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General discussion

My wi-fi stopped working

Aug 26, 2004 7:55AM PDT

I bought a laptop second-hand. The wi-fi worked great for a week. I put the laptop away for two weeks, took it out, and the wi-fi won't connect to the Internet. What are the possible causes?

Do I need to have a wireless account? I didn't have one when I started using the computer.

Discussion is locked

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Re: My wi-fi stopped working
Aug 26, 2004 9:09AM PDT

If you had a wi-fi connection your area that did not block access to others (using the wi-fi router security encryption) then anyone in range of that wi-fi could sign into that wi-fi account.

It is likely the person with that connection has learned how to turn on his encryption so that unauthorized users can not piggyback anymore on this DSL or Cable High speed internet he was broadcasting through wi-fi.

Sometimes people intentionally broadcast their signals free for others to use (expecially in cities) but if you have an account and don't protect it someone can hack into it and take over your computer.

I had my wi-fi encryption off for awhile when I first set up my D-link router but once I learned how to set up the encyption now only notebooks that have my passcode can log into it.

Or the person near you could have just moved and turned off his service.

Note also that Windows SP2 has messed up the existing wi-fi connections of many people -- Windows XP SP2 now has a built in wi-fi utility that works fine but the Intel proset or other utility the notebook used in some cases does not work.

If you updated (either automatically or manually) to Windows SP2 you may have messed up your wi-fi settings and you may in fact still have an open wi-fi account but you just have to reset your wi-fi in windows.

Read the Cnet article on Windows SP2 for this issue.

If you are a student many universities have wi-fi access but likely you have to have a passcode to access it.

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Re: My wi-fi stopped working
Aug 28, 2004 3:13AM PDT

The proceding note probably explains your problem. One way you can check to see if the problem is in your hardware is to perhaps take your laptop to a public library. The libraries in my area offer free wireless connections without a password. If your libraries offer the same service, it will be a quick check of your equipment.

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Re: My wi-fi stopped working
Sep 16, 2004 6:16PM PDT

whoever you logging on turn on security, right click on wireless and see if shows view all available wireless connections. click on that and see what wireless are coming up if you highlight each one and thet is 2 boxes to fill in for password then you cannot logged on, you can logged if there is a box to click and it says that the info can be seen by anymore, then check the box and you surf the internet. also disable and enable the wireless card to let it find the signal.