A wireless network has long become a common thing for many owners of computers and laptops. It is easy and convenient to use. You can access the Internet anywhere in your apartment or office, but at the same time, kilometers of wires will not get tangled under your feet. You can access the Internet not only from a laptop, but also from a tablet or smartphone.
However, most users do not know how to solve even simple router-related problems and do not understand how to enable wireless communication on a laptop. When access to the Internet is lost, you do not need to immediately call technical support provider. First you need to figure out what caused the Internet outage: the computer or the service provider.
Some models, such as the MSI GT780, have a touchpad located above the keyboard, which allows you to turn on or off with one touch. wireless network.
There are cases when the Wi-Fi receiver is disabled by software and it is impossible to activate it using a button or keyboard shortcut. How to enable wireless communication on a laptop (Lenovo, Asus or Acer - not so important) in such cases?
The user will need to right-click on the Network icon on the taskbar. Next, select “Network and Sharing Center” from the list. In the window that opens, go to the page where you can change the adapter settings. Select a wireless network from the list provided and turn it on.
The connection will change from gray to color, and after a while a connection to the Internet will be established.
You can also programmatically activate the network adapter through Device Manager. As a rule, such outages occur rarely, mainly during operational failures operating system.
To enable the Wi-Fi adapter through Device Manager, you must:
This way you can enable the wireless network either hardware or software.
Hello, dear friends. As you probably already understood from the title, today I decided to touch upon a very serious and painful topic, and try to figure out what to do when Wi-Fi on a laptop or netbook does not work and how to still connect the laptop to Wi-Fi router. By the way, this can be not only a laptop or netbook, it can also be an ordinary desktop computer with a Wi-Fi receiver. Similar questions in Lately appears a lot, mainly to the article.
Now we will try to figure out step by step what and why problems may arise when connecting a laptop to a wireless Wi-Fi networks. We will also try to find a solution to this very popular and unpleasant problem with connecting to Wi-Fi, or rather, an unsuccessful connection.
Most often, problems arise when it is not possible to turn on the Wi-Fi module itself on the laptop. And when Wi-Fi turns on, the laptop finds all available networks, but when trying to connect it writes . You need to check whether the drivers are installed on the Wi-Fi adapter, whether Wi-Fi is turned on on the laptop, etc. Now we will do this.
I noticed that most often problems with connecting to Wi-Fi occur in Windows 7. It is on this OS that the network without Internet access error very often appears; I wrote how to solve this problem in the article linked above. In fact, as practice shows, there can be many reasons for this problem. And if there are many reasons, then there are many ways in which you can force a laptop to connect to a Wi-Fi router.
But it’s not always the laptop, netbook, etc. that is to blame. There may also be a problem with the access point, that is, with the Wi-Fi router. And the first thing we need to do when a problem arises with connecting to Wi-Fi is to determine what the reason is, in the laptop, or in the Wi-Fi router. Now I will consider the problem with connecting to my own router. Because if you can’t establish a connection with someone else’s Wi-Fi, then all the complaints are against your neighbor, it’s most likely his problem :).
As I wrote above, you first need to find the culprit. Before you make any settings on your laptop or Wi-Fi router, you need to understand what the problem is, which is why you can’t connect your laptop to Wi-Fi. You can just set it up in such a way that then you have to do it and set everything up again. Most The best way To determine which device the problem is hiding in, try connecting another device to the router, for example another laptop, tablet, or phone. If you have a laptop that has problems connecting to Wi-Fi, you should try connecting it to a different wireless network.
I think that you understood my point. If there are other devices connected to your router (best with a similar operating system) will connect without problems, then the problem is in the laptop. Read this article further, now let’s try to solve it.
Well, if problems connecting to your network also occur on other devices, and the “problematic” laptop connects to other networks without problems, then the problem is in setting up the Wi-Fi router. See the article on, it might come in handy.
I will show the example of a laptop that runs on Windows 7. This is currently the most popular operating system.
I advise you to immediately pay attention to the icon that displays the status of your Internet connection. It's located in the notification panel.
If the Internet connection status looks like this:
First you need to check whether the drivers for Wi-Fi are installed and whether the Wi-Fi adapter is turned on.
