US Bought Vista computer not connecting Wirelessly in South Africa

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Guest

I've tried to find out more info, but I'm having a hard time getting any help.

I bought my Toshiba Sattelite A135-S4427 in the US in April. I was able to
connect wirelessly in the US to a linksys router. I have since moved home to
South Africa and am unable to connect my computer to the wireless router here
- a Billion 5200G wireless ADSL modem/router.

My computer is able to find the wireless router, but is unable to connect to
the internet through it. Sadly I am one of those people that knows enough to
be dangerous, but not enough to be able to sort out issues. I have tried
phoning my ISP here and spent about 3 hours on the phone with them, without
any luck. I have called Microsoft here and they can't assist me because I
bought the computer in America. Before I phone tech support in the US (from
South Africa on a very expensive international call) I thought I would try
and see if anyone here can make any further suggestions.

This is what we've established already:
1)The wireless router works fine as another laptop in the house (running XP)
can connect no problem.
2) I can connect to the internet through the router on my Vista machine if I
plug the adsl line in.
3) If I give the computer a static IP address then when I ping another
computer it sends and receives the packets. If it's getting a dynamic address
it doesn't find and IP address at all.
4) My computer finds the wireless router here, whatever security I set it
to, but cannot connect to the internet.

I don't know if there is a setting I can change that I've just over looked,
or the other tech people I've talked to have over looked.

Please if there's anyone who can assit with options for me to look at I
would greatly appreciate it.

Oh I updated the drivers from the toshiba website recently and that hasn' t
made any change. I also have the windows auto updater on.

I only have windows defender as my firewall and AVG for virus scans.

Please let me know if you need more info from me and I'll do my best to find
it.

Thanks in advance for any and all help

Bianca
 
probably because SA uses channels 12/13, etc. which is different
than the USA. Start here
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/download_drivers_bios.jsp

I've tried to find out more info, but I'm having a hard time getting any help.

I bought my Toshiba Sattelite A135-S4427 in the US in April. I was able to
connect wirelessly in the US to a linksys router. I have since moved home to
South Africa and am unable to connect my computer to the wireless router here
- a Billion 5200G wireless ADSL modem/router.

My computer is able to find the wireless router, but is unable to connect to
the internet through it. Sadly I am one of those people that knows enough to
be dangerous, but not enough to be able to sort out issues. I have tried
phoning my ISP here and spent about 3 hours on the phone with them, without
any luck. I have called Microsoft here and they can't assist me because I
bought the computer in America. Before I phone tech support in the US (from
South Africa on a very expensive international call) I thought I would try
and see if anyone here can make any further suggestions.

This is what we've established already:
1)The wireless router works fine as another laptop in the house (running XP)
can connect no problem.
2) I can connect to the internet through the router on my Vista machine if I
plug the adsl line in.
3) If I give the computer a static IP address then when I ping another
computer it sends and receives the packets. If it's getting a dynamic address
it doesn't find and IP address at all.
4) My computer finds the wireless router here, whatever security I set it
to, but cannot connect to the internet.

I don't know if there is a setting I can change that I've just over looked,
or the other tech people I've talked to have over looked.

Please if there's anyone who can assit with options for me to look at I
would greatly appreciate it.

Oh I updated the drivers from the toshiba website recently and that hasn' t
made any change. I also have the windows auto updater on.

I only have windows defender as my firewall and AVG for virus scans.

Please let me know if you need more info from me and I'll do my best to find
it.

Thanks in advance for any and all help

Bianca
Click to expand...
--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
 
Mick Murphy said:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0406.mspx

Hi Bianca; the above link is about Vista Wireless Networking.
Did you try the easy way:Start>Connect To?
Click to expand...

Hi Mick

Yes I have tried the easy way - the computer connects to the router but I
still can't access the internet through it.

I have also since called the router company - who assures me the router is
Vista compatible. I have also spent a few hours now on the phone to various
other techies to try and help me.
 
can you go into device manager and determine the chipset vendor -
Atheros? Broadcom? Realtek? Intel? etc. Also, take a look at

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928233/en-us

Hi Barb

Thanks for that - I'll try the channel switch. Unfortunately that link
doesn't help as the models available in Europe are different to the US. I
have gone to Toshiba's site for the US and downloaded the latest drivers.
That didn't seem to affect the problem.
Click to expand...
--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
 
Barb is very likely dead on in regards to this issue. Outside the US there
are several additional channels that may be used on WIFI devices that
generally are not available and/or supported here in the US. If your
machine "sees" the AP and associates to it, but thereafter cannot pass
traffic this is good indication that this is your problem (the frequency
bands overlap a bit so it's close enough for you to make an association but
not spot on).

If you can, see if you can verify and/or change the configuration of the
wireless AP to a channel between 1 and 11 (which are the US supported
channels). Channel 6 is the most commonly used here in the US (the default
channel for most WIFI devices). Also, for the purposes of testing,
configure the AP WITHOUT a WEP, WPA or shared key of any kind (just make it
open). Once you have things working you can always go back in again and
change/setup wireless security.

Changing this shouldn't cause a problem with other devices that are local to
there (outside the US they support the 1 thru 11 as well as a couple above
11).

While it's possible that your wireless NIC may have an advanced option
enabling the use of the channels above 11, it's not common.

Joe
 
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