inspiron b130 and router...help needed

jk4321

These links may help you:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/howto/

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;870702

Try them and post back if they do/do not help?

 

Which make and model router do you have?  Have you gone through the setup instructions that came with the router? There is really nothing you have to configure on the computer until you enable the wireless security.   Please at least attempt to set it up using the documentation that came with the router, then, if necessary, someone here can help if you have problems.  To set up wireless security, see the following:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/learnmore/bowman_05february10.mspx

http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1277020,00.asp

Steve

thanks for the reply.......

well i did set the modem up, although for some reason the software got to step 9 and couldnt configure the router. went online to chat w/ a dell rep and he couldnt get me past that either so i went on the linksys site. set everything up thru there and when i got to the very end it wasnt detecting my wirelesss device. i had the laptop powered up the dell tech told me to push fn and f2 to get rid of the red x on the network icon in the taskbar. that wasnt working and after right clicking on the icon a few times evenu\tually a wireless network was detected (actually there were 2, one secured 1 not secured). i went online w/ the secured one and later on went back there and the unsecured one was gone.

now the person from dell also told me that you dont have to disconnect from the network when you power down the notebook. is this alright to do? i did that once then took the laptop downstairs as a test and everything still worked and i connected right away.

 

also, as for security i checked the link in the reply from steve and followed those steps in setting up an ssid and a passphrase. now i have pc-cillin software and that software has a firewall which is enabled. is there anything else i should be doing on the notebook security-wise just to make sure everything is as secure as it can be??

any suggestions are appreciated! as i said before this is my first venture into the world of routers and wireless networks. thanks!

 

jay

Shutting down the notebook computer is fine. There is no need to disconnect wireless, since the shutdown takes care of that anyway. For security to the ISP / broadband at the house we installed a device which has the firewall built in -- SMC Barricade (provides the WiFi plus 4 Ethernet ports)