wlan detection puzzle!

hi,

symptom: my sony vaio fe with windows vista cant detect the wlan at my new apartment.

relevant info: i can detect all other surrounding wlans, router has updated firmware and is broadcasting ssid, router is not mac address filtering. i tried to manually configure the wlan with its wpa-psk info without success, it still doesnt detect it. other laptops (from roomates) can detect and connect to the network, although nobody with vista that i know of so far. my wlan card has the updated driver.

ive tried everything that seems logical to me but i cant detect the network, and therefore unable to connect to it .

thanks for any ideas/suggestions!!
totono

 

Try establishing the connection manually. Even though it is broadcasting the SSID and is not showing up on your list of available networks you may be able to connect to it. Many people don't even broadcast their SSID and have to connect manually the first time by inputting the name of the network. Maybe something is preventing it from showing on the list of available networks, but once you connect you may be able to see it from that point on.

The router firmware and wireless drivers were the two biggest things I would have suggested, since you already covered those aspects this one appears it could be a bit more complicated.

I have Vista and no issues connecting to my wireless network after a simple firmware update on my router, so I don't have the most experience troubleshooting seemingly Vista related issues.

 

Hi Schluep,
First of all thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I had already tried to manually configure the network on vista but it didn't work. However, during this time I did find the solution. My router was set to channel 13. I changed this value to 11, witch matches the configuration of my wireless card (Advanced tab -> Adhoc channel 802.11b/g->11 (1-11 values available in vista).
Just for curiosity I checked this value in XP on a laptop that was detecting it and found that in there it was set to "locker 11", which in german means something like "loose 11", there was an option of a "strict 11".
Anyways, lesson learned. I didn't know that the router channels played such an important role.
Cheers,
totono

 

Good find. I'll have to keep that one in memory. I never even though about the channel. Out of curiosity now, what County do you live in?

The reason I ask is that in the U.S. the FCC keeps us with channels 1, 6, and 11, whereas in Europe I believe 1, 5, 9, and 13 are used.

I guess I am wondering if you live in the U.S. and ordered a German router or something like that which is why your laptop only goes up to 11 and the router to 13?

 

I find switching between channels 6 and 11 can help solve connectivity issues.
The "ad hoc" setting wouldn't apply unless you are using your notebook as a base station.