Two computers work, one will not. Limited or no connectivity

[sodaman420]

Hey guys, howsit goin'?
I have a friend who has a wireless router installed and working on two computers in her house. One is a standard PC, and the other is an apple laptop. Her sister got a new HP laptop for christmas today and it has no connection to the internet. I tried putting down the fire wall, but not the norton antivirus that came installed on it. (will try that when she talks to me next). I also tried renewing IP address, and repairing it. What is curious is the way that the mac and the one PC are working, but the new HP laptop is not? If you guys have any ideas, please feel free to speak out. I've been crawling all over the forums and google today trying to find a solution. My friend down the street has the same problem, again with HP laptop. I have an HP laptop too, and i remember when I removed the norton antivirus software it fixed it for me, but I am not on wireless like they are.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Tony

 

[Guest]

Are you sure the radio for the wireless network adapter is enabled? There's usually a function key to enable/disable it. Did you try a wired connection?

Grumpy

 

[sodaman420]

Yes, the wireless button on the laptop is enabled.

I just tried using a cable and it works properly. We are able to connect with the cable.

 

[sodaman420]

Alas, the wireless is not fixed x(

 

[Iceblue]

Does it connect to the LAN, but not the internet, or is there no connection to anything?

 

[sodaman420]

Well, after process of elimination, I have determined it is the computer (not the router. I can connect my personal laptop to it. It is also a HP.
Now the question is why it connects so weakly?
If we are in the same room with the router, it will connect (slowly, very weak signal) but when I am outside in my car, I can connect and it is perfectly fast.
Hm..

 

[Iceblue]

Are you sure you aren't connecting to a neighbor's wireless when you are outside?

 

[Guest]

I say return it to HP to get repaired.

Grumpy

 

[xeni]

Well, after process of elimination, I have determined it is the computer (not the router. I can connect my personal laptop to it. It is also a HP.
Now the question is why it connects so weakly?
If we are in the same room with the router, it will connect (slowly, very weak signal) but when I am outside in my car, I can connect and it is perfectly fast.
Hm..

Interference mostlikely in your room.

 

[blue68f100]

I've heard of several reports of HP notebooks having problems connecting. I suspect it's a problem with hardware. May check with HP site for the latest drivers. Make sure you have changed your wireless settings so it connects only to AP and not other wireless clients.

Firewall can block connection based on subnets. Norton is a royal pain to remove, as well as Zonealarm. They have a utility for removal, it the only way to cleanly remove it short of a clean install. In Norton and ZoneAlarm both you have to set a FW rule for each port. The setup reads your network setting during install and sets the base settings. So moving to another network may/will block it.

I'm not a fan of norton at all, a BIG resource HOG. Remove it while it's still working, if it expires it will cripple you pc. I use Avira AV and Comodo FW, bot free.

Sorry not much help.

 

[Iceblue]

I'm not a fan of norton at all, a BIG resource HOG. Remove it while it's still working, if it expires it will cripple you pc.

I'm a slow learner, but I agree with this. I remember when "Norton" was a collection of highly crafted, very useful DOS tools. After Semantec (sp?) bought out Norton, it has not been the same. They are a very good antivirus application, but they burrow very deep into your PC and are very difficult to remove. If your PC is at all marginal in performnace, Norton's other applications (if you buy anything other than NAV) will pretty much kill it. Their large application suites are complex, won't even upgrade themselves properly, and very difficult to uninstall completely. I learned all this after 3 different purchases of Norton utilities packages over 3 different revisions and for 3 different PCs.