Wireless Connection Howto

Question

My neighbor bought a brand new Inspiron 1520,  about 4 days ago. MS XP Home SP2   A few days ago she was connected w/MSN dialup service. She then got high speed service from a local ISP that is very good.    The laptop connected to the Internet OK. She then got a Netgear WGR614v7 wireless routertoday. No wireless connection. I suspect the wireless part of the router is no good. The connection with Ethernet cable worked.   I installed the netgear's software from the disk that came w/the router, and ran it's wizzard.    I am not able to connect to her wireless using my laptop either. I went to another neighbors, and was able to connect to their wireless router, no problem, thus I suspect the wireless router.    I went to the wireless wizard in the control panel and at one point had to reboot. After rebooting, I was asked for a password. I used passwords she wrote down to no avail. She had never had to use a password to use the computer, just clicked on the Owner Icon and was in business.   After a few tries, and rebooting the gray page came up asking for a password. None of hers worked. I finally got into the set up and reset the system password, and was then able to reinstall Windows. Tried recovery, but did not like passwords. I finall got the HDD password from Dell in India. laptop boots up now, and has all drivers installed. One of the networking drivers was over 90MB - that was just one driver!! Sheesh That is larger than a Linux distro that I run on one of my old computers.   Was there supposed to be a recovery Disk?, or is the recovery stuff on the Dell Install disk? Therecovery software is listed as a seperate item on the invoice    Windows is installed now, and I am not sure what to do w/the wizard. Any guidence thru the Internet connection Wizard would be nice. Do I do the Wireless Wizard first?   My neighbor travels frequently, and will need to be able to connect wherever she is, be it a wireless, Ethernet, or dialup connection.    There is only one computer in the house, the Inspiron1520. Someone told me that there has to be 2computers to set up a LAN. Sounds like Hoo Haw to me. How is somebody with only one laptop, and a wireless router supposed to connect wirelessly? Does a LAN need to be set up so that she can talk to thewireless router?   I realize this might be a windows question rather than a Dell Question. If so, please refer me to a goodforum for XP. Preferrably not something sponsored by MS.

jmwills · Answer

I have some links on my site here:

http://willsit.com/resources.aspx

What you saw as 90 megs was actaully the drivers and the sofwate packages to run them. I would always suggest you use the Windows Utility to manage the connection.

borgward · Answer

Does the encryption just prevent someone else from changing the router settings, or does it prevent everyone from logging onto the internet connection? The connection needs to be open to anyone that needs access to the Internet.

jmwills · Answer

Encryption stops anonymous connections, which you really do want to prohibit. YOU are repsonsible for anything that gets downloaded over that connection.

You need to chnage two things from the standard default setup. Chnage the default password on the router and aslo use nothing less than WPA encryption for the connection.

Why do you think you want an open connection?

borgward · Answer

I do want anybody within range to be able to access the internet. I do not want them to have to deal w/passwords, encryption, etc.

All I want is to block them from changing the router settings.

I realize the hazards of doing so.

Davet50 · Answer

then all you need to do is password protect the router..should be a page to set a password..

jmwills · Answer

You are a brave soul.

Davet50 · Answer

@jmwills wrote: You are a brave soul.  Agreed!!

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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