Wireless Internet Not Working...

A lot of people are having this problem, because the so-called "Broadcom" card was installed by Dell with an outdated Windows 95/98/200/XP driver, dated 6/2006. You need a Vista driver. See my post titled

 

"Broadcom" wireless card in Vista desktops won't connect. Here's the solution.

Does it matter if it is a laptop? Because the Dell Inspirion 1501 is a laptop...

 

Also, I don't really want to take apart my computer because I'm not exactly a computer technician....

 

***Edit***

Also, I changed the adapter to the Dell 1390 Minicard. Is that bad?

Did you try this program.

 

http://www.homenetmanager.com/

 

It helped me resolved my wireless networking problems.

You say you changed it.  What does that mean?  Did you physically change it to a different adapter?  Did you install the correct drivers?  Are you sure you have the 1390 card?

 

Steve

Most if not all firewalls do not block internet access by default.  This is something you would have to configure.

 

Windows XP/Visat have a firewall, you can open it here - Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall

 

Popular firewall vendors are Symantec (Norton), McAfee, ZoneAlarm.  Look in your Program Startup folder to see if you have any products with those names.

 

But I don't think the firewall is your problem.

I have a problem which can be quite similar to this one, however, I don't know how to start a new string here in the forum (ya, I'm new).

I have a Dell OptiPlex GX260, Windows 2000 Pro with a D-Link DWL-G520 wireless networking card running from an ADSL modem/router.  I called the Internet service provider center and they said I needed to deactivate my firewall on the computer with the card because it was blocking my connection to the Internet.  I am not too knowledgeable in this area, and apon looking around the entirety of my computer, I cannot find a firewall anywhere.  The center has closed and I am looking around for a better response to this question.  I find nothing resembling any of the different Firewall providers and I don't know how to get this thing working.  Also, I have tried connecting the Ethernet cable directly to the RJ-45 on the back and activating that port.  This didn't work either.  I have re-typed in the DNS and still not had any positive results. The activity light on the card and the power light on the card work without problem.

Questions:

Where would a person be able to see which type of firewall is being used?

How can these be deactivated, or how can they be viewed?

Is this a problem common to man?

Thanks!

Thanks for the tips!  It ended up that the program used to connect within the wireless network needed to be activated for the port to recognize the signal.  The tips about the startup menu was also helpful because the program was to be started from startup, but the shortcut in the startup folder to the program had a different path than before.  After replacing the file in startup and restarting everything worked right.  I still see no firewalls (this is a Windows 2000 - doesn't have Windows firewall), but they might be included in these files.

Thanks again for the tips.  I hope to help someone as well later.  By the way, how can one start a new thread?