Setting up a Wireless Connection

I restarted my laptop to run Windows 2000 and now I can't get it to become wireless again. I have a wireless card added to it and supported with a driver and I updated to IE 6 SP1 but it won't establish a wireless connection. What should I do differently?

 

First step is to scan in the wireless utility to see if the card sees the wireless signal.
If so click to connect to it.
There may be an encryption key to enter.
Try this first.

 

I must not have been completely clear. When I go into the Network and Dial-up Connections page, it thinks that the wireless card needs a cord as a LAN instead of as a wireless utility. I'm updating to 2000 SP 4 now so I'm all updated, but nothing has changed.

 

See if the driver is installed and indicates that in the device manager the device is there in your network cards.
That there is no question or exclamation marks beside it and that " the device is working properly "
Step one - the wireless card driver is set up with its driver properly.
If it is installed properly you might want to uninstall and reinstall the wireless utlity.
If that does not work - the network card is set up but the networking is not.
Windows 2000 seems to be somewhat flakey with wireless networking if things change or you swap cards.
Uninstall the tcip , reboot and let it set up again.
It would seem though as you describe it on boot up windows is trying to install the driver for the card. It is looking for a " network adapter ". You are thinking from the terminilogy that it is a lan card.
Both are network adapters.
You would want to point the install to the correct place for the driver. It may be on the install disc - labelled drivers or drivers 2000 or xp perhaps or you may have to install the utility itself on an install cd or download it from the manufacturer.
Note though - there are diffirent versions ( often different suppliers or factories subcontracted to make the cards.). The card may say model xxxx
however the version of the card will be marked as well on the card. You have to install the correct software for the version of the card or it may not setup properly. They should be on the vendor's site.
Mistakes with drivers especially wireless often result in good deals at retail outllets or even mass merchandicers. People return cards they cannot set up. With no disc returned the store often can not sell the cards and mark down the card for clearance.
Sometimes a card will not install easily - i had one card that was a bargain.
It would set up somehow in Windows 98 by going perfectly against the instructions in the setup manual. It was usb device. Usually with windows 98 you install the software for usb, reboot and then plug in the device after reboot. The trick it seemed to set up the card ( which was actually quite reasonable - especially at that price) was to ignore those instructions and not reboot.
Hope this helps . The key is to check if the driver is properly installed. Sounds like it is not.

 

uninstall and reinstall the wireless utility.... How would I do that?

 

to uninstall the device utility which in windowss 2000 usually means the install program that comes from the manufacturer.
Either it was on the disc that came with the card or someone downloaded it from the manufacturer.
First put in the disc into the cd rom or start the program - see if has the ability to " remove " or " uninstall " the program.
If not look for the program on your start > all programs menu
there may be an uninstall option on the program commands there
Lastly if not go to the control panel > add remove programs
let it scan the programs onboard it may take some time
Remove the program.
Then go through the recommended install process for the card.
Just out of interest - Windows XP has its own wireless utility ( wireless was a common network type in the days of the development of XP) so that there is not a need to install such a program ( necessarily) in XP wheras it is in the others.
You need some way to connect the card to scan for the signal and add in the encryption key if necessary.
With some of the early standard wireless cards ( read expensive at the time- such as the Nortel wireless cards) the driver was native to Windows 2000 ( i.e it installed by iteself on install of Windows 2000). If the wireless signals of the router was not encrypted then the wireless connection would automatically work.

 

I have a 2Wire wireless card. How would I find the model number? I think that it's 019461/D with a range thing of 802.11b

 

Determining Wireless Card

I do not see any drivers for wireless b cards on the site.
Does not mean that the card is not that make.
At the worst unplug the computer.
Take off the cover and card and look for the model number and make.
Also there will be a v number usually - it is the version number of the card.
If the card came preinstalled ( as in a laptop) look for your disks or on the manufacture's ( of the laptop) site.
For drivers if you are stuck ( once you have the make , model and version of card) you can google the driver or go to www.driverguide.com