Toshiba laptop running Vista - wireless connection problems - arrgh!

[alicat]

I am helping some elderly friends get on broadband. The wired connection is up and running but it is proving harder to get a wireless connection.

They have a Toshiba P200 laptop running Vista and the router is a Technicolor TG582n supplied by PlusNet.

The laptop says it is connected wirelessly to the router but when I unplug the ethernet cable the connection drops.

Any ideas before I throw it out of the window?

 

[classic33]

Open the window before throwing it!
Control Panel, Networks. And it'll give a list of options down the left hand side(top left).

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

The wireless on the router is using WPA toshes running vista are notoriously bad at any decent wireless, try configuring the router and laptop to use WEP

 

[ColinJ]

The wireless on the router is using WPA toshes running vista are notoriously bad at any decent wireless, try configuring the router and laptop to use WEP

Alternatively, if you want a secure connection do NOT use WEP!

 

[ian turner]

Drops and doesn't reconnect if you go into the list of available connections and ask to connect to the router ?

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Alternatively, if you want a secure connection do NOT use WEP!

No one ever discounted that WEP is less secure than WPA, WPA2 and similar, but you have to take it into context, most people have really bad security practices anyway with many using the same password for everything and saving loggings in web browser. However when someone gains access to your wireless it does not mean they also have direct access to your computer.
The majority of people still use the routers default password, default configuration, broadcast the default SSID of the service and do not filter via MAC address which are all considered bad practice with regards to security.
This is without mentioning that anyone with the slightest interest in security would not be using Vista as support ended April 10, 2012 at which point no more service packs, updates and security patches have been released. It has since been proven to be insecure and can be easily owned no matter if its wired.
I would think its easier to gain access to Vista than for most people to sniff wireless network traffic and understand what to do with it.

 

[ian turner]

If someone is leeching off your wireless then odds are it's your door the police kick down when looking for the potential child murderer downloading kiddie porn so it doesn't matter if the can get into your pc or not.
All beside the point as it shouldn't be dropping the wireless. If the wireless is failing to reconnect even if done manually then might be worth changing the channel selected as I had to stop using 11-13 as one of my lousy neighbours was using some device that was killing that range, I suspect baby monitors belonging to visitors as it only occurred occasionally.

 

[ColinJ]

If someone is leeching off your wireless then odds are it's your door the police kick down when looking for the potential child murderer downloading kiddie porn so it doesn't matter if the can get into your pc or not.

A colleague never used any security on his wifi. I suggested that he must be mad, leaving himself open to child porn downloaders, bandwidth scroungers and personal information thieves. He looked at me a if I were some kind of crazed paranoid loon! I don't know if he leaves his house or car unlocked, but he just couldn't see the problem with letting Tom, Dick and Harriet free rein on his internet connection!

 

[Pale Rider]

I have an old Toshiba/Vista laptop which I keep as a spare.

Were I wanting to use it regularly I would bin the hateful Vista and put one of the free operating systems on it.

 

[alicat]

Drops and doesn't reconnect if you go into the list of available connections and ask to connect to the router ?

It shows it is connected but there is patently no connection.

Thanks for the help, all. I am now working away for the week but will try out some of the solutions at the weekend, including possibly ditching Vista for something that is supported.

My friends live in sheltered accommodation and my laptop hasn't picked up any other networks nearby so I am less concerned about security than otherwise.

 

[ian turner]

Maybe they are all leaching off your friend. If you're connecting to the router by wire and disconnect the wire then it won't automatically switch to the wireless and will fail to connect to the internet, you're not meant to pull the cable gratuitously. Under those circumstances I'd reboot. You have set the router to be a dhcp server and set the wireless connection to automatic for ip address and dns server haven't you ?

 

[alicat]

I'll try removing the cable when the laptop is off then rebooting.

I'll also set the router to be a dhcp server.

Thanks again for all suggestions.

 

[ian turner]

Note the automatic setting should be against the properties of the wireless adapter on the pc in it's properties under internet protocol version 4 (see network sharing->adapter settings)