help how do enable my wifi

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noodleculture · #1 Post by **noodleculture** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:28 am

i have a work labtop with verizon evdo card paid, but its slow at the house and i got wireless router that i cant take advantage of. i use a ethernet cable. looks like my tek dep. has disabled the built in wifi. how do i enable it? any help is appreciated thanks

#2 Post by **RonS** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:30 am

Two steps, assuming Windows XP

1. Start -> Settings -> Network Connections -> Wireless Network Connection will re-enable the device if it's been disabled.

2. Press Fn+F5 and enable the 802.11 wireless radio

davidspalding · #3 Post by **davidspalding** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:47 pm

And you have verified that you DO have a wifi card installed, right?

Why: some models, they have the wifi indicator, but no mini-PCI card installed.

YMMV

noodleculture · #4 Post by **noodleculture** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 8:20 pm

AWE MAN, WHEN I PRESS FN-F5 IT SAYS (IBM WIRELESS ADAPTORS 802.11 AND BLUETOOTH ARE NOT INSTALLED IN THIS COMPUTER). BOO. DOH THANKS GUYS. WHAT NOW?

PS I GOT A T41

#5 Post by **bill bolton** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:14 pm

noodleculture wrote:WHAT NOW? PS I GOT A T41

You need to determine whether your T41 is Wireless enabled (probably) and Bluetooth enabled (less likely), and if so buy the appropriate cards, open up your T41, fit them, and attach the antenna connectors.

If the T41 is not "enabled" for wirless and/or Bluetooth it mean it doesn't have the appropriate antennas fitted. You can also buy and fit the antennas yourself, bit its a fiddly job and not for the faint hearted as it involves disassembling the screen!

You can determine what your exact T41 model is enabled for, from the IBM web site, in the tech support section.

Cheers,

Bill

davidspalding · #6 Post by **davidspalding** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:27 am

noodleculture wrote:AWE MAN, WHEN I PRESS FN-F5 IT SAYS (IBM WIRELESS ADAPTORS 802.11 AND BLUETOOTH ARE NOT INSTALLED IN THIS COMPUTER). BOO. DOH THANKS GUYS. WHAT NOW?

PS I GOT A T41

Search is your friend. There have been more than 1/2 a dozen posts on this very same question in as many months.

Also ... just a suggestion ... online, many interpret ALL CAPS typing as being equivalent to shouting. Type accordingly.

marcos · #7 Post by **marcos** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:31 pm

Possibly, they disabled wireless in BIOS and there were no bluetooth (does it have a bluetooth icon on the LCD bezel ?). Go to BIOS setup (f1 at boot), navigate to network configration, enable internal wireless device.

noodleculture · #8 Post by **noodleculture** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:59 pm

Greatly appreciated. Will try now. And sorry i did do a search- but couldnt find anything, maybe my searching sucks, and wow i didnt know about the CAPS thing. That changes my whole way of typing! Thanks

noodleculture · #9 Post by **noodleculture** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:02 pm

went into setup bios F1 and went to enable wireless device. i guest it's not installed at all because it's disabled and will not let me enable. thanks for all the help fellas. this is a great place

pianowizard · #10 Post by **pianowizard** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:15 pm

PCMCIA wireless cards are really cheap. I just bought one from geeks.com for only $12 two weeks ago, and it supports 802.11g (faster than b).

davidspalding · #11 Post by **davidspalding** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:15 am

802.11g also has better link quality at range, that is, with the same router, same card, same distance, the 802.11g connection is better.

That said, PC Cards have less antenna quality than the built-in that TPs and others have. If your TP is wired for Wifi, might as well pick up a suitable mini-PCI card, you'll have better reception. (Emphasis placed to indicate that you want to find a card which is in the BIOS white list; not just any 2200BG will work. Search the forums for more info.)

#12 Post by **GomJabbar** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:29 am

My daughter has an SMC 802.1 BG PCMCIA cardbus card that works OK. She can use it in the next room. Might not work from one side of the house to the other, but it works from her bedroom to the living room where the wireless router is located.

My advice is to buy a PCMCIA card at a brick and mortar store. Give it a try, and if it doesn't fit your needs bring it back to the store and try another. I believe 3COM makes a card with a retractable antenna that looks pretty nice. It is more expensive though.

You can also get directional antennas for wireless routers/access points. This would increase the range - at least in one direction.

davidspalding · #13 Post by **davidspalding** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:15 pm

Superb advice.

Case study (yeah, right): We have a WRT54G router in our server room, towards the back of the orifice. Here at my desk, with a Cisco 350 802.11b pc card, I have about a 67% strength signal, 81% quality. In our front conference room, that strength dies down to about 35%. But I can still work. Hehe, the PC Card is usually on the side of the TP facing the router.

Distance ... about 50 ft, through at least 2 dry walls. So if you're considering saving money by getting a PC Card only, Gom's suggestion is spot on -- try before you buy, erm, keep.

help how do enable my wifi

help how do enable my wifi

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