Lost internet connection on wireless network

After being able to connect with a network cable, and then also with a USB adapter, I'm pretty sure it's the wireless card in my laptop. I will soon give Dell a call. Thanks for your help.

I use a cable modem and also have a wireless connection to the internet for my laptop, using a Netgear router connected to my desktop computer. Everytime my ISP changes the IP address, I lose my internet connection on the laptop. I have been unplugging the router and when I plug it in again my connection is restored.

Is there a setting that can be changed in order to prevent this from happening to me???? Can the instructions you gave (Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Connections Tab
LAN settings
Make sure all the boxes are unchecked. It sometimes will revert to Proxy Settings if there is no internet when you tried to connect.),
apply to my situation, too?

I appreciate your help with this. It's been driving me crazy. My ISP was no help and basically blamed it on the router. I have been searching everywhere for a simple answer to this, but even when I did find an article that might apply, it was too technical for me to understand.

Thank you.......Gina

After spending two and a half hours on the phone with Dell tech support, the problem was resolved by scaling down some of the security I had set to protect my network. (64 bit instead of 128 bit WEP for one thing). He told me that the Dell draft N wireless mini-card in my laptop may have compatiblility issues with a Netgear router. (I had no problems at all until the comcast lines were cut by the Direct TV installers)! At any rate, he made me cut back on the encryption level, and now I'm back on line.

Ah--My laptop happens to be a Dell as well!! Were you also getting disconnected when your ISP changed your IP number, or were you having a problem connecting all of the time? As I mentiond earlier, the only time I have a problem is when my ISP changes the IP number every few days. That makes me wonder if my solution could possibly be as simple as changing a setting--but if so, which setting????

It should be

Cable > Cable modem > Wireless Router > Wired desktop

or

Cable > Cable modem > Wireless Router


If it's connected like this, your settings for your wireless router should NOT change.

If you have it hooked up like this:

Cable > Wireless Router > Cable modem > wired desktop

or

Cable > Wireless Router > Cable modem

This is wrong!


Hope this helps.


Rick

Thank you Rick! I am 99% sure mine does go: Cable > Wireless Router > Cable modem > wired desktop, because I believe that's how the instructions said to do it!

I am going to redo the connections as you suggested. Will I also have to change any settings because of this setup change, or should changing the connection order alone do the trick??

Thank you again! I will be so happy to get this pesky problem corrected!!.......Gina