Right click on "My computer" and select “Properties”. On the left select "Device Manager".
Open a tab in a new window "Network adapters" and see if there is a device like Wireless Network Adapter (You may have a different name for it). If you have such a device, then right-click on it and select “Properties”. Another window will open, make sure it says “The device is working normally.”
If everything is approximately the same as mine above in the screenshot, then everything is fine, the driver is installed. And if there is no Wireless Network Adapter device and you have unidentified devices, go to the website of your laptop manufacturer, download and install the Wireless Network Adapter driver for your model.
Learn more about installing and updating the driver for the wireless adapter.
We sorted out the drivers.
If the driver is installed, but the Wi-Fi module is disabled, the connection status will be the same:
Usually the wireless adapter on your laptop is turned on, but it doesn't hurt to check. Wi-Fi on laptops (netbooks) is usually turned on and off using a keyboard shortcut. On my ASUS K56cm, these are the keys FN+F2. But although when I press these keys I get a message that the wireless adapters are enabled/disabled, nothing happens. Look for the key on your laptop FN and a key with a picture of a wireless network. Press them at the same time.
Some laptops may have a special switch on the case that can be used to enable or disable Wi-Fi. For example on Toshiba Satellite L300 it looks like this:
But the best way to check whether the wireless network adapter is working or not is to go to the network control center and take a look.
So, on the notification panel, right-click on the Internet connection status icon and select “Network and Sharing Center”.
Then select on the left.
Among the connections we are looking for “Wireless network connection”. If everything is fine and the Wi-Fi adapter is turned on, then it should look like this:
If the adapter is disabled, it will look like the screenshot below. Right-click on it and select “Enable”.
Using the methods described above, we must make sure that the status of the Internet connection in the notification panel is like this:
This status means “No connection – There are connections available”- this means that the Wi-Fi adapter is turned on and there are available wireless networks to connect to.
If the connection status is like this:
This means that Wi-Fi is turned on, but the laptop simply does not see the networks available for connection.
We have sorted out the problem when the wireless network module is disabled or does not work at all. Now consider the case when the laptop finds available Wi-Fi networks, but when trying to connect to Wi-Fi it writes: “Windows was unable to connect to...”, where instead of dots is the name of the network you want to connect to.
If your network connection status is the same as in the screenshot above (via one, network with yellow icon), then click on it and you will see a list of networks available for connection.
Select the desired network, click on it, then click the “Connect” button.
If the set is password protected, Windows will ask you to provide the password. Enter your network password and click “Ok”.
And if everything is fine, then your laptop should connect to the Internet via a wireless connection. And the Internet connection status should look like this:
But it is at the moment of connection that the error “Windows could not connect to...” very often appears. She looks like this:
Unfortunately, friends, there is no definite solution to this problem. But I can download that very often the problem with such an error appears due to Wi-Fi settings router. It may be through the type of security and encryption that is installed on the Wi-Fi router, read more about this in the article. There may also be a problem with the distribution of IP addresses.
If you notice that in the window with the error “Windows was unable to connect to...” you can run “Troubleshooting”, it would be a sin not to take advantage. Try running it, I heard somewhere that there are cases in which it helps :). But seriously, sometimes it really helps. Windows will check the readiness of the wireless adapter, check the settings, etc. And if it can, it will fix the problem that is preventing you from connecting to Wi-Fi.
Just reboot your router and then your laptop. Very often this helps.
Update
I noticed that in Windows this error appears when the settings that are saved on the computer for your network do not match the current network settings. I'll explain now.
For example, your laptop was connected to Wi-Fi, it automatically connected to the network. But you went and changed the password, or the type of network encryption. Now the laptop is trying to connect to the network, but the parameters no longer match, and that’s the error.
All you need to do is simply delete the network on your computer and re-establish the connection. I wrote about this in an article
It’s a great article, and I hope it’s useful. I wrote it for half a day, with interruptions of course, there were still problems with adding screenshots to the site, but I seemed to have solved it.
I tried to collect everything necessary information, which should help you solve the problem that occurs when connecting a laptop or netbook to Wi-Fi. If I forgot to write something, I will definitely add to the article in the future, and I will also be very grateful if you share in the comments the information that helped you solve the problem with connecting to a wireless network.
