I just moved to a new apartment and had no trouble logging into the wifi on my iPhone and Kindle, but my computer cannot even see the network. My roommates are having no trouble with the internet either. I have restarted my computer several times as well as tried to manually connect to the network, but nothing has worked. At my wits end here...
Hi there.
Just checked your system specs and saw you're using a desktop. By default, a desktop PC does not have the ability to connect to wifi connection unless you have a network card that supports it, or you have a USB wireless adapter.
Does it say I have a desktop? That is incorrect, it is a laptop.
Yes, I've tried turning that on/off several times.
Specifically what model HP laptop do you have? Is this a new machine, or have you had it for a while? Is it still under hardware warranty?
Have you ever previously been able to operate in wireless mode with this particular router? With a different router in some other apartment or WiFi environment? Or have you previously only operated "wired" using ethernet cable to a router?
Are there ANY wireless networks visible from your laptop? If you take it to say a Starbucks or some place where you know there absolutely is a WiFi network available, can you see THAT wireless network? Or again, nothing at all? If nothing at all even in a second test environment, and the "wireless radio" button on your laptop is set in the ON position, I'm thinking maybe a newly developed hardware problem with your laptop's wireless network adapter is responsible.
Do you have the latest Dell wireless NIC drivers and Wireless connection utilities installed? Do they have any driver/software updates available for your machine's wireless networking functionality on their support web site?
Fairly inexpensive USB wireless network adapters are available. Might be a cheap solution which would almost certainly work, if it does turn out to be a hardware problem with your laptop itself... if it's no longer under hardware warranty.
One more thought... as I just saw your subject which said "can see neighbor's".
Typically, wireless routers have a setting that can SUPPRESS THE SSID from being broadcast. In other words, the router itself can either broadcast its SSID so that it IS visible, or NOT broadcast its SSID so that you must specifically know exactly what that SSID is and you must manually enter it along with the password in the "wireless connection" dialog in order to then manually connect to it.
Making a wireless network "invisible" in this way is a security measure that pretty much guarantees nobody outside of those truly authorized to use it will ever be able to use it, since it's "invisible" by turning off this SSID broadcast feature.
For example, with my own Netgear WNDR4000 it is the "Enable SSID broadcast" option which would be checked if you wanted the wireless network to be "visible", and un-checked if you wanted it to be "invisible".
Have a peek at your router's wireless setup, through a roommates computer.
Of course if the iPad and Kindle CAN currently still see the same network that your laptop can't, it's honestly unlikely that your router's SSID broadcast option is un-checked. But if their iPad/Kindle setup was done manually at some time in the past, perhaps before the router's SSID broadcast option was un-checked, then they STILL would have connectivity to the network even though it is currently "invisible" because its SSID broadcast has been disabled via setup.
Anyway, if you actually do know the SSID and password of the wireless network... even though invisible by un-check design... you can still manually enter the SSID/password and connect to it, assuming your laptop's wireless NIC is operating properly and that you don't really have a hardware problem.
I have an hp G60-630US. It's about five years old, and therefore not under warranty anymore. I have had no previous problems connecting to any wireless networks, but I just moved and have been unable to connect on my laptop on this new network. I can see tons of other nearby networks, just not the one in my apartment. I just did a bunch of updates for my computer right before I moved, but I'm not sure what exact updates they were or if they affected my drivers. I have tried to manually create the new network, and entered the name and key of the network, but this hasn't worked either.
After completely shutting down both the router and computer again I am now able to see the network, but it says "the settings saved on this computer for the network do not match the requirements of the network" and I am not able to connect. Thoughts?
After taking advice from several different websites something finally worked and I was able to connect to my home network. Thanks for the advice everyone!
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