Checking for Wireless Device

[BobH]

Howdy All!

First REAL post here at Eileen's (but I go way back at the other place).

My wife's desktop Dell E310 took a belly flop when I started trying to fix what was probably not a problem. Bet that's never happened to anyone else, huh? Anyway, after fighting with the WinXP Pro reformat/reinstall process, I'm finally back to the point where XP will boot, but of course it is only at the SP1 level which is the age of my CD. I was going to download SP3 and install it; however, I cannot seem to get Network Connections to see that the wifi receiver is attached so that I can load my encryption key for WAP. I can't set up and test an email account or anything until I get the hardware issues resolved.

I downloaded the SP3 update to this laptop and will transport it to the E310 with a flash drive and update the OS from there, but I still need to get the wifi working to gain access to the Internet and email. Can someone point me to a FAQ or how-to that will jog me out of this blindness? This ain't my first rodeo but I'll be danged if I can find the glitch. I thought I had rechecked all the connections and settings, but Network Connections doesn't seem to recognize that there is a device.

Any help will be greatly appreciated and gratefully received.

[StuartR]

When you loaded Windows XP onto this PC, did you use a generic Windows CD or did you use a Dell CD that was specific to this model?

Are you sure that you have loaded all of the correct Dell drivers for the Wireless card?

[BobH]

Hi StuartR!

Thanks for the response. I continued to try to get the link up and went back to find a Wireless Network Setup Wizard. This was after I changed some of the USB cabling. I had installed a new PCIE card to add more USB and 1394 ports but I hadn't booted successfully so XP hadn't registered the new hardware. I plugged the wireless receiver and the keyboard into the mobo USB ports and was able to run the wireless network setup wizard successfully and to reboot. The OS is now recognizing the ports on the new card and the devices connected to them. I also installed the SP3 update and entered the WPA key. When I try to setup a network connection, I see the Firewire connection as up and connected, but this must be something that is automatic and has nothing to do with my wifi LAN. I ran the Network Setup Wizard then created a new connection using Network Connections wherein I chose to Connect to the Internet, then Setup My Connection Manually, then Connect Using a Broadband Connection that Requires a User Name and Password, then entered a name for the connection (RR2),then entered my ISP account username and password and confirmed the PW. and finished the wizard. I then got a panel with a Connect button and when I click it I get an error message panel that says: Connecting through WAN Miniport (PPPOE)...Error 769: the specified destination is not available. This error message has a Redial retry countdown clock but I don't connect thru dialup using broadband cable modem instead. I an connected through that connection via a router to use this laptop.

????

[StuartR]

I am not familiar with USB connected wireless devices.

What is the exact name of the Wireless network device you are using?
What device driver have you loaded to support it?
Can you see the wireless network adapter in device manager?

(I am about to go to bed, so may not reply again for some time...)

[NYIntensity]

What USB wireless device are you using? Have you installed the software for it? If not, have you made sure by going to Start>Run>Services.msc that the windows Wireless Zero Configuration service is turned on?

[BobH]

My apologies for not posting my results here.

I was able to get past this problem but I've slept more than twice since then and cannot remember what the breakthrough was. I remember that I persisted in my googling for the 769 error and can only suppose that I found a suggestion that worked for me.

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, but at 67 I can attest that I have not yet wasted all of it no matter how hard I've tried.