I had the exact same problem with my daughter's Inspiron B120.  After I downloaded all the drivers available for this laptop on the Dell site, I at least got the cable connection to work.

I still can't get wireless, though, and after calling Comcast and Netgear, we finally determined that it wasn't a problem with either one of them.  I was able to install the D-link adapter on my desktop and it seemed to be working fine.

When it was hooked up to the laptop, the light that shows it's connected wasn't even on.  So, Netgear referred me to Dell for assistance.

Anybody else have any idea what I may need to download or upgrade to get this thing working so my daughter can go on-line again?

BobWard1,

Do you have any security enabled on the router?  If so, have you set up the wireless card with the correct encryption key for your network?

Steve

Volcano11.  How do you check the router security settings?

Bob

Well, I have solved 1 problem.  I "Enabled" "Local Area Connection" under the Network Connections tab and that allowed me to connect to the Internet with my cable connection.

However, it still will not pick up the wireless signal from my router.  My security settings are turned off on the Linksys router, so I do not thing that is a problem.  Like I said previously, I was able to get a wireless signal from the router before I did the "PC Restore" operation.

I am going to take the laptop to my daughter's house this evening and see if it will pick up her wireless router signal.

Still open to any more ideas on how to re-establish the wireless connection.

Bob

Just got back from my daughter's house and the laptop picked up her wireless router signal just fine, as well as 3 other connections in her neighborhood.  So my router must not be sending out a wireless signal.  I did the "ping" test on it and that passed, so I don't know where the problem could be in the router.

Any router trouble-shooter experts out there?

Bob

Do you have your router set to hide its SSID?  If so, then you either have to set up the connection manually or set the router to broadcast its SSID so you can see it.

Steve

Finally found the problem.  I was going through the Linksys trouble-shooting guide and noticed that the "SSID Broadcast" option should be "Enabled".  Mine was "Disabled".  I turned that option on and now I have a wireless connection on the laptop.  Don't know how that got turned off, I have not touched the router since I installed it a couple years ago.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that this still works tomorrow.

Bob

 Hi,

      could you help me with my laptop, i have the same problem bob had whom you were helping couple

   days ago, thanks

hi Bob,

     i think i ve got the same problem you had, could you please tell me more clear how did you fix that, i was

  reading all chat between you and volcano, i would really appreciate, thanks

In order to make an Internet connection with a cable connected to my laptop, I performed the following steps:

1.  Open  "Network Connections" in the "Control Panel"

2.  Double click on "Local Area Connection"

3.  Then click the "Enable" button.  If yours already says "Enabled", you are ok.

In order to make the wireless connection to my laptop, I did the following:

1.  Go to your router configuration webpage.  Your router instructions should tell you how to do this.  Or you can go to your router manufacturers web page and probably find instructions.

2.  Once the configuration webpage is open, click on all the tabs until you find one with a sub-menu that includes an item called "SSID Broadcast".  You want to make sure that item is "Enabled".  Save your settings and exit.  That worked for me, my SSID Broadcast was "Disabled".

Bob