Helping an Elderly Friend: Their Laptop Won't Connect to the Internet Using Wifi

hitchin04

Reputable
Apr 14, 2015
1
0
4,510
All,

An elderly friend of mine let someone borrow their laptop and when they got it back, it no longer worked on their home Wifi.

I have been researching how to fix this but so far haven't been able to fix it so I would really appreciate any help.

Here's the situation:

- I can see they haven't installed anything new since it was borrowed
- It works completely fine on the internet when connecting via internet cable
- I have run anti-virus software which didn't find anything
- I tried to update the wireless card's driver but it said it didn't need an update
- The DNS settings look ok to me (no VPN or anything)
- I checked the LAN settings and that seems normal
- I've tried it in my house as well and it doesn't connect to the wifi either
- Lots of other devices connect without any problems
- There is some HP internet software installed that came with the laptop, it says 'did not find an ip address'.
- OS is XP

They are quite upset about this and I'd love to fix it for them. It's quite an old laptop and so it's slow...so it makes it quite hard to try and fix!

I would be hugely grateful for any suggestions!
 
Most laptops have hardware or hot-key to turn WiFi On/Off. RIght-click on "Network Places", then "Properties". You should see at least two network adapters - one is wired Ethernet (usually called "Local Area Network"), the other is for the wireless card. Make sure WiFi adapter is not disabled.

Right-click on that WiFi adapter (mine reads "Wireless Network Connection"), then "View available wireless networks". If you came this far, it means WiFi adapter is OK

 

lyner10

Distinguished
Aug 18, 2010
38
0
18,540
Check proxy setting on Internet setting. It should be on control panel.
Check if the wifi adapter has Static IP and change it back to automatic.
If not, try giving it an ip address if it works.