Phantom Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 (edited) I bought a new netbook for christmas and everything was fine with it however now it currently can't see my own wireless network even though it can see my neighbours. When the problem first started I was using wep protection on my network however I read on a post that it my be worth changing the encryption so I changed it to WPA2. The OS of my netbook is windows 7 basic. (I know but it was pre-installed) My router is a D-link Dir-655 My encryption is WPA2. All other devices can connect to my router just fine and I have tried removed all other devices and tried to connect again and it still could not see it. Any help or advice on where to obtain help would be greatly appreciated. Edited March 20, 2012 by Phantom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 More than likely, the wireless card you are using, is not capable of WPA encryption. My sisters laptop has the same problem, it can do WEP, but can't see her router when set to WPA2. Quick fix, buy a USB wireless card, that can do WPA. Most cards that can't, are usually 802.11a or 802.11b only type cards and outdated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 More than likely, the wireless card you are using, is not capable of WPA encryption. My sisters laptop has the same problem, it can do WEP, but can't see her router when set to WPA2. Quick fix, buy a USB wireless card, that can do WPA. Most cards that can't, are usually 802.11a or 802.11b only type cards and outdated. Unfortunately this problem first occurred when my encryption was WEP and my netbook can still pick up my neighbor's router who's encrytion is WPA2. Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have any other ideas on why this my have occurred and how to fix it. Thanks in advance to all who reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 (edited) If the router is set to not broadcast the SSID, you may have to manually add it under your network settings for windows 7 and tell it that the SSID in question is WPA and enter the pass phrase for it. Maybe reset your router to factory settings, then reconfigure it. Make sure to change all default passwords and disable remote administration. Some even have the option to only allow over wired, so if you have that option, enable it as well so no one in the neighborhood can try logging into the router over wireless. As for the PC not seeing your router, try setting up your router on a different channel and ensure that the netbook isn't getting interference to see your router. If other wireless devices on the network can see it, then try adding it manually, and that should help. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff847520.aspx Edited March 20, 2012 by digip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 (edited) If the router is set to not broadcast the SSID, you may have to manually add it under your network settings for windows 7 and tell it that the SSID in question is WPA and enter the pass phrase for it. Maybe reset your router to factory settings, then reconfigure it. Make sure to change all default passwords and disable remote administration. Some even have the option to only allow over wired, so if you have that option, enable it as well so no one in the neighborhood can try logging into the router over wireless. As for the PC not seeing your router, try setting up your router on a different channel and ensure that the netbook isn't getting interference to see your router. If other wireless devices on the network can see it, then try adding it manually, and that should help. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff847520.aspx My router is set to brodcast its SSID and i can see it from my other devices. I have tried every channel avaliable to my router Channels 1-13. also the only way for someone to access the admin settings is from a computer already on my wireless but currently the only devices on my network are my laptop and ipod. I have also already added and removed the settings manually multipul times and rebooted inbetween each one. I am currently unable to factory reset my router as my laptop is updating however I do not believe my router to be the problem as my other devices pick it up and are using the internet just fine. Unless there is a way to blacklist specific MAC address from connecting to the router. Could the dlink router automatically black list a Mac address? Edited March 20, 2012 by Phantom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 (edited) I don't know of any that auto black lists, but you certainly could have your MAC address being filtered. That shouldn't stop you from seeing the device though. Only thing I can think of would be the nic not supporting WPA. If you previously had this set to WEP and was fine, but now can't connect over WPA, I think your previously stored creds might be an issue on the Win 7 machine. Might be a profile in there for the SSID with WEP stored in it. If you open the Network and Sharing Center, then click on "Manage wireless networks" you can remove all saved wireless network profiles, in case the old WEP profile is causing the problem. If its not there, you can still try this tool on your laptop: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html Scroll down for "Download WirelessKeyView" There are 32 and 64 bit versions, use the one for your OS type. See if it finds your routers SSID and stored keys and what protocol it shows for your SSID. If it still shows them in the system, then that might be the issue. If you deleted it, but it still shows, might be a registry issue, but you would need to edit that profile with the WEP settings and change it to WPA under the profiles settings. edit: Just another thought, try creating a new user on the Win 7 machine, and see what happens when you scan for wifi networks. If it works under there, then something under your other profile is messed up. Edited March 20, 2012 by digip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 I tried creating a new user account on the machine and then new user account couldn't see my wifi network either. Also that tool you suggested didn't find any previous previous network profiles. Any more suggestions that i could try before I throw this netbook out of the window and just use my carry around my laptop instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I tried creating a new user account on the machine and then new user account couldn't see my wifi network either. Also that tool you suggested didn't find any previous previous network profiles. Any more suggestions that i could try before I throw