Can't connect to home network wirelessly?

[Oxyclean]

Alright, I've had my laptop for about a year and its worked fine up until recently. A few weeks ago, the internet on it stopped working, but it works on our desktop, which uses XP. I can connect to other networks fine, it's only my home network. Whenever I tried to connect, it would load for a long time and then say 'Windows was unable to connect to [Network name]". I went to my grandparent's house for the weekend and i could use their internet fine, but now i'm back at my dad's house and it gives me an option to enter the network security key, but whenever i do it says 'possible network security key mismatch' and won't let me in. I actually got past the 'possible network security key mismatch' thing once and it just said 'windows was unable to connect to [network name]". Please help!!

 

[chev65]

Alright, I've had my laptop for about a year and its worked fine up until recently. A few weeks ago, the internet on it stopped working, but it works on our desktop, which uses XP. I can connect to other networks fine, it's only my home network. Whenever I tried to connect, it would load for a long time and then say 'Windows was unable to connect to [Network name]". I went to my grandparent's house for the weekend and i could use their internet fine, but now i'm back at my dad's house and it gives me an option to enter the network security key, but whenever i do it says 'possible network security key mismatch' and won't let me in. I actually got past the 'possible network security key mismatch' thing once and it just said 'windows was unable to connect to [network name]". Please help!!

You should first try resetting your router, It's very typical for the wireless to go out while the wired connecitons will keep working.

Sometimes it requires a 30-30-30 reset to get them working again, other times just pushing and holding down the reset button will fix them.
http://compnetworking.about.com/b/2009/03/11/the-30-30-30-hard-reset-rule-for-routers.htm

After you reset your router make sure the wireless settings, SSID, security, password etc. are all set up properly.

 

[Oxyclean]

I tried that and it worked! it worked for about a day but then it stopped working again and I'm not really sure what to do now, since it took us (myself and my dad) to get it set back up after resetting (because we forgot some of the stuff that we had to enter) ... Thank you though!

Also now it prompts for my network security key and i can just enter something random and it will accept it and say its connecting and it will take a while and then it'll say 'Windows count not connect to [SSID]' ...

 

[chev65]

I tried that and it worked! it worked for about a day but then it stopped working again and I'm not really sure what to do now, since it took us (myself and my dad) to get it set back up after resetting (because we forgot some of the stuff that we had to enter) ... Thank you though!

Also now it prompts for my network security key and i can just enter something random and it will accept it and say its connecting and it will take a while and then it'll say 'Windows count not connect to [SSID]' ...

I'm glad the reset fixed the problem for awhile, figured that was it.

I'm not sure why it stopped working but it may require another reset. Setting up the routers wireless settings only takes a few minutes once you know how.

You should set the router to use WPA2 security with AES encryption, be sure and set up the SSID "name of your network" and the security password, this password needs to work correctly and it shouldn't be accepting any old password.

You should also go into the Network and Sharing Center, look to the left side where it says "Manage Wireless Connections" you need to type in the same security settings and password that you set up in the router. Once you have that right you will then be able to connect automatically.