aol wireless router not picking up signal from wirless usb adaptor

[badgerchops]

arrghhhhh.. ok

i have set up my aol router and it works beautifully with the extra long ethernet cable plugged into the router but when i try to set up wireless it cannot find the adaptor. it just sits of 'trying to establish' etc. they are not picking each other up. i have got the exact netgear w2111 V2 usb adaptor that they say and drivers installed etc

what can i do

[ACtheTROLL]

My first advice would be to stick with the wire!!
almost half my income comes from wireless problems .... convenient - and when they work ... easy.
but wire always works (and is faster)

At least you know that the router works.
If you've set up the router from the supplied Cd ... it's easy to forget that a SSID and (probably) WPA/WEP (encryption) may well have been set up as part of the install.
(if not you need to set them up)

Because you sound to have bought the adapter yourself ... the "foreign" device expects you to set it up manually.

Check the aol documentation for SSID, WPA/WEP (or PSK info)

Using your wire connection ... download a proggy called Netstumbler
http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/
It's useful for detecting wireless networks of all flavours ....
and will (should) show your network - even though it can't connect to it.

if you can't see it ... it's probably the router that's faulty.
If you can ... it's probably just the adapter that needs setting up with the same keys as the router

look at http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssec urity/tp/wifisecurity.htm
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssec urity/tp/wifisecurity.htm
http://www.networkliquidators.com/article-wire less-router-security-a-step-by-step-guide.asp

[Paulst30]

That little grey Netgear dongle is kinda rubbish tbh, mine burnt out after 2 weeks of downloading lol

Anyway, theres a driver that comes with that dongle that must be installed into the machine its connected too in order for it to recognise the network. You may have done it already right enough however the first time its done you have to establish the connection yourself.

It looks like a little laptop icon in the bottom right part of the screen, if the screen on it is red then you need to set it up but if its green its already done.

Its helpful to know this so you can get a better diagnosis of the problem. If the little dongle is showing a blue led light on then its working ok too. Just some things to check first.

I know you've been given extensive replys already but sometimes its the simple things that matter.

One more thing, don't ask me why but if the laptop had google toolbar installed before you set it all up it wont work. Get rid of google toolbar then try again. I have experienced this problem over 20 times with people, what relation google toolbar has with your connection is beyond me but it fixed it when it was removed and installed after the connection was sorted.

[fiesata]

Go into control panel >newtwork connections and right click to see if enabled.
If so click properties then the wireless network tab and check let Windows configure my wireless network

Then right click on the wireless icon view available wireless networks and try to connect

Post back if this fails