If you have any questions, ask them in the comments, we will try to figure it out. Best wishes!
Also on the site:
Why doesn't Wi-Fi work on a laptop (netbook)? How to connect a laptop to a Wi-Fi router? Error “Windows could not connect to...” updated: February 7, 2018 by: admin
Today it's hard to imagine modern apartment or, especially, an office that is not equipped with the appropriate set of office equipment: computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones. And where all these devices are available, there should naturally be the Internet. He has firmly entered our lives, occupying one of the most prominent places there. On the Internet we study, work, have fun, relax, and communicate. Therefore, providing comfortable access to the World Wide Web for yourself and your loved ones is a problem that sooner or later every person has to solve. Thankfully now we have reliable assistant, allowing for the most effective and simple solution to this issue without any additional intellectual and financial costs. It's about, of course, about Wi-Fi technology.
But in order to use the “over-the-air” Internet, you need to know where to find and how to turn on Wi-Fi on your computer. We tried to present the answers to these questions in this article.
Technology wireless internet has become part of our everyday life. We habitually identify Wi-Fi with a convenient, reliable and fast Internet connection, which we encounter at home, at work, in in public places- at airports, cafes, shopping centers.
Answer the question “what is Wi-Fi?” the simplest way is this: this is a network protocol, with the participation of which communication is carried out between an “access point” and a “client”, or an “access point” and several “clients”, packet data is exchanged on a local network or via the World Wide Web.
Currently, the abbreviation Wi-Fi means nothing and is not officially deciphered in any way, but when creating this protocol, the developers “gave it a name” by analogy with Hi-Fi ( High accuracy). It stood for “Wireless Fidelity” - wireless precision.
Of course, the “over-the-air” Internet is not an ideal technology. You can give several examples of the difficulties that may arise when using it. One of the most widely known is the so-called “noisy” connection. The range used by this protocol is emitted by many Appliances(for example, microwave ovens), alternative connection devices (for example, Bluetooth) work. Interference can also be caused by walls and ceilings. All this negatively affects the speed and quality of access.
At the same time positive points from using it in home and office conditions no less. We list just a few and the most obvious of them:
All popular devices now come with adapters by default. They can be connected to the Internet out of the box, but what about those who have a desktop computer? The answer to this question is obvious - you need to purchase an additional Wi-Fi receiver, install, connect and configure it.
We will talk more about how to install Wi-Fi on a computer below. Now we propose to decide what types of receivers there are, what is their difference, specificity and advantages.
“Air” adapters come in two types: external and internal. External ones are the most commonly used and easier to operate. The external receiver looks like a miniature USB drive (flash drive). It connects to a USB connector on the front or back of the computer, either directly or via a USB cable.
The internal adapter is slightly larger in size and to install it you will need to open the computer case. Therefore, buy an internal receiver only if you are confident that you can figure out how to install it on the motherboard yourself. When installing an internal module, you must first disconnect the antenna from it, insert the board into the corresponding port on the motherboard (the PCI interface is most often used for this) and return the antenna to its place.
Further manipulations for installing and turning on wireless adapters are the same and do not depend on the modification and method of connection to the computer.
Any Wi-Fi receiver is supplied with a disk from the manufacturer, which contains the drivers necessary for full operation of the device. In addition to drivers for a specific device, the disk may also contain drivers for other adapter models, so during installation you need to be careful and not miss choosing the device for which you are installing drivers.
Otherwise, the driver installation procedure is standardized and provided with an intuitive interface with detailed tips from the “Found New Hardware Wizard.” Just carefully read the messages that will appear on the screen and click the appropriate “Next”, “OK” and “Done” buttons.
Most adapters are automatically recognized by current computers and can work even without installing drivers from the bundled disk. Just connect the device to the desired connector and wait a few seconds. As a rule, after this a message will appear in the tray stating that new equipment has been found, identified and installed, which is ready for use. However, universal drivers cannot completely replace specialized software. Therefore, we advise you not to neglect installing drivers, even if everything seems to work flawlessly at first glance.
