Not sure if anyone can help me (in non-IT techie words ) get my windows vista on the internet. Its a 2 year old (approx) Sony Vaio and despite me having the right password and the laptop connecting to the box (Sky box) it says local only and won't go on the net. All settings are factory, and to auto-detect where they seem they should be.

OS is Vista Windows Home Premium, service pack 1.

Weirdly enough, my own PC which is Vista Home Basic, service pack 2, has the exact same network settings but it sees the box as the box it is, but the laptop has it as an unidentified network....

Don't you have to tell it that its a home/public network before it shows the name?

What ip address have you got?

IPv4 IP Address is 192.168.0.14 - I have noticed the same thing on this desktop PC ends in 0.6, not 0.14

Check your AV isnt preventing connection ie disable it and see what brings.

You could manually input an IP Address in network settings pointing the gateway to the router and DNS to google 8.8.8.8 for example?

This thing (came with Sony Vaio default setup screen) had norton on it which I have uninstalled. I would like to get Avast on it like I use on this PC, but that involves going on the internet....

I often have this problem with some wifi connections when working away with my laptop running Vista.

Try left clicking the network connection in the lower right tool bar, then click on 'network and sharing centre' When the page opens select the 'diagnose and repair' option at the bottom of the left hand column and see what it suggests.

You can also get to this page by going to control panel, select 'network and internet' then 'view network status and tasks'

basically says modem/router is unavailable but it is connected, just as an unidentified network

Other 2 options suggest getting new IP settings or resetting the network adaptor. Doing those network diagnostic repairs did nothing :(

IPv4 IP Address is 192.168.0.14 - I have noticed the same thing on this desktop PC ends in 0.6, not 0.14

So if thats automatically allocated then you are connected to the router. Open a command window and use the command ping 192.168.0.14 from the 06 machine and vice versa

On desktop PC (the 0.6 one) I pinged 0.14 and it did request timed out 4 times, and pinging .06 it transferred data quickly.

on laptop (the 0.14 one) I pinged 0.14 and it did the data bytes very quick. I tried pinging 0.6 and I got 4 times "reply from 192.168.0.14: Destination host unreachable"

I am off to sleep now but might see what gems I can try tomorrow morning before work

Try resetting your router (Power off wait a minute power back on).

The local network part of it sounds like it is working fine. It might just need to re-sync with your internet provider.

The local part isn't working as he can't ping .6 from .14. Sounds like the router needs a reboot and also i would remove the wireless network from the settings and re add it as you may have put the security key in wrong.

Does it work if you connect up via ethernet?

Not wishing to think I'm a technical wizard as I'm not but don't you have to push a button or something on the Wi Fi box so a light flashes for a while so you can put in your key code. Doesn't this enable your Wi Fi box so it can "See" the laptop your tyring to Connect

Out of 10 my technical knowlage of computors is about 3

....re add it as you may have put the security key in wrong....

But if it's on dhcp (which i don't know for certain) the key would have to be correct to get the ip address wouldn't it?

However, I agree - reboot everything and start again....

Could be the mac address setting on the router...even if you have the SSID and the encytion passwords etc all ok if the mac address of the laptop is not on the router then the router will not allow it to go on! I had the same problem at home as the home pc was all ok but the laptop wouldn't work but it could see the network....wasn't until I used the desktop to input both the wireless and cable (2 different) MAC address into the firewall and filtering (2 different) settings on the router that I could finally get web access on my laptop!!

Need to authenticate to the network to get a DHCP address, correct. However, the laptop could coincidentally be assigned a static IP from the same range from being used on a previous network, which would give the impression it was connected, when it wasn't. Things I can think of that I'd check (in order):

*) You've entered the security key right

*) DHCP is definitely enabled on your wireless card on the laptop

*) MAC address filtering isn't on on the router (turn it off if it's on, it's essentially useless)

*) If it's an 802.11g router then check the wireless channel is from the range 1-13, some routers will allow you to use 1-14 while channel 14 is technically illegal in the UK (Japanese use only) so depending on the drivers on the laptop it may be able to see a network on 14 but refuse to connect due to the regulatory domain information. I tend to use channel 1 all the time.

*) Any "speedbooster" technology on the router is turned off. A lot of 802.11g routers came with these for "up to 125Mb/s" speeds, but because there was never an official IEEE standard for it, each hardware manufacturer did things slightly differently to get their 125Mb/s and there can be incompatibilities between vendors

*) Update wireless drivers on laptop

*) Update firmware on router

Sounds like your router needs a pairing button pressing or has MAC blocking enabled.

our sky router doesn't have a button to allow wifi pairing, have you had any problems connecting any other devices? did your old laptop or your phone connect without any problems? as above, it's worth making sure that the IP adress is DHCP rather than static as even though addresses in the 192.168.0.0 range are fairly typical the gateway (your router) could well have a different address.

I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to ping the new laptop as that could well be blocked by the built-in firewall

I had frequency issues with my Vaio? I am not an expert, but might be worth a try.

Edited 10 August, 201114 yr by _VRs_

Well, the laptop connected to work's WIFI right away today, so I am still at a loss. Decided I am going to take the laptop to work again tomorrow and attempt to update all the driver's / software through their internet and see if that sorts it. Due to it being a factory reset when I got it, its only on service pack 1, so probably needs some updating. A mate here played with the laptop for about an hour with no joy. Very odd how every other laptop/PC/mobile in this house connects to it with no worries (no pairing button required)

Have you entered passcode as say a1b2 or A1B2... ?

Some OS' devices need it in caps.

Did you say you'd had it connected via ethernet to your home router J?

Not got an ethernet cable at home though.

Definitely entered as CAPS, as when I tried little letters it didn't even connect in any form. With CAPS passcode it connects but only "local" as described.

You can have one in the post if you like - got hundreds of the things!

I know it won't immediately solve the wireless issue, but will at least allow you to update the laptop directly and get a bit further down the road.

My money's on a wireless card and/or driver incompatibility with your router...

If you know how to login to your router (should have instructions with it) I would change the channel that your wireless signal is broadcasting on as a start.

Also not sure if this makes sense to you but when you took it to work did you have to enter any proxy settings in to Internet explorer? Check via tools, Internet options, connection, LAN settings and make sure use proxy server is un-ticked.

Other thing to try is go into wireless settings in your laptop, remove or "forget" the wireless network completely and rejoin from scratch then reconnect. If it still does nit work let the windows troubleshooter run through.