Dell Laptop (Inspiron 9300) not able to work with wireless router

I have a Dell computer with an internal wireless adapter. I have a Linksys
WRT54G v.5 router set up and running great. I woke up one morning and my
router connection is no longer working. My computer is reading my network
but will not connect. It shows not connected. I made no changes and have
spent
hours on product support. My router is on and all lights go.

I have been working on this for 2 months and no one in support seems to
know. When I run the Linksys system check, it tells me my Laptop "does not
meet the requirements". I have had it working before and even returned my
Linksys router for a new one to see if that was the problem.

Does anyone know about Dell computers? I'm thinking maybe the internal
wireless was reconfigured somehow. I'm frustrated and am only a little
computer literate

Help
pcashi

 

You didn't specify all the steps you've taken so far, but here are a few
things that i would do:

change the channel, try 1,6, or 11(i'm guessing you're on the router's
default of 6 now), maybe a neighbor set up a network, or got a new cordless
phone...

change clients, if you are using the default Dell client, which should be
Intel PROset, maybe try disabling it and using Windows Zero Configuration

disable WEP/WPA, disable encryption on both your router and laptop and see
if you can connect in "clear" mode

Check DHCP/Static addressing, did you leave the DHCP server enabled on the
linksys router, maybe your computer suddenly doesn't like dynamic, try a
static address and stopping DHCP server on the router

Firewall?, if you have windows firewall enabled for the wireless connection,
try disabling it, same for third-party software

preferred networks/AP/Ad-hoc, make sure that your connection is set up to
accept AP networks, not just ad-hoc, make sure that your network is on the
"preferred list"...

try using the MS network troubleshooting tool: Start>Help and Support>Pick a
Task>Use tools to view your computer information...>Network Diagnostics

If your computer "sees" the network, but doesn't want to connect to it, then
it is most likely that your computer just felt like resetting something in
the middle of the night, or maybe a virus or spyware got you too. I have came
across this problem a time or two on my network, but enough playing around
and i usually have it fixed in less than 10 minutes. Also, it is most likely
a software problem, since you can see the network, it means that your adapter
is "working", but windows isn't cooperating.

If you can connect to your router with a wired connection, try downloading
Net Stumbler http://www.netstumbler.com , this is a handy tool when it comes
to troubleshooting wireless. It doesn't find the problem for you, but it
gives you some details about your networks configuration that may help you
find the problem. Can anybody else think of anything i may have missed?

Wes

 

Thank you for your response. I will try all of these things and get back to
you to see if it is working. If I would have explained everything I had
tried, it would have taken days. I contacted all providers AOL, SPRINT PCS,
DELL, and Linksys to try and correct the initail problem and I think one of
these contacts messed something up.

Again, Thank you - pcashi