I've recently swopped to virgin broadband from sky and i can't get my laptop to conect to my wireless network. I've got a edup dongle that worked fine on the old sky wirless but it seems to find every other network in the street but mine. The old sky was wpa-psk and i think the new one is wpa2-psk. Should my dongle still be able to pick it up?

did you get a new wireless modem/router too? some of them (like the bt homehub one i got) you go into the setting on the hub (by plugging the pc in by ethernet cable) and type in the MAC number of the computers you want to give access to

but there is other ways to do it too. but thats the most complictaed, but when done right, seems the most reliable way

[Edited on 10/3/10 by blakep82]

Yes, got a new modem and router but because it's cable they don't use MAC numbers apparently.

hmm, don't know, its just a way i found to do it on mine.
i think every pc has a MAC number (or MAC address really) should be printed on the bottom of the laptop? mine is on a litlle sticker on the base

is it two different manufacturers by chance... I had a similar issue recently and it turned out that netgear (dongle) and dlink (wireless router) use a different encryption algorithm.

The only way to get them to talk successfully was to use the hex vaule of the pre shared key and not the "real" word!!! basically take one value and enter it on both.

I could see the wireless access point SSID but not actually connect. but i could connect to the neighbours!!

[Edited on 10/3/10 by Rek]

Could be a variety of reasons.

Firstly I would forget wireless for now and connect via a Lan cable to the router. Log onto the router and check what SSID has been set for the router. Change this to something of your own making sure that it is set to "broadcast" the SSID (if not then you will not see it on a wireless scan from your laptop.

Also, did the new router/Broadband come with a setup CD.

Wireless works fine on my wife's laptop which is running vista, mine is on xp. Mine won't even recognise my wireless but it will conect to a neibours that has no security.

As KArlak said, you will not even see the network if SSID broadcaast is turned off. Also, to get the settings on the modem, connect with an normal LAN cable and open an IE browser, then enter 192.168.1.1 in the address bar and hit enter. It should come up with a username and password page, the default for 99% of them is 'admin' and 'admin'.

And BlakeP68 is absolutely right. Any piece of equipment tha connects to a network will have a MAC Address which is always a unique number for every piece of equipment. It will look something like this:

1C:34:F8:22:98:1B or 1C-34-F8-22-98-1B

If it is not on a sticker on your computer then you can get it from the command window as follows:

Open the start menu and select 'run' then enter 'CMD' and enter. This opens up the command window. In there enter 'ipconfig /all' (with the space) and this will show all your network identity details.

If I am teaching you to suck eggs I apologise

HTH.

JB

No not teaching me to suck eggs at all. Thanks for your help i'll give it a go.

[Edited on 10/3/10 by Davegtst]