WLAN card connects but gets no internet

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@Dean_Siren wrote:

I have an Inspiron 1501 laptop that can connect to any wireless access point I find, but cannot reach the internet through any of them. I have tried at home, at a public library, and a Starbucks. I am on XP SP 2 and have a Dell WLAN card. My Zone Alarm says it allows Firefox, Thunderbird (Mozilla e-mail), IE and iTunes to reach the internet, but when I use any of them they try for a minute to reach the net and fail. AVG Antivirus scan performed from a virus profile update a few days ago says there are no viruses. Spybot is similarly recent and says nothing bad found (though this is odd, a month ago when I used Spybot it said it found lots of things, mostly ad cookies). To my knowledge I have not recently changed any settings in any of my internet apps or Windows network settings. I became unable to connect last night, Wednesday. I just checked my OS again and I am still on Win XP SP2, althought maybe last night I auto-updated some Windows components, like the malicious software removal tool. I am posting this from a library computer.

 

What should I do to get internet access again from my laptop?

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I have the exact same problem but I'm using an Inspirion 1520. I've been trying to go through the step by step trouble shooting guide but I can only get through step 3, on step 4 while following the directions I get stuck on one subset because I cannot find what the troubleshooter is telling me to click on.

This is the part I'm stuck on...I cannot find "wireless zero configuration"...

4 Right-click right the Wireless Network Connection and then click View Available Wireless Networks.

Click here if the message Windows cannot configure this wireless connection appears.

1.  

2. Click Change advanced settings.

3.  

4. Click the
   Wireless Networks
   tab.

    

   Click here if the Wireless Network tab is not seen.
   
   

   1.  

   2. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

   3.  

   4. Click Switch to Classic View in the upper-left corner when available.

   5.  

   6. Double-click Adminstrative Tools.

   7.  

   8. Double-click Computer Management.

   9.  

   10. Click the plus button to the left of Services and Applications.

   11.  

   12. Double-click Wireless Zero Configuration.

   13.  

   14. Choose Automatic from the drop down menu next to Startup Type:, and the click the Start button.

   15.  

   16. Click Apply and the OK.

5.  

6. Click Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings.

7.  

8. Click
   OK
   .

I could not connect at all to the internet since yesterday, 7/10 despite having an "excellent" connection and even as my laptop sits here right next to the router...still nothing.

Let me also add that my laptop isn't very old.

This is the part I'm stuck on...I cannot find "wireless zero configuration"...

   Go back to Services and applications...click on the word services....a window will pop up to the right....scroll down to Wireless Zero configuration....double click and that will pop up the box I beleive they are pointing to.  At least that is what I had to try today.  I'm in the same boat with you two...wireless was working Thursday night, yesterday...get excellent connection....but can not get aquired address...won't keep/take the TKIP key either?

This is what I have tried so far..I'm on a Dell Inspiron 1520 SP3.  

Reset winsock & tcp settings, uninstall / reinstalled 1390 mWLAN mini-card (now I have the network connection 3 mess going on)

went through as much of the troubleshooting tips to redundancy...(they eventuall started to repeat the uninstall modems, etc.)

So short of rolling back the system..I will try the windows update, although I might have read somewhere the update may cause problems (I beleive I did the up date on wednsady July 9)---so by thursday I lost wireless---something to do with DNS problems .  I hope the win updatehas been resolved and I will try to update shortly...if that dosen't work...not sure if I want to try the rollback just yet.

After giving it another go..these were my actions:

  Went back to Win update...no updates avaliable, went to dell drivers downloaded and installed the '1395' driver...that didn't help.

  Found out it was human error----MINE.  I kept getting connection, but authenticating never went forward.

I'm running the Linksys WRT150N router, went into the router and noticed there was a letter missing from the key I wrote down and the key listed in the router....even when I tried to retype the extra letter in...no go...this time I copy/paste the key into the wireless utility (Dell and windows) that worked.

  I'm back up and running---now I will try to reset the encryption key (since I thought I had used it successfully before), try to get rid of the 'extra'  lan connections to go back to 1 (instead of 4).  Hope this helps.

This reply is directed for Dean_Siren

Disable Zone Alarm - the windows auto-update with malicious software removal tool took you out like many others using Zone Alarm.

The old mistype the key. More common than you can imagine. I inputted mine from a notepad file I keep on my system. Then if i ever need it I just open the file copy and paste. This as you have found out is absolutely the best way...

You are a genius! Thank you for your help.

After several days of looking and try everything, this worked.

. Control Panel- click all control panel items

. Click Administrative tools

. click computer management

. click services management

. click services

. .. Routing and Remote Access ......  Be sure this service is running as startup type "automatic"

     Offers routing services to business in local area and wide area network

Doing this allows the wifi card to allow the internet service while connected. You must be connected to the wifi service for this to work.

God luck.