The driver disk for your Wi-Fi receiver model may also contain a special utility from the developers, which is designed to facilitate the process of setting up Internet access. Moreover, this utility will allow you to further control your Internet connection, monitor the speed and volume of data transfer.
In this guide, we will assume that your home “Access Point” and Internet distribution device are already configured.
So, to establish an “air” connection on a computer running Win XP, you need to do the following:
If the use of specific IP and DNS addresses is critical for your provider, then in the window that opens, select the “Use the following IP address” radio button. If these parameters are configured in automatic mode, then do not touch anything.
When manually setting up IP, you will need to fill in the following fields:
There are two ways to set up an air connection in Win7 OS: automatically and manually. The second option may be useful if the network you plan to connect to is hidden from the general list for security reasons, but you know the name and password to connect your computer to it. Let's look at both methods step by step.
When the operating system is loaded, you can see the “Wireless Network Connection” icon in the lower right corner of the screen. Click on it. This will open a list of air connections available to you. you need to select from the list the one that is configured in your modem or router.
To configure the connection manually, select “Network” in the system tray, then “Network and Sharing Center”. Click “Set up a new connection or network.” In the next step, check the “Connect a wireless connection manually” option and click the “Next” button.
In the next dialog, fill in all the appropriate fields: specify the network name, encryption type and security level. In most cases, the default settings can be left unchanged - use AES and WPA2. In the “Security Key” field, you must enter the connection password. For greater security, check the “Hide characters” checkbox so that the password cannot be read over your shoulder.
The final touch - if you plan to use this connection as the main one in the future, then check the “Start this connection automatically” checkbox. Then click the "OK" button.
To connect a wireless connection in Win8, do the following:
To turn off Wi-Fi or edit previously entered data, you should select the wireless networks icon in the tray (relevant for Win7 and Win8) and in the drop-down list of all available connections, select the one that you configured earlier. To disable, use the “Disable” button, and to edit, right-click and select “Properties”. In the “Connection” and “Security” tabs, you can either disable the device or make changes to the password, encryption type, or security level.
For Win XP you need to do the following:
Wireless networks allow you to connect to the Internet literally over the air. However, to do this, your device must have a Wi-Fi module. The article will describe how to check for the presence of this module for a laptop in order to enable it. In this case, we will look at ways to enable it through network settings in different versions of Windows OS, as well as the procedure for updating Wi-Fi drivers on your laptop.
All modern models Without exception, they are equipped with Wi-Fi modules. You can verify this using the documentation. In the technical manual, in the specifications of your laptop, you should see the inscription IEEE 802.11 (the letters a/b/g/n may be present at the end). This indicates that your device supports wireless data transfer protocols and, accordingly, has a Wi-Fi module.
You can go online. Find your model in any store or on the manufacturer's website. In the “specifications” section, look for the line “Wi-Fi standard” or “Network adapters”. You can check the availability of hardware using the task manager, but this will be discussed later.
To make life easier for users, some laptop manufacturers place a Wi-Fi power button on the device body. Inspect the main panel with the keyboard. The button can be placed above the Escape key, on one of the function buttons, or in the right corner. It shows an antenna icon with signals emanating from it. Many models have a light indicator that indicates the functionality of the Wi-Fi module.
If the required button is not located near the keyboard, inspect the side panels. They may have a toggle switch with On/Off positions or a regular button. Move the toggle switch to the On position to turn on the wireless network module.
LEDs can tell you whether Wi-Fi is working. They can be built into the housing on the front panel or directly into the button.
Now you know where to look for the buttons and how to turn on Wi-Fi on your laptop. Before moving on to other methods, carefully inspect your device from all sides.
You can also turn on Wi-Fi on a laptop using a key combination. Usually, additional functions laptop (changing the backlight, turning off the screen, and so on) are placed on the F1-F12 keys. In order not to interfere with the main purpose of the buttons, additional functions can only be activated in combination with a special key. On products from Asus, HP, Samsung, Acer, Lenovo and others, the Fn key is included in the keyboard for these purposes.
The user should hold it down and then press the button with the Wi-Fi icon (this can be F2, F3 or F12. It all depends on the laptop model). Upon successful activation, the indicator light should light up (if provided by the design), and an icon for selecting a connection point should appear on the toolbar in the lower right corner.
