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Wireless or Wi-Fi not working


Wireless connection or Wi-Fi connection gives easy convenience for moving Laptop computers inside the house or even in the office without losing internet connection.

If there are two or more Laptop computers and one of them is not able to connect to the internet or wireless connection, then for this kind of scenario the wireless router is working properly. Since other Laptop computers is able to connect to the Internet or Wi-Fi connection.

But if all of the wireless devices or laptop computers are not able to connect to the internet then it can be roll out that the router itself is having issues.

Troubleshooting wireless router is beyond the scope of this topic.

How to check or troubleshoot wireless connection issues?

Windows has a built-in wizard that will help to troubleshoot or check wireless issues.

A basic step to troubleshoot Wi-Fi or wireless connection if not working is to check:

- check if the wireless driver is installed properly or check whether the wireless device is disabled


Check out this link on how to access or open device manager:
http://quickbytesstuff.blogspot.sg/2014/04/how-to-launch-and-check-device-manager.html

- If the wireless driver is having some issues, check out vendor’s manufacturer website for the latest wireless driver of your laptop. And install the driver see if it will solve the issue. (Download only from your vendor’s website and not from any illegitimate website)

- Or email the support of the vendor’s website for further assistance.

-  If the device manager shows everything is fine, then eliminate the wireless driver problem.

Some manufacturers include a button to enable / disable wireless connection.

It could be also a slide switch to enable or disable Wi-Fi.

If the button or slide switch is accidentally press it will disable the Wi-Fi or wireless connection.

If the button or slide switch is not present on the laptop, check the Function Key combination.

On the Laptop Keyboard, check the Key labelled as “Fn” or “FN”.

On the top of the keyboard, there would be keys labelled as “F1”, “F2”, and “F3” etc...

And on those keys there are images or labels aside from “F1”, “F2” or “F3”. Those are the function keys combination which can disable certain functions, such as wireless, touch pad, sound and other functionalities.

To access those functionalities, press “Fn” + the key combination. For the wireless key combination check any images that resembles wireless connection. And press like “Fn” + “F5”. (This is just a sample it could be other keys).

If the wireless is disabled using the function key, button or slide switch. Even if you reinstall, reformat the whole computer wireless will still not work. Windows troubleshooter will have this message “the wifi button is off and cannot be turned on”.

Which basically gives a clue already; the wireless connection or Wi-Fi device cannot be accessed or enabled by the software.

Wireless router configured with WEP security for old hardware compatibility, then wireless devices or computers such as laptop with Windows 7 or Windows 8 computers; a manual setup connection is needed for the computer to connect to the wireless router.

Scenario: Trying to connect to a wireless network to browse the Internet and system pop-up a message asking to enter a username, password and a logon domain to be granted Internet access.

For this scenario a manual connection is required, it could be that the default security settings of the wireless device does not match with the wireless router.

Thus, needs to be setup manually like WEP or Sharing, WPA2-Personal, WPA-Personal, WPA-Enterprise or WPA2-Enterprise has to be the same for both the computer and the router

Open "Control Panel" and configure "Network and Sharing Center".

On Windows 7 or Windows 8, to open control panel. Press "Windows key" + "E", to open windows explorer.  Then type, "control panel" on the address bar and press enter, or see screen shot below:

For Windows 7:





For Windows 8:









Upon clicking on "Network and Sharing Center" a new will will pop up and click on:

 “Set up a new connection or network” and choose “Manually connect to a Wireless Network”.

Follow the screen instruction to finish the setup.

WiFi SSID or the WiFi name and password is needed to finish the wizard. If you don't have the WiFi SSID or password, check other computers that are able to connect to the wireless router and copy the WiFi name.

If for whatever reason, you did not have the record or the copy, or have forgotten the Wi-Fi name and password, or other obscure reasons. Follow instruction below to get back the Wi-Fi SSID or Wi-Fi name and password on a working wireless computer.

Open "Network Sharing and Center" screen shot instructions given above,

Or hover to the taskbar where the wireless icon can be seen.


While the cursor is hovering on the wireless icon, the SSID or the Wi-Fi name can be seen on the top (see image above).
Right click on the wireless icon, and select "Open Network and Sharing Center".

On Network and Sharing Center, window. Select "Manage wireless networks". (screen shot below)


On "Manage and wireless network" window select the SSID or the Wi-Fi name, in which you want to check  or retrieve the password. Right click on it, and select properties.


Upon clicking on "Properties" of the selected wi-fi profile window settings will open.

From there you can verify the SSID, and to retrieve or get the password. Click on the "Security" tab or tick the check box "Show characters". On this window also you can verify the type of security settings accepted by the router.




That's it once the SSID, type of security settings and the password is collected, then just follow the on-screen instruction on the manual setup connection wizard and  if every thing goes well. Wireless connection should be up and ready.

There are a lot of other things that needs considering, when troubleshooting wireless issues.

Those are just some of the basic steps on how to troubleshoot wireless connection issues.


Cheers..till next time,. Hope it helps..

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