WXP Cannot Get IE7 to Connect Wirelessly

My daughter has a relatively new HP laptop with the ability to connect
wirelessly. When she first got it, she used the internal modem to dialup
and connect to the internet. Occasionally she would bring the PC to our
house and would have no problems connecting wirelessly here at our house.
The PC is about 18 months old, and uses Windows XP with IE7.

She decided that she wanted to switch to a wireless connection at her house
so bought the necessary hardware. Additionally, she had DSL installed at
her house. This caused her to change her ISP to the new DSL provider. So
three things changed for her:

1. DSL instead of dial-up.
2. Wireless instead of hardwire.
3. New ISP.

She started to muck around with all of the settings to accommodate these
changes. Now she cannot connect wirelessly anywhere, and she no longer has
a dial-up option to check any of the other settings.

The wireless connection indicator always shows connected, strong signal, and
a high transfer rate. But when she tries to connect via Internet Explorer,
she has no luck. Additionally, while she used to be able to connect
wirelessly at our house and other places, that doesn't work any more either.
It would appear that all of the hardware is working properly, based only on
everything that I have checked and can see via lights, etc.

I believe that it is one or more software configuration issues that are
causing her problems, but can't seem to find exactly where to correct the
problems or to find any tools to help tell me what is wrong. My biggest
suspicion is that something is setup wrong in how to identify herself to the
new ISP.

Yes, she has tried calling the help desk at the new DSL provider (who is
also the new ISP), but BellSouth (now AT&T here in Atlanta) says that it
must be a hardware issue, and is less than no help at all.

I think that the best bet will be to work backwards in eliminating problems.
TO do that I would first like to get IE7 to work with the wireless
connection at my house, which I know works fine. Afterwards, we will tackle
any hardware issues with the new DSL connection and router at her house.

Your thoughts on how to attack the problem, or web pages to visit for
additional information, will be most appreciated.

 

Spotted your problem while reading advice on my own!

I think you're right to start with the known-good ISP at your home.
It's worth checking if you can connect by running a length of Ethernet
cable from your modem/router/access-point to the laptop. If that does
give a connection, then we have more confidence in the laptop's
networking overall.

Bring up a command-prompt (start, run, cmd.exe, ok). Type "ipconfig"
without quotes and hit Enter. The first part of the IP address (if you
get one!) will help us tell if you are picking up an address from the
router (eg 192.168.*.*, or 10.*.*.*), or if the laptop is set to have an
explicit one, or if Windows assigns a default one (169.254.*.*). You'd
normally expect a laptop (especially) to pick up an IP address
automatically).

Note the "Default gateway" address in the output from ipconfig. Can you
ping it? (Think of submarines!) At the command prompt, type "ping "
then the default gateway address shown (no quotes). Any replies? If
so, you're connected to the router.

Now try pinging this address: "ping 212.58.226.232"
(That's the BBC website, or at least it is today). If you get replies,
you're reaching London.

Now try pinging the site by name: "ping www.bbc.co.uk"
If you don't now get replies, then you need to configure DNS

Do you have firewalls installed? Firewall will normally allow outgoing
connections but some (eg ZoneAlarm) require you to "Allow" each program.

Let us know the results of that lot and we'll all know more.

Phil, London

 

Thanks. Since I don't have her laptop with me right now, it will 24-48
hours before I can try this and report back, but I will report back as soon
as I can.