If there are no hints about the presence of an adapter, we recommend looking at the task manager. The following instructions will help you do this:
Attention, if yellow light appears next to the adapter Exclamation point, this means that the device is not working correctly, so you need to reinstall the drivers (or install them). This will be discussed in subsequent paragraphs.
If the driver is installed correctly, but you cannot connect to the wireless network, you need to activate the adapter in the network settings of the operating system. Next, we will describe how to enable Wi-Fi on a laptop in various versions of the Windows operating system.
To enable the Wi-Fi network adapter on a laptop running Windows 7, you must do the following:
Wait for connection. This will take a few seconds. After this, you will be able to connect to the wireless access point.
The “Ten” has a different interface from the “Seven”, so many users do not know how to enable Wi-Fi through the network settings. This instruction will help you solve all problems:
You can also get to the adapter settings menu through Windows settings. To do this, you need to select the “Network and Internet” section (Ethernet sub-item).
The most common reason Why Wi-Fi does not work on a laptop is the lack or incorrect installation of drivers. This is specialized software that allows the module to function correctly in your operating system. There are several ways to update drivers:
Let's consider each of the methods separately.
The standard interface of Windows 7-10 operating systems allows you to update the driver for any laptop component. This can be done through the “Task Manager”:
The system may display a message that you have the most latest version drivers, but this information is not always true. If updating the driver using this method did not work, perform a self-installation.
This is the most reliable way. It consists of downloading the necessary driver from the official website of the developer. You can find the driver in the “Support” or “Products” sections. In the list, you need to indicate the model of your wireless adapter. Be sure to find out the bitness of your operating system (32 or 64 bits). This will be needed when downloading some individual drivers. Typically, the file has ".exe" permission.
People all over the world purchase new models of computers or laptops every day for their personal use. But not all professional users know how to set up its operation, install various programs, and connect their device to the World Wide Web.
In this article we will try to consider step by step instructions how to turn on Wi-Fi on a laptop and on a computer. The principle is the same for all laptops; we will look at how to enable Wi-Fi on several of the most common laptop models, as well as separately on Windows. So. Everything is in order.
First things first initial stage, you need to look at the current state of the connection to the wireless network on the laptop. To do this, look at the icons; they may differ on some HP laptop models. The icon can be at the top of the panel (F12 key with an image of an antenna) or on the taskbar in the lower right corner. If you have an antenna icon and it lights up, then Wi-Fi is connected, if it doesn’t light up, it’s turned off. On some models there may be an “X” next to the “mast” icon. In this case the connection is disabled.
Having decided on Wi-Fi connection, if it works, then you can safely go online, if not, then we proceed to further actions.
Specific control of the Wi-Fi module is distinctive feature this model. Basically, connection and disconnection occurs using a special mechanical switch. The switch is in active mode - Internet access is active, and if it is inactive, it is turned off.
Now let's look at how to access the Internet in Windows. There are several flavors of Windows. You may have Windows 7 or 8, Windows XP or Vista installed on your laptop. We will focus on two: Windows 7 and Windows 8, since they are the most popular at the moment.
And so what you need to do to enable Wi-Fi on Windows 7:
As a rule, the network is protected with a key, so another window will open where you will need to enter a password in a certain field.
If you did everything correctly, an icon will appear in the lower right corner of the desktop indicating that Internet access is active.
Turn on Wi-Fi on Windows 8:
If you did everything correctly, the corresponding icon will appear in the taskbar.
And finally, let’s look at how you can connect Wi-Fi on a personal computer. There are no problems with laptops, they use a wireless connection, but with PCs it’s a little more difficult. Not everyone wants to run wires from their computer across the entire house or apartment. There is also a way out of this situation. You need to purchase and install a Wi-Fi adapter on your PC.
The computer uses the following types adapters:
Most people prefer an external adapter. These are mainly people who rarely use the local network. For them, the main thing is to have access to the Internet. There is nothing complicated about connecting it. We just need to plug it into a USB port and install the drivers. Each adapter comes with a driver disc. After installing the drivers, we search for a wireless network and connect to it.