this netbook out of the window and just use my carry around my laptop instead. Hmm. The fact that a new profile didn't see your router as well means its more in the wifi card than in the OS I would think. Try reinstalling the correct drivers, from the manufacturers site for your Wifi card. Maybe test another USB Wifi Adapter, see if that works, vs chucking the whole netbook. Borrow one from a friend even, instead of buying one, just to test it out. I find it strange that the problem only arose, after you changed the routers settings from WEP to WPA. If nothing else, reinstall windows, see what happens. You say the neighbors wifi is WPA, but are you 100% sure its WPA and not WEP? It may be that the card, or drivers, just can not do WPA or WPA2. You could also try booting off of a live linux distro, see if it works and can see your router and associate with it. If it can't, then it would point more at the card, than an OS issue. If it can, then I would say something in your windows, drivers, settings, is foobared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 The problem didn't started after I change from WEP to WPA I changed to WPA as I thought the problem was the WEP encryption. I know the neighbor's wifi is WPA2 as I recently set it up for them. I will try booting from a portable linux distro and get back to you on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I assumed you had it working under WEP based on what your original post said - When the problem first started I was using wep protection on my network however I read on a post that it my be worth changing the encryption so I changed it to WPA2. Since you setup the neighbors router for them, can you connect to theirs over WPA2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 I assumed you had it working under WEP based on what your original post said - Since you setup the neighbors router for them, can you connect to theirs over WPA2? Yes but I'd rather not as they only have basic adsl and its only fast enough for email. Also I just booted from ubuntu 10.10 from a memory stick and it instantly picked up the network and after I entered the passphrase it was connected and I was browsing the internet. This means its a problem with some of the settings in the Win 7 starter installation. Any ideas on where to start as the os came pre-installed and with no recovery media except the recover system option after a failed boot. (caused by catching the power button as the netbook was booting. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 (edited) The fact that you can't see yours, but can see your neighbors, is very odd. Its also good to know that its not the hardware that is broken since Linux seems to work. It would seem that if you can't see yours, you shouldn't be able to see any wifi networks at all though. You can try the following things, but I doubt this will make much a difference, although its always good to make sure windows has the latest NIC drivers, in the event there is some sort of bug in the previous windows drivers you have. Make sure the NIC drivers are updated. Windows update, in most cases, will not give you proper drivers, only generic, or at time of build drivers when Windows was released. On rare occasion, Microsoft will push out GPU drivers for certain products, but for the most part, you should go to the card manufacturer's site or the netbook manufacturers site for your model number, and download and install the NIC drivers from their site vs use what Windows says is the best one. Check your services to make sure things are working. "Windows Key+ R", then type in Services.msc and hit enter. Look to make sure the following are running (and any service related to the NIC itself, if it has one, some do). You might need to elevate your privileges first to do this in home edition, I don't know, since I don't use home edition. To do this, right click a command prompt in the start menu and click "Run as Administrator" and put in your password. Form the command prompt, then start services.msc if it doesn't start normally. Services: -DHCP Client -Diagnostic Policy Service -Diagnostic Service Host -Network Connections -Network List Service -Network Location Awareness -Network Store Interface Service -WLAN Auto Config In some instances, the NIC will have its own wireless panel vs the windows Wifi list. My Realtek card has a link in the start menu for mine, so something to look into. This is something you usually find when downloading drivers directly from the card makers site, vs the stand alone drivers from Microsoft or the Netbook's brand. You can try http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ to scan for networks. It isn't for connecting to networks, but just for scanning, like the Netstumbler program in XP. If this is supported by your card, you can use it to tell if it sees your AP. You can also use the netsh command, but will have to elevate your privileges like mentioned above to use the command. Type this and hit enter from a cmd prompt: netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid Last thing to check, is go back to the router, double check all the settings on every screen. Edited March 22, 2012 by digip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 If you can't fix the problem, reinstalling windows from scratch will be your only option to fix the issue. Since you have done most of the troubleshooting and have identified that the issue does not lie on your router or wireless card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 I downloaded the inssiderprogram and ran the netsh command from the aministrative command prompt and the both only picked up my neighbors network and the sky network than comes and goes. However after searching the internet for the correct driver and stumbled upon others who have had this problem. It was due to windows generic driver. So I downloaded the driver from te manufacturer and it instantly connected to my network. Thanks for all the help. Phantom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 I downloaded the inssiderprogram and ran the netsh command from the aministrative command prompt and the both only picked up my neighbors network and the sky network than comes and goes. However after searching the internet for the correct driver and stumbled upon others who have had this problem. It was due to windows generic driver. So I downloaded the driver from te manufacturer and it instantly connected to my network. Thanks for all the help. Phantom lol...yeah. Drivers might make the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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