router. again - just saying....:)
posted by watercarrier at 7:47 AM on December 7, 2014


Response by poster: thanks brainmouse - i will try to follow those instructions and see where it gets me - find out if this dell has that ability. will check back with the results.
posted by watercarrier at 7:49 AM on December 7, 2014


Best answer: when the router is on - no problem whatsoever. it connects - we ride into the stratosphere. apple works with or without the router. again - just saying....:)

I meant the router (or whatever electronic hooey) that is producing the public wifi signal, not your home/personal router. You might be out of luck with your laptop, but if you want to try connecting manually here are some instructions (you would choose None or Unsecured for the Security Type, since the network you're connecting to has no password).
If you want to upgrade the wifi on your laptop, you can buy a little usb adapter for kinda cheap that may work better (I have a similar one and it connects to any network I've tried, so anything like that may work).
posted by bluefly at 9:21 AM on December 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thank you ~so~ much. I will be looking into your suggestions. Thank you everyone. I <3 meta.
posted by watercarrier at 9:38 AM on December 7, 2014


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