Home Wireless

[Acampingwewillg]

Hi all
I seem to be having an issue with connecting through my home wireless network on an older but seldom used Toshiba. Its never given me any problems before but all on a sudden, it won't connect, the network is out of range even though I'm sitting right on top of it. I have a full bar signal but each time I try to connect...it tells me to try again, out of range.

I've tried several different things to no avail and I'm not exactly a "whiz" at this so if you have idea's to try, keep them simple :-). I'm thinking that maybe something may have burnt out inside the laptop(wireless card)? if laptops have those? Anyways, I'm open to any suggestions...I suppose I could get an external device to use instead?
Thanks for any comments

[drsteve]

Look in the device manager to see if your wireless card is working properly.

[Acampingwewillg]

I need to add one very strange thing.....when I turn off the Wireless connection on the right side of the Toshiba A35, I all of a sudden get about 5 windows that open up on the screen for Micro-soft Calendar. I've done this a few times now and each time it does the same thing.....weird!

[Acampingwewillg]

Thanks again all....I'll give some of those suggestions a try and report back if successful. 🙂

[TheBearAK]

If everything else is connecting, you shouldn't have to reboot anything.

The problem is narrowed down to your Toshiba(?) running XP.

The suggestion about reinstall the drivers for the NIC is a good idea. There was probably a Microsoft update that stomped all over the dll for the wireless card.

If the card is built in to the Toshiba, go to Toshiba (obviously on another computer) and download the driver from them. Copy to USB drive and install it on the Toshiba.

[ventrman]

Try rebooting the Modem and the Router. Unplug everything from the Wall and back in. I have to do that sometimes.

[wa8yxm]

I do have to reboot the router on occasion here.

I have had Wireless Cards fail. when that happens I get a 10 buck usb dongle (Trend-Net). that works rather well from micro-center.. I have a couple of those lying about.

[strollin]

BobsYourUncle wrote:
If all else fails,
Reboot everything.

This is good advice but if you only choose to reboot one thing, reboot your router. It seems counter-intuitive that the router needs to be rebooted since other devices connect fine but it often fixes these types of issues.

If rebooting the router doesn't help then you should delete the connection to the router and then re-create it.

If those 2 things don't get you going again then I would get a USB dongle, they are inexpensive and work surprisingly well. Since you say this is an older, seldom used Toshiba I imagine you wouldn't want to spend a lot of money so here's one that works well and will cost you less than $10: Ultra-Mini USB Wireless Lan 802.11N Adapter

[HappyKayakers]

Has your home wireless router been changed/upgraded since the last time the Toshiba connected? Sounds like the Toshiba is a laptop. Have you tried taking it to a public wifi hotspot for testing? (library, Starbucks, etc) If it won't connect anywhere then I would agree with others who suggest getting an external device. If it connects elsewhere, you have a compatibility/configuration problem at home.

[weasel4]

Try reinstalling the drivers for the NIC, they may have gotten glitched somehow.
BTC

[Acampingwewillg]

The computer in question is running XP.....all other devices in the house are connecting as usual. The XP has always, in the past, connected. I've added no new hardware or software to it...as related, I seldom use it because it was out of site/mind(it was upstairs and I do most everything on the computer I'm on now down stairs) 🙂

I should add that the only reason I'm messing around with it is because its practically NEW still even though in years, its not! It wasn't one of the cheaper ones when purchased, a nice 17" screen and all...so I figured it was worth at least attempting to salvage.

[TheBearAK]

Does anything else connect to the wireless access point/router?

Are you running Windows 7 or 8?

[Acampingwewillg]

Thanks everyone.....I've been over on the Micro-soft trouble shooting site for a couple of hours and did finally get the error message from popping up telling me my Full signal network was out of range....now it just attempts to connect for about two minutes and does nothing, no error, no connecting. Anyhow....I'll keep on plugging and playing with it and if all else fails, I'll try an external device. Thanks again

[ChooChooMan74]

I had to replace in internal wireless card that failed on my mother's laptop. I have a fealing that your wireless card may have failed. If other devices connect to your wireless access point, and you can access the network if you hardwire the laptop, I would suggest replacing your wireless network card.

[time2roll]

I would get a new modem. Mine was slow and weak, new is fast and strong.
I think it is ASUS AC1900