Wifi connects, but browser won't work

Hi guys. My neighbors have an old Acer TravelMate 280-2943. They asked me to set up their wifi for them. It connects to their network fine, but neither explorer or firefox work at all. They work fine when I plug in with a cable. I feel like I've tried everything!

Ideas?

 

Thing to try; Even though i'm not sure what OS is being used.

1. Go to the Network Connections folder. Try doing a Start --> Run command and type ncpa.cpl and hit enter. Under the Advanced section on the Menu bar at the top click to choose Advanced settings and set the WiFi Adapter to be top of the list. Click Ok and try again.

2. While connected to the Wireless network; Do a Start ---> Run and type cmd and hit enter. Then type ipconfig /flushdns and hit enter, then ipconfig /registerdns and hit enter. Try the Net again. (If these commands won't work then you may need to find Command Prompt under the All Programs section of Windows and right click on the icon and choose to "Run As Admin....")

3. In Internet Explorer go to Tools ----> Internet Options under the Connections tab click on LAN Settings below and set it to "Automatically detect settings"

4. Also, while in IE under the General tab delete all temp. files and cookies.

Edit: Oh and BTW, while connected to the Wireless network, go to Command Prompt by doing the Run cmd and do an ipconfig /all and post that info. here if the issue remains. Could be a DNS issue.

Can't think of anything else atm.

 

When you say 'it connects to their network (wifi) fine', what exactly do you mean? What programs work using the wireless connexion?

 

Thanks, guys. This is an old XP laptop. By connect, I mean down in the system tray it says it's connected to the appropriate network at 54 Mbps with "very good" signal strength. The commputer's browsers work fine when I physically plug the computer into the router. The computer I'm on right now (my own) is connected wirelessly to the same router and everyting works fine.

My "Network Connections" folder just shows a folder with my Local Area Connection and Wireleness Network Connection icons. The order shouldn't matter since they're just icons in a folder with no heirarchy, but I can't move them at all anyway.

I already have it set to "automatically detect settings", and Window's firewall is off.

I did the dns things to no avail.

Typing "inconfig /all" only displays anything for an instant and then disappears, so I can't tell you what it says.

 

You have to run "cmd" from the start menu. Then run "ipconfig /all" from the command window that pops up.

 

^^^ Yah, take your time OP and read over my instructions carefully again please. You weren't doing something right. Especially the Network Connections folder part and i pconfig sections.

See attached as guides. If you don't see the Advanced section then the toolbar must be hidden somehow, and i'm not sure how to go about bringing it back in XP but most likely the option would be on that same Menu bar. But it should be there for XP!

So give it another try Please.

Edit: And the ipconfig /all command is very important as it will tell whether or not the Computer is getting a Valid IP Address / DNS Address from the Router. If that looks fine then most likely you will just need to change the Network Adapter order in which the computer would use to access the Internet. Right now i'm sure it's set to LAN. You want to put the Wireless Adapter to the top of the list. Again, look at the attachments for reference.

 

You say you connect at 54mbps wirelessly. From the cmd window run ipconfig/all to see what your current settings are. Take a look at Gateway and dns servers. Try pinging 209.191.93.53 do you get a response? (Yes gateway working). Now try pinging yahoo.com this will test the DNS servers. if it works you should be able to get online.

You said Windows FW was turned off, is any other FW programs running like ZoneAlarm, Comodo.....

 

try rebooting the router and doing a hard reset. this same situation happened to me a few times. What happened was there was a DHCP lease refresh by my ISP and the old IP address was still being addressed on the router for some reason. Forcing a reset and reboot solved my problem.