So i just got a dell laptop and cant for the life of me figure out how to set up wireless internet, any help would be great

 

you will need a wireless card for your laptop and a wireless router hooked up the the modem

 

i have both and still dont know how to set up

 

You Must Use The Software That Came With Them, Or Find The Drivers For The Devices... Some Devices Are Plug And Play And Will Detect Themselves However Most Internal Hardware Liek That Is Not. Doh! Caps Lock Was On

 

well it depends on your intenet....most routers can be plugged right into cable high speed and start broadcasting the internet to the world....if you have dsl high speed then you will have to enter some passwords and usernames into the router, at least that is the way my dsl is.....

you hooke the power and cable/phone line to the modem. Then hook that with an ethernet cable to the router, some say Internet in, others say something different but it slips my mind at the moment.

Then on the laptop if it has a built in wireless card there is usually a switch on the laptop that turns it on and off, just incase you dont want it to connect to local networks, so make sure that is on. If you have a wireless adaptor card windows will USUALLY detect it and set it up for you. Sometimes you will need to install a drivers.

Once you have those things done click on Start > settings > Network Connections > Wireless Network (if everything is installed properly that should be an icon) > view wireless networks...in there since your router has the default settings should be the routers name ie. Linksys, Netgear, Motorola etc etc...double click yours and it should connect in a few seconds.

Try that if all that does work for you we can go into securing your router against intruders. If that doesnt work tell me where you are haviing the problems....

 

dont use the WINDOWS setup if you have setup WEP on yours...

use the s/w that came with the hardware.

i have a straight forward WEP/128 bit setup at home.

i bring home new laptops from work to work on them (rather watch tv... lol) and using WINDOWS setup sometimes doesnt even work, even if a copy and paste the WEP key...

so i make sure to buy dell laptops with intel cards built in. their software takes like 10 seconds to setup...

 

I talked to him on AIM last night. Apparently the network device isnt even listed in device manager.

Either its not being detected or he needs to install some drivers. Unfortunately dell list 20 different types of wireless network cards they put into that laptop. But I do believe if you type in your service tag into Dell's webpage it will list the exact drivers you need.

You'll have to hook the laptop to the router via ethernet. Or you can download the files on your desktop burn them onto a cd and go from there. Thats if you cant find the orginal install disc.

Does anyone know if the Dell Inspir. 5100 has a switch on it to turn off the wireless adaptors. I know my Toshiba and newer laptops do. I figured maybe windows wasnt seeing it because it was turned off....

 

When I ran into issues with my Linksys set-up, I just placed a toll-free call to "Bob" in "New York." Outsourcing gets a bad rap, but at least "they" were polite and solved my problems without any hassle, sighing, or obnoxious gum chewing into the mouthpiece.

I say utilize the tech support number if you are still having problems.

 

if you go to dell's premius support page and type in service tag, you get a listing of everything IN the machine.

and all of the dells i;ve got never had a hard switch to turn on and off the radio, but rather a the blue FN key plus F2 (IIRC) to turn it on and off...