no internet

[frazhm]

I have a home wifi network, with a main computer connected by ethernet and 2 laptops by wifi. Now one of the laptops a HP model only year old, is not connecting upto the internet. It is receiving the signal, indeed it shows it is connected, loads the start page but goes no further. Another aspect which may be relevant is that this occured within a few days of us beginning to use the wifi facility in a nintendo wii. Is this a coincidence? The other laptop we have works fine as does the wifi part of the wii, just the hp one is problematic.
FYI the hub is a BT home Hub.
Boys and girls of PPRUNE you have never let me down before - what do you think?

Many Thanks
Fraser

[green granite]

Switch everything off. and then power up each unit one by one starting with the wifi router then the main PC then the laptops and finally the Nintendo. But check the ability of each unit to go on line before powering up the next one.

[Keef]

You don't perchance have one of those laptops with the heat problem? The graphics card heats up the motherboard; the solder in the WiFi bit melts, and the wifi stops working.

A known bug, solved only in the last six months or so. A friend of mine had one: while we were persuading the manufacturer to fix it (they did), he borrowed my WiFi dongle which worked fine. Try yours with a dongle if you have one.

[frazhm]

I tried the switching off and re-sterting individually, it seemed to work for half an hour or so then nothing!!! No internet back to square one!

What next ladies and gentlemen?

Now getting worried.

Fraser

[mocoman]

this occured within a few days of us beginning to use the wifi facility in a nintendo wii. Is this a coincidence?

well since you have just had it working for a little while, the next step would seem to be to NOT turn on the Wii or the working laptop at all!

Try connecting the HP laptop to the router using WiFi and leave it to soak-test. Does it still work after 30 mins? 60 mins? A full day?

Once you have established that there is not an inherent time-based problem with the HP laptop talking to the router then you can start adding the other devices.

EDIT:
One thing that occurs to me. We had a problem here where one of our computers was dropping off the WiFi; wasn't an issue with the other three WiFi machines, only this particular one.

Finally tracked it down to the fact that one of our neighbours had just purchased a WiFi router and was running it on the same channel as ours and the suspect machine was the only one that was in such a position that it was getting confused as to which network it was supposed to be connected.

[green granite]

The fact that it worked for awhile points to what Keef said. does your router have leds that shows you what is happening? If so do the leds flash when you try to go on line from the HP? If so it means that it's txing ok if not try doing what Keef suggests.

[hellsbrink]

Mocoman has a point, most people do not change the channel their wifi works on. Do a "find wireless networks" search from a working PC and see if a neighbour has their network on the same channel. If there is, change yours to a channel as far away from theirs as possible (most are set to 11 as default, if I remember rightly, although I have had no experience of the BT equipment)

[mustpost]

Download and install Netstumbler - should show all nearby wireless thingies;)
Homehub is normally set to 11...

[Keygrip]

*I* would also be tempted to connect the laptop (which is presumably potable, by definition) to the newtork by cable - just to see if it will connect when hard wired.

That would ease my mind into firmly believing it's a wi-fi problem rather than a settings problem.

It could be just about anything - so I'm always game to discount as many possibilities as possible, eventually the list gets shorter until it narrows down to the *actual* problem.

[BladePilot]

We have a wireless sender unit which we use to send the Sky signal from the main box in the lounge to a satellite TV in the kitchen (easy option, cabling would have been a nightmare). Quite often if the sender is on it bugga's up the signal from my Wireless broadband router and her indoors can't capture the broadband signal on her laptop: solution - switch TV signal sender off, changing the channels on it doesn't work.
A friend had the same problem a few months ago and found he couldn't set up his home wireless network he was well puzzled so called in an 'expert' who couldn't figure it out either so proceeded to hard wire all my friends PC's (his primary desktop, his secondary (guests) desktop and his kids laptops x 2!) back to the router at great expense! wasn't until I popped over to visit and spied the TV signal sender sitting in the corner of his lounge that the real culprit was uncovered. Sure enough we switched off his TV signal sender and Hey Presto! he could capture the broadband signal anywhere in the house on his kids laptop.
Don't have a Wii so not sure how they 'send' but perhaps they cause the same 'signal jamming' problem as the TV signal sender? it could be the signal between the Wii and the games controllers (wands, bats, whatever)that are causing you the grief?:ok:

[frazhm]

A mixed bag guys. It seems to have sorted itself out! I take on board the Wii aspects and the possibility of a nearby wifi router offering some interference, but after turning off my BT home hub for a couple of minutes and disconnecting all the cables to and from the hub and the re-connecting, it seems to be working OK.
Either way it is now OK by using a more thorough version of turning it off and on!!!

Many Thanks
